maanantai 9. elokuuta 2010

9.8. Shopping 'til dropping

Weekend was much about shopping. I had been keeping buying clothes on minimum since last spring, partly for not having inspiration then, partly keeping the amount of stuff to move here in minimum, and partly to wait for shopping possibilities Wroclaw has to offer. And that turned out to be a great decision! Oh what a weekend I had!

On the morning I went to Hala Targowa (market hall) to get some fresh vegetables and also to see it. On the outside the building could use a little tuning. On the inside there were lots of vegetables and flowers, which made the interior look nice. Travel guides tell tourists to go and see the real life of Wroclawians when they make their shopping in the market hall, so I almost felt local to buy food there!

Hala Targowa from outside...

The berries are absolutely best part of the fresh food offerings. They are very delicious and when compared to Finnish market place prices do not cost almost anything. I have ate at least 2 kilos of berries during the week – And now I bought even more :P Also chanterelles would have been on offer, but I passed them this time, since from dairy section I have not yet recognized what would be cream – needed to make chanterelle sauce!



Food shopping is a different story in Poland, or at least here in my neighborhood. I have a small super-market one block from me, and in addition to it there’s a bread shop, meat shop, vegetable shop, one minimarket and two 24h mini-minimarkets within 200 meters – and I have not yet even examined all the directions from the apartment. Bread shop is open in such hours that I have not yet been able to visit there. I have passed the meat shop, since I could not buy unpacked meat in Finnish so I will not (at least yet) try it in with me speaking English and salesperson Polish. In the vegetable shop I have went a little bonkers couple of times, and in addition to several boxes of berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries) I own now a fresh broccoli and a cauliflower. I am not sure what to do with them, but they looked so good that I just HAD to buy them. Offerings would have included much and much of different veggies looking delicious, so maybe I have to start some heavy greens-cooking-learning.

..and Hala Targowa  from inside
My food shopping includes at least two of the shops on one time. Nearest minimarket has ready-packed salads, which I take for lunch to work. I have not yet found anywhere plastic boxes where I could pack lunch if I made it myself, so ready-made salad has to do for now. Unfortunately the minimarket does not contain much else, so I have to go to supermarket as well. The selection there is not very extensive either, for example it does not include spices (or I couldn’t find them), so separate veggie shop was needed for that purpose as well :)


And I almost forgot; downstairs I have “Rossmann”, which sells cosmetics and hygiene stuff like sham-poos, soaps, hair things etc. And in addition to that some tea, nutrition supplements, basic medication and interestingly pet- and baby food… Nice shop anyway!


But back to market hall. On second floor there are small shops/stands which sell different items, like plastic kitchenware, kids clothes and religious decorations. Some of them offer services like hairdressers and shoemakers. From there I found first very nice handmade clothes, with the style I like – simple but with some special “thing”. The next finding; perfect scarf for my party dress – or actually two from which to select better! Now I am all equipped for the two wedding parties to come this autumn.



Then I aimed to Galeria Dominikanska shopping mall, and OH MY GOD, then it started. After visiting five shops I had five plastic bags full of nice clothes! On shopping tours I very rarely find things that I like, but seemingly my taste goes better along with the Polish than on what Helsinki has to offer. Or actually my taste cannot be purely Polish either, because big part of the things I bought were on sale, and as these most likely are the last moments of summer sales, there are only such things in shops which no one has not yet wanted ;)
But I found surprisingly lot of clothes, mainly for work – and that’s what I was in need for. So, as Hanna suggested, renewal of “garderobe” is in good progress! And then the shoes – so beautiful, so much differ-ent from which choosing is impossible task… They are good on feet (looks and comfort cannot usually be found from same pair of shoes, at least that’s the case with ladies shoes) and so not-expensive! I will be coming back to Finland with double or triple amount of moving boxes.

After the shopping spree I ended up with so much clothes, shoes and even couple of books that I had to stop shopping be able to carry my shoppings home. I went to tram stop and was amazed; on the opposite side of the tram stop to I came to, wasn’t any same lines than with which I came. Confusing. I tried another stop, but not any lines went pass it. Opposite stop on that one was in my opinion wrong direction. My tram line map is black and white printout, and as the maps’ logic is based on different colour for each line, it wasn’t very helpful in this case. It seemed to me that the map not necessarily in sync with reality either, but that might be also about me... I tried to continue with one tram to next, bigger stop where several lines should cross – but once again I took wrong direction. So I had to come back. After something like hour riding back and forth I passed the Galeria Dominikanska mall fourth time – but finally I was going to correct direction with correct tram. Damn I was proud of myself! After running between tram stops and getting in and out of trams with ton of bags, I again ended up postponing the gym search ;)

Galeria Dominikanska from the tram stop where I arrived - little did I know about the complexity of heading home at this point...
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Sorry for non-existence of the pictures; my temporary internet connection from home is so slow that my patience is not enough for uploading photos. They’ll come later. //18.8. Photos added!

Also the layout on some texts is not-that-beautiful. I have trouble with Bloggers' user interface, and modifying text/pictures together does not seem to work. Maybe I need to BUY an “Html for dummies” book and learn some coding. Maybe in November when it’s dark - and I have spent all my money so no use going out anyhow…

3 kommenttia:

  1. Made it: first OFFICIAL reader of your blog :)! What a great idea to write a blog about your experiences over there. I'm excited to get another blog to follow, too :) Hope you get your internet connection to be quicker so that we can see how it looks there as well! Sometimes it takes quite a lot of courage to get around in a new city and in a new country, I've been there, but in the end that courage most probably will pay off. Keep up the good spirit!

    VastaaPoista
  2. Hanna <3! You brave one... I assume I have some other readers, but they are lurking behind the bushes and dare not be official ;) Welcome!
    Especially nice to have you as one with whom to share the experiences - as you said you've been there and probably get the feelings from between the lines as well.
    Greetings to your family!

    VastaaPoista
  3. mie oon piilolukija :D yritin virallistaa itteni mut hitsin salasana ongelmat rajottaa, tarkemmin -muisti rajottaa... :D

    tuo ratikka liikenne kyllä tuolla tarmolla syöpyy siun mieleen niin että kohta et tarte ollenkaan mitään karttoja, joka pysäkki nähty ;) hih..
    pärjäilehän siellä :)

    VastaaPoista