Since I first told my family that I was going to Poland they told me that I should get Amber when I go. My grandfather had been in Poland in the early nineties . For every woman in the family, he bought a pendant for his daughter in laws, his daughter, and his wife. I’m the eldest female grandchild, and I hadn’t been born yet, but if I was I knew I would have gotten one as well. So, when I was getting ready to go, I wanted to get some Baltic amber for myself.
There were many shops in all the cities we went to. In Warsaw, in the old town, there was a row of amber stores. I went into all of them, but they all seemed expensive for what I had expected, so I bought nothing. I did not go into any in Lublin, and I don’t remember seeing any of them.
Krakow was a completely different experience. In the main market, inside a building, there was probably fifty shop fronts, or kiosks that were selling different things. Some were selling leather bags, or nick-knacks, most were selling amber. Some of the places had only a few pieces, and others had amber as their sole product. Either way, there was probably thousands of pieces of amber in the place, even excluded the fake amber that was there. I bought a few pieces at various stores in the market and all of them came with a certificate saying they were Certified Baltic Amber.
Gdansk was known for its amber. Everyone told me that, even online, but when I first started looking for amber there, it was hard, but when I found Mariacka Street in the last hour of the last day in Gdansk, it was worth it. The street itself was beautiful and full of shoppers. Outside each store was a show case of what the amber the stores held inside. It was a nice way to window shop without actually having to go inside. It was a shopper’s dream. I bought more pieces there.
One thing that surprised me about shopping in Poland was that even with a language barrier, through drawing and hand gestures you could convey a lot of meaning. It was easy to find what you were looking for—even if negotiating was not. Every place I went that I bought something, they did not want to negotiate.
That being said, Poland is the place to go if you want cheap but good amber. I was shopping around a mall one day and found a jewelry store selling amber, and I found a piece that was around the same size as one of the pieces I bought, and even with the exchange rate, it was four times what I paid for my amber. Polish amber is the best amber.
Katja Grether
Class of 2019
