My daughter goes back to college this weekend and we had one trip to Caritas on the list before she leaves. I didn’t need a lot of convincing. Thrift stores in Vienna are the only real bargain in this expensive town. I have bought many items and found out later that they are selling for three times as much on American eBay.

This time I went with a purpose: the heavy Polish pottery that I collected the last time we were in Europe really doesn’t fit in our apartment-sized dishwasher. And it’s getting a little battered anyway. So, I stacked the remaining pieces on a shelf and went back to using the welcome kit Corelle for a while, with the idea in mind that I could replace it with something interesting from the thrift store later.

Yesterday, I hit the jackpot. This Staffordshire Blue Onion “ironstone” was just a Euro or two per piece. Alongside it was a knockoff version that matches very closely. So, I walked out with a complete set for 8, composed of about half the real stuff and about half knockoff. I’ll keep an eye out for more of the real stuff and I’m sure I can finish up a whole set before too long (I’ve seen it at the thrift store before–it must have been popular here a few decades ago.) And anyway, I don’t care if stuff doesn’t match exactly–I got two of the pasta bowls at the top right just because I like them.

I also found these old Austrian canning jars for one Euro each. Washed up, they make great counter top containers for the healthy food we are trying to eat around here lately. There were stacks of them at the store. I think I’ll go back and get more–I can see a bunch of them lined up on narrow shelves in my galley kitchen back in the States…