Nestled among the stores on Broad Street is an ordinary looking store called Quo Vadis ksiegarnia. In Polish, ksiegarnia is a book store and Quo Vadis is a Nobel Prize piece of Polish literature. Neither the Polish name nor the English translation adequately prepares you for what is inside the store. Even peeking in the store window does not reveal its secrets. I visited the store recently-this is what I found when I opened the door and stepped inside.

Quo Vadis has been owned and operated by owner Krystyna and her husband since 1997, three years after she arrived to New Britain from Poland. The store started out as a furniture store, but its small size only allowed a small amount of furniture on display and required a warehouse elsewhere in town. After three years, Krystyna made the decision to switch to a much smaller-sized inventory-books. Joining the books is the multitude of items now in the store’s inventory.
All the items in the store are from Poland. Once a year, Krystyna receives a large shipment of items from Poland via boat-it is the most cost effective way to stock the store. Three or four times a year, smaller shipments brought in by plane add to the store’s varied items, also bringing seasonal items.

When you walk into the store the cash register is to your left. Below the cash register is the jewelry counter full of reasonably priced Polish amber jewelry. Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, is also the largest amber mining region in the world. Amber is a very popular tourist purchase.

Right in the middle of the store are the cd and DVD racks. Here you can find popular Polish music to buy and movies to watch. Unfortunately, most of the movies are in Polish without subtitles.

In the front of the store is a magazine rack with a variety of types of magazines from Poland. You can buy Polish news, sport, or household magazines. They also have magazines to catch you up on the lives of Polish TV and movie stars.

In the back of this first room are the objects of our desire-Poland themed merchandise. They have a large collection of shirts, hats, jackets, beer mugs, and coffee mugs with POLAND, Polish flag, or the Polish white eagle emblazoned on them. In another part of the store I noticed souvenir soccer balls from the 2012 EURO soccer tournament held (for the first time) in Poland and the Ukraine.

In the far left hand side of this first room is a large section of religious items desired by the local Polish community. There are a large number of the gas lite lamps commonly found on the graves in Polish cemeteries for All Souls Day. There are also rosary beads and religious gifts for Communions, Confirmations and other gift needs.

If you cross over to the other room you will find a large number of Polish language books, in all categories. There is an entire wall devoted to children’s books and DVD’s. On the far wall of books, you can find road and street maps of Poland. This is where I purchased my map of Poland for my visit in 2012. I was on an organized bus trip, but the map was still useful to track our progress through the countryside.

Down the middle of the room is the greeting card rack filled with Polish language greeting cards. On my recent trip, the rack was full of Easter cards with the traditional greeting “wesolego alleluia.” At Christmas, the rack is full of Polish Christmas greeting cards. There are always birthday cards. They have just added a number of humerous birthday cards. There are also religious themed cards for Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation cards. Most important for Polish people-Quo Vadis stocks cards for Imieniny (name day). In Poland, you receive gifts on the day the Church celebrates the Saint with your first name. If you want to start celebrating your Imieniny, you can find the information in most Polish pocket calendars-there is usually an alphabetic listing of saints in the back of the book. Polish wall calendars usually note the name of the saint on each day. We celebrate one Imieniny in the United States-March 17 the feast of Saint Patrick! Krystyna said she or Matthew (the other employee at the store) both speak English and will help you pick out the perfect card for your Polish friend or relative.

In the very front window on this side, as well as scattered around the store, is a collection of Polish decorative glass vases and statues. They are from a manufacturer in southern Poland which has since gone out of business. I didn’t check the prices on those items. They are very attractive.

On my most recent visit to Quo Vadis, I found all kinds of Easter items. There were baskets full of colorful wooden pisanki- a traditional Polish Easter egg. They had several different sizes of pisanki. The store also had a large number of Easter decorated doilies. At Easter, many Polish and Polish descendants bring a basket of food to church on the Saturday before Easter to have it blessed by the priest. Sometimes I bring my basket and noticed that many people had a fancy doily over the food in the basket. I now know where to get the doily. Yeah! Another Easter tradition is to include a lamb in your basket of food. Some people put in a lamb made of butter, but others use a lamb made of sugar. Quo Vadis has a supply of sugar lambs, along with sugar bunnies and sugar roosters. Apparently, people in Poland like roosters-you see them often on various items.

At Christmas time, Quo Vadis has a large selection of Poland themed Christmas ornaments in all price ranges. There have a few of them on display year round. They make nice gifts for Polish and non-Polish friends and family. Each year my church, SS Peter and Paul in Wallingford, has a Christmas fair and the basket of Polish Christmas ornaments raffle is very popular.

Quo Vadis also offer a few services such as Western Union money wiring in and out, utility bill payments, and selling money orders.

The sign on the store might say “bookstore,” but Quo Vadis is so much more. The employees speak English. The items are all from Poland-and the selection of Polish souvenirs varies during the year, but the selection is usually good. If you travel to Poland and forget to get a gift for someone-Quo Vadis can get you out of that tricky situation. I definitely recommend visiting Quo Vadis.