What you do if you're an insane person on New Years Day

You wake up, pull the rollershade, discover winter’s returned again overnight. After getting dressed, you hop in your mini and decide what the heck, it’s only another thirty minutes to Poland, why not have breakfast there? So you get on the autobahn, which is terribly reminiscent of your younger years in North Dakota, one lane open, following a snowplow at times. There is no 100mph today.

You arrive in the twin cities of Görlitz- Zgorzelec. Crossing the bridge into Poland is a palpable difference. Buildings are chipped. Some have corrugated metal siding. But the Polish people are going somewhere. Literally. Hoards are out walking. Maybe breakfast? But nothing is open. You discover they are walking to churches. Maybe to pray for money. Or food.

Where is this place that you were going to eat? It turns out to be the Wild Bean Café in the BP petrol station, the same store you had in New Zealand. Strange. You have a chocolate wafer bar, some popcorn in a bag and large coffee to start the new year. Poland sure has a lot to offer. You can’t wait to come back.

You return to Germany, which now seems boring after a couple hours in Poland.

You find your pension, which is run by an elderly woman named Christina. Her son is visiting from Frankfurt and gives you directions to the Esso station and old town.

You leave, excited to explore Bautzen.

Only everything is shut.

Except for the mustard museum. No, you are not kidding. You pore over the miniscule mustard museum, languishing in your lack of time constraints. Who knew mustard auf Deutsch could be so interesting.

After the magical mustard museum, you wander the oldestadt on foot, to a coffee shop. A cup of coffee and house kuchen for dinner seems right after the nutritious breakfast you had earlier.

A couple hours pass. You think you better find the Esso station, so you don’t have to pay Euro prices. So you head on your way and actually find it.

Afterward you attempt to get back to the pension. Without a map or navigation. You have (over)confidence in yourself again. Thinking that you are above these things and you will find your way. After taking some turns and two u-turns, you come to the right road. It is shocking. It must be work of the gods.

You pull into your pension, and the woman shows you your room, which has two dead blowfish on the walls and three dead animals on the floors. You are reading a book called, “Eating Animals.” You wonder again if this is the work of the Gods.

You know this is going to be a great new year.