How My Falafel Took Me to Poland

A story about our impulsive, spontaneous, unplanned, reckless, serendipitous, middle eastern, trip to Poland.

Prague was one of the cities that we were fortunate to be in for five weeks, instead of the usual four. This allowed us to explore more of the country and neighboring European cities, while still seeing everything in the city that we wanted to.

One of these weekends, my friends and I knew that we wanted to rent a car and get out of the city, we just weren’t quite sure where. We kept discussing the options without any progress on planning arrangements. Monday came, Tuesday passed, Wednesday flew and before we knew it, it was Thursday - the day before we wanted to take this “trip” that we hadn’t given any thought to.

We decided to go to a local Falafel shop for lunch, popped open our laptops and started to map out routes.

“Let’s go to Munich!”

“I don’t know about Vienna…”

“Budapest is really not that far!”

“Where is Bratislava?”

“We could go to Salzburg!”

“What about Berlin?”

Clearly, we weren’t making much progress. Now, this falafel shop was not that big. It was one of those hole-in-the-wall places where the line to order at the counter goes right down the aisle of four tables before it extends into the street. It was prime lunchtime, so a line was already forming and one particular man overheard our conversation. Unprompted and unsolicited, this man jumped into our conversation and offered his own idea…

“You should go to Wroclaw.”

“Where?”

“Wroclaw. Poland.”

We got a couple of points about this city that none of us had heard of in a country none of us had been.

“Less touristy. Good nightlife. Great culture.”

“Sounds great!”

This is our Polish, falafel man.

Within minutes, we divvied out the responsibilities. Car. Hotel. Must-see attractions. Playlist. Car snacks. You know, the necessities. It was decided. We would meet at 8AM the next morning to grab a car and head for Poland. It was casual. It was simple. It was the most relaxed spontaneity I had been a part of. It was time for an adventure.

And, boy, did we have an adventure…

We left on a Friday, so for all of us, that was still a work day. We woke up early to hammer out emails, connected to hot spots in the car to finish projects, and posted up in our apartment once we arrived in Wroclaw to finish out the day.

As we have already established, none of us had been to Poland before, so we were extremely energetic when driving across the border from the Czech Republic into Poland!

We were equally as confused when Mel saw a road sign and yelped with excitement, "I've been there!"

Kirsten calmly asked, "I thought you said you hadn't been to Poland before?"

I quickly realized, as navigator, that within minutes we had exited Poland and entered Germany. "Oh shit, guys. We're in Germany."

Laughing at our mistake. And adventure.

Now, despite the giggles, I would like to make it very clear that these three countries are twisted up into a little leg that is quite easy to lose sense of direction within. It also proved very easy to lose navigation privileges afterwards. But hey, how many people can say they've been to three countries in 15 minutes? You're welcome, ladies.

From social media, most people only see the fabulous scenery and thrilling activities that we get to participate in while on Remote Year, but the work also get's done. It's just not as insta-worthy (except for this winning shot below).

Sometimes, we do have to push aside the itching desire to explore a brand new city that we just arrived in so that we can finish up our work days from inside an apartment. But in those scenarios, let's just open up the windows and let that beautiful violin echo in through the air. Oh, and we should probably crack open some beer.

We had an incredible two days in Poland, exploring the city (despite the drizzle), meeting new friends, trying delicious food, experiencing that nightlife, chatting with the dwarves, living the life. The rest of the trip went as the first few hours did - belly laughing fun with three girls who were complete strangers five weeks earlier.

It's trips like this that make these newly formed relationships so strong, so quickly.

So thank you, Remote Year. Thank you, Yugen. Thank you, Kirsten and Mel and Melissa. And thank you, dear man in the falafel shop.