I stopped on the way to buy gas and to have a cup of coffee at a typical Polish roadside bar. While there are proper rest areas along the motorways, along other roads there are mostly this kind of establishments--modest but usually friendly and very inexpensive.

A little later, we sat down to a traditional Polish Christmas meal. These traditions are important here, and my brother-in-law, while he does not go to church, is a believing Catholic. So we ate some traditional dishes, fish but no meat, but at least the meal, like every Polish meal, was liberally sprinkled with vodka. I personally go along with most traditions, as long as they involve food and drink.

During the meal, we wished each other a Merry Christmas and broke the symbolic bread (oblate).