A jaunt into Poland

Some years ago I had found myself in Dresden with some time on my hands. It had been my first time in East Germany and my friend and I figured we would make the short train trip to the Polish border (we both wanted some stamps in our passports). So with some good company and nice weather I arrived in Goerlitz, a locale on the river Elbe. My German, however rusty, had served us well for a couple of weeks, but after a few more steps in an Easterly direction and we would have to replace (i) "guten Tag" with "dzien dobry" (thank god for Lonely Planet) and (ii) our Euros with...umm...actually we had no idea what currency they have in Poland (we handed over some Euros and they gave us back some bills, some Zloty). After walking through Goerlitz, a quaint town with beautifully preserved buildings we approached the German border guards and they haphazardly stamped our passports - mission accomplished! Then after crossing die Elbe, we met their Polish counterpart. This guy took our passports and confirmed that were indeed who we said we were. Then, in a most precise and deliberate manner, he carefully stamped our passports again - he got the stamp right in the middle of the rectangle, not a millimeter off (and I think he took some satisfaction in a job well done). So, with Zloty in hand we did what we had been doing in every country we had so far visited - went to McDonald's (aka Maccas in Australian English). The first thing we saw in Poland was a sign with the golden arches and "500 m" and an arrow pointing right. Too easy, we thought and we set out to complete our mission. The first thing we noticed was that Zgorzelec, the city we had just entered was different to Goerlitz. Now, before the war they used to be one big happy town - and although the buildings are of the same style, the ones in Zgorzelec looked run down and decaying. It was easy to compare because you knew at one stage the places looked the same, but now the Polish side wasn't holding up. After some 20 minutes walk we had entered a forest. Three skinny teenagers walked by us, with shaved heads and disapproving looks as if so say "what ARE you doing here?". Half an hour later we walked through what appeared to be an old train station, which was overgrown with weeds and hadn't seen a locomotive pass by in decades. And that's when I saw them, above the trees I saw the golden arches - we were there! It took all of half a second for my travel buddy, Dave, to point out that those yellow shapes that I saw were in fact flowers. FLOWERS! We had only been walking an hour and I was seeing things, mirages, like oases in the desert. We decided something had went awry so we returned back to the Micky D's sign. Why had we not found it? It wasn't as if someone had messed with the sign and turned it around. I got my camera out, took a picture of the sign and went up to a taxi driver and pointed at the picture. Knowing no Polish, I think I got my point across and after a 2 min drive we were there! Hmm...and just so you know, that Big Mac meal was possibly the worst I have ever had (the burger and fries seemed kind of soggy). So folks, Micky D's offerings are not the same everywhere you go. And I guess I'm vegetarian (flexitarian) now so I haven't had a burger in a while, although I do have cravings for cheeseburger occasionally. One of these days I'm going to make a cheeseburger cake (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/cheeseburger-cake-recipe/index.html).
It's vegetarian and looks oh-so-AWESOME =)