Short article on Olsztyn

Mazury – „Land of a Thousand Lakes”, as they say... My place on Earth – magical, mysterious, beloved. Zgon – my second home for the last 20 years. But I won’t write about it – I don’t want to. It’s my childhood, youth, and love – if you don’t feel it – you won’t understand. What do you – a tourist – know about this land? That it’s about lakes, forests, sails, summer and relaxation… You’ve probably been to “Mazury’s Venice” – Mikolajki. During the day - the market square, sailors’ village, hanging bridge, sun, sailboats and motorboats… At night - sea shanties, concerts, laughter… It’s similar in Ruciane – an elegant walkway along the main street, amphitheatre and marina. But have you been to those places outside of the season? Have you seen those small towns, full of life during the summer, almost dead, gloomy in the winter? Have you seen those people – 30% unemployment dazed by second-rate booze in hopelessness of their predicament? It’s the mark of this area permanently etched into the history of this land and people. If you want to understand this land – get to know these stories and these people – friendly and hospitable even though simple and poor. My tourist, now that you know of this land’s natural virtues, it is time to find out how much you know of its man-made attractions. You probably know the Wolf’s Lair – the former war headquarters of Hitler, the church in Swieta Lipka – stunning and gorgeous – with Poland’s most beautiful organ, the castle in Ketrzyn, e.g. the so-called “Mazurian Template”. Yes, you should know this. Maybe you also know of the Ostroda - Elblag Channel (a cruise for alcoholic beverage lovers or people with particularly strong nerves – beautiful and interesting views, but it lasts 11 hours) and the Wild Animal Park in Kadzidlowo, where you can walk among forest animals and feed them. But Mazury is an undiscovered and mysterious land. Have you heard of the “Mazurian Pyramid” in the vicinity of Rapa village near the border with the Kaliningrad district, where in the dead silence of the forest looms a hidden tomb that has energetic properties making it possible to mummify bodies and through whose windows one can see dead people in open caskets? Do you know that in Stanczyki there are “Mazurian aqueducts”, e.g. inoperative, 32-meter tall railway viaducts (a train has never run on them or has run only once – historians are having a dispute) stretched over the charming little Bledzianka River? And have you noticed streetlamps, so typical of the landscape of Mazurian towns? Each of them is different, unique… And one more riddle – the so-called “Bismarck Towers” – I know the ones in Ostroda and Srokowo. No tourist guide could describe a historically-proven origin of those mysterious buildings. But maybe you, the tourist, know something about it?