Masurian Ugly Ducklings

Our butterflies' stories are similar to the Andersen's fairytale: "The Ugly Duckling". Their life begins inside eggs, they turn then into big gluttons as fat caterpillars, to spread the wings and finally fly away from cocoons as beautiful butterflies! All butterflies are beautiful, aren't they? 🦋

Author: Maria Olszowska, Masuria 2017

Refugees for Poland

Notting Hill Carnival ends today. It's a very big Afro-Carribbean culture event in London, happening annually - always during the August's Bank Holiday. Due to the fact our Roman has a lot to do with Africa (because of consulting and private interests), our today's post bases mostly on his professional experience. Pictures you see above were taken by him today, too. You know, he's our strategic mind. So, why Poland, as a leading EU member, does not turn the EU refugee crisis into strategic fill-ins of our local disadvantages? There's - for instance - a lot of young footballers (boys and girls) among economic refugees seeking better life in Europe. Most of them speak English or French. In front of the tragic condition of e.g. Polish Permier League, and the number of locals speaking western languages in Poland, would be much better for Poland to chose such young and healthy people to implement them into our local communities than opening wider and wider our borders only to cheap work force from the former Soviet Union. Long story short: Sub-Saharan boys and girls can improve not only the strength of small football clubs like Łyna Sępopol or Wilczek Wilkowo, in small Polish villages, but also the role such clubs play in local community development. It's a challenge for years to restore the value of Polish Premier League thanks to inspiring work made in 3rd and 4th division. But what's the probability of relaying on rich sponsors? There's no such probability yet. Sub-Saharan boys and girls find football as a joy. They eat what eat our kids. They learn what learn our kids. They pray what pray for our kids. It's not impossible to find, successfully train and make a few thousands of them work for a better future in Poland. It's a win-win solution, Roman says, win-win for all of us. Poland can confirm this hardworking way its leading role in the EU, in Roman's opinion we share 👍🏿

Masurian sunsets on Masurian lakes

Best regards today from our young, brave sailors enjoying beautiful sunsets on the Great Masurian Lakes 🌞 Lucky they! ❤️

Future of Masuria can only be bright

People create the world, the world we live in is people's creation... Have a look at our Maks, the boy who trained with Tottenham in London last month, now helps with harvesting in Masuria. You can do a big things and it doesn't have to make you conceited at all. When his football career ends, he must follow our Roman, who is i.a. best in Corporate Social Responsibility or become a good politician! 🤔

Masurian water from Masuria

Spotted while shopping, an unique mineral water from our pure and beautiful Masuria. "Mazur" in Polish means a man coming from Masuria. "Aqua" in Latin means just water. People who extract this water in Masuria say it's low sodium one. They do it in a nature reserve called "Oak Mountain", which is located in a very clean and very quite area of the Warmian-Masurian. Details: MazurAqua.pl

Welcome to Ryn

Not many places in Masuria have very long history of inhabiting. Ryn, one of the most beautiful towns in northern Poland, started to be someone's place for living ca. 2000 years ago. People used to find the area between Lake Ryńskie and Lake Ołów as their friendly life space until the Medieval times - until Teutonic Order built a big castle you can visit now as an individual guest. It's a nice hotel and conference venue today. They serve local beverages based on pure honey as well as food you won't find in any other part of the European Union. Ryn is really unique, go discover by yourself everything you see above!

Author: Maria Olszowska, Masuria 2017

Small Warmian-Masurian Wembley

Family match at Wembley yesterday. Partly in stadium, partly in front of tablets. Tottenham for the first time played over there, because they are erecting their new stadium. Since our Maks took part in Spurs' Summer School, we've been part-time fans 😉 Anyway, very good experience. 80k people supporting one club during a league match make impression and inspiration, especially for our Roman who always looks at such things through his prism. You know he's an old fan of the Stomil, football club from Warmian-Masurian capital city: Olsztyn. Roman says, as a professional in strategic management, football clubs, stadiums, league matches and so on - everything is a source of good job places for youth in modern cities of Europe. This way a new, small but pro-entrepreneutrial stadium in Olsztyn, as well as Stomil playing in Polish Premier League, is just a must for a better future in Warmian-Masurian. It will not heal high unemployment rate but it'll reduce lack of hope for a much better life for locals. We keep fingers crossed! 🤞🏻

Masurian semi-sweet '80s

Our boys absorbed with football today, so girls have played with memories. Pictures you see above were taken with old-school cameras in 1980s. Don't ask who is who! That's one of those girls' secrets we'd prefer not to disclose 😂 As a matter of fact, '80s in Poland were hard for most of us. It was late communism time. Almost empty shops and a lot of political violence. Only kids' hearts were always full of hope for summer holidays lasting forever 😪 What a change for only about 30 years. Life can be beautiful, as we're now! ❤️

Siri & Olsztyn

iPhone's Siri is the most advanced virtual assistant in today's smartphones. Not only youth in the whole world play a lot with it. But today people are not able to get much about Masuria, Warmian-Masurian and even Olsztyn, yet. Have a look at the GIF above, this post started with question: "Hey Siri, what's the weather in Olsztyn?". Due to the fact Siri knows not much about such a big city located in the European Union, we received: Austin, Texas! Siri deals well with precise pronouncing but the lack of Olsztyn in global databases made such an unexpected response. Adding Olsztyn manually to the weather app changed nothing but battery drainage. Siri worked a lot to cope with Olsztyn and no effect but... London! This ought to be improved ASAP. Masuria, Warmian-Masurian and Olsztyn are good brands in Poland. Time to go also global is rising, isn't it? 🤔

Keeping our Europe united 😢

RIP to all Victims in Barcelona [*] Unfortunately, it's another step forward to some big change in the European Union. Due to the fact all we are an integral part of the EU, and all we can still benefit from this huge European achievement, we do hope the change will result in new strategic challenges. So, our Roman decided to go to Barcelona. Unexpectedly, yesterday in the evening, after the attack. He says it's the only way we can help now - by means of showing to the world common people like we are not afraid to go to places like Barcelona. None of us is Barca fan but in a crisis we must be ones, as united Europeans.

MIG29 in Masuria

Enjoy MIG29 FULCRUM in action over the Lake Niegocin in Giżycko. Mr. Paweł Socha, who is a lawyer from Warmian-Masurian, posted his footage from the Mazury AirShow 2017. This aircraft is Tornado and Typhoon ones' class you can see in the sky of the western part of the European Union 🛩

Masurian lemonade

When the weather still tropical in your part of the EU, try out our Masurian lemonade to cool down not only your kids. Take one lemon, one cucumber, a bunch of fresh mint and one big spoon of pure honey. Add mineral water and shake but not stir 😎 Even 007 would enjoy, wouldn't he?!

7 wonders of Poland

"National Geographic" in Poland is looking for 7 wonders of our beautiful country. Online voting ends in about two weeks: more... There are two wonders of Masuria in the contest: The River Krutynia and the Boyen Fortress (Giżycko). Vote for one of them, it's totally free. Thx in advance 🤞🏼

Masurian superheros in action

This is what you can do in sunny Masuria when you are less than 10 and you tend to be a superhero on school holidays... 😊 First of all you create a rainbow out of water, then you conquer a tractor. Finally you can take your bike and you make a few cross-country laps around the pound! 😂 This is our Bruno's guide for active kids heading with their families for Masurian lakes in Poland 😄 Enjoy!!

#PełniWiary 💙

"Hope dies last!" is a must when you do something important but with a short list of resources. That's standard Project Management! So, our favourite football team in Poland - Stomil Olsztyn, won for the first time in 2017/2018. 3:1 achieveed at home looks promising after 2 away defeats. First of all it's a psychological matter. Boys showed their skills playing against quite good, former Polish Premier League team. Moreover, they did it in front of loyal fans - showing that Stomil can be winner at least in Olsztyn this season. There can be further impasse in prism of Stomil's business development in 2017/2018 but such wins let us believe even more that next year or in 2019 a lot of things will change in Olsztyn for good. Enjoy goals via Stomil Olsztyn TV: YouTube

Masurian dawn of the year

Such an impressive view from Masuria to all of you who wake up in the early morning each day but have - let's say - something else behind the window. Picture taken and rendered by our Daga with her iPhone® 📱

Mulberry from Masuria

Mulberry is a tree we know mostly from silkworm breeding and raw silk production, however mulberry isn’t Chinese only these days. Mulberry fruits look like blackberries, almost. They are sweet but rather not tasty. We use them to improve liver and kidneys condition. Mulberry leaves are good not only for silkworms. They help us with diabetes and high cholesterol. As you see, one tree can be very useful for so many.

Author: Maria Olszowska, Masuria 2017

New Masurian team member

Here we go! Another member of our Masurian family team is "Lady", the Yorkshire terrier that is a dream pet of our Daria. Lady is just 6 months old but this dog seems to be tending to become a British Lady we know from Victorian books. So, welcome to our world dear Lady! You're so cute 😃

Sękacz from Podlasie

The sękacz, a special cake from Masuria's neighbouring Podlasie, became one of the topics of our national TV show "Polish Barbecue". Who thinks grilled can be only meat, fish or vegetables, is not right. We've got something else. As you see above, the sękacz baking procedure is a show by itself. One day we must open a new stage in outdoor barbecue history with sękacz! 🙂

Mazury AirShow 2017

Mazury AirShow 2017 just happening in Masuria. This event is more than unique in the European Union scale: all the show takes place over the lake Niegocin surface. Moreover, you can watch everything from the new municipal beach in Giżycko as well as St. Brunon Hill. Admission is free, online streaming available: MazuryAirShow.pl ✈️

Mragowo's Buttermilk

When you open a fridge next day in the morning, after one of your best friend's wedding party, and you unexpectedly find some Masurian 'first aid' product: "Mragowo's Buttermilk", with live cultures. What a nice surprise far away from Masuria 🥛😂

Paprykarz Mazurski

What means Masurian food quality, you can check out even on the Baltic seashore. Masuria is a land of lakes but fish living over there is good enough to be found in places you wouldn't expect it, e.g. in Ustka - Polish Blackpool. What you see above is a set of fish products by Gworek inn located by the Śniardwy - the biggest Polish lake in Masuria. Value for money rate is more than excellent! £2 for "Paprykarz Mazurski" is a bargain of bargains 🙂 "Paprykarz Mazurski" is a yummy spread mostly consisting of fish and hot pepper 👌🏻

Kłobuki Fest

“Kłobuki Fest” took place last month in Mrągowo. It’s some kind of local fair supporting Warmian-Masurian heritage. Kłobuk is a Warmian-Masurian ghost people used to believe in as an creature able to turn into any bird. This way a good tradition was created: most of us take care of all birds in Warmian-Masurian up to present times. It makes us better and more creative, in general. As you see on the picture, a lot of local craft and food was exhibited during the “Kłobuki Fest”. There was also local music for Kłobuk's and for our fun.

Author: Maria Olszowska, Masuria 2017

Masurian dill paella

Dill, dill everywhere 😊 A lot of dill this year, really! So, we follow dill-meal trend and Masurian veggie paella for dinner today 😋 To follow us with this you need: fresh cauliflower, organic courgette, roasted sunflower seeds, sweetcorn and a lot of chopped dill of course 😀 What to do with all ingredients, you see on the pic above. We added a bit of soy sauce and extra virgin olive oil. Tasted very good 🍽 

Masurian dill soup

Masurian dill soup, we can remember from our childhood, was possible to be made today! A lot of chopped dill, fresh carrot, baby potatoes & small onion from the home garden - it's almost everything you need to remind old good times. Add sea salt and black pepper, a spoon of fresh butter and organic veggie stock cube. As a result you've got Masurian dill soup we used to love and we love in summer. That's yummy! 👌🏻 😋 👍🏻