The drive from Warsaw to Stare Sady, near Mikolajki, Poland was about 3.5 hours north of Warsaw. Google Maps made the journey possible without getting lost. Stopping at two locations along the way to get something to eat or drink and to take a break. We arrived at our destination of Stare Sady near Pod Jabloniami Port. It was a nice small hotel. This establishment also catered to up to twenty-five sailing boats in the area. After an extremely hot week in Warsaw, the cool area of Stare Sady was a very welcome feeling.

                We were in luck and found a brewery just across the street called Browar Mikolajki. I love beer! I often jokingly say that my favorite beer is an “open one.”   Well, we had a sample of their lager, and it was impressive. we had dinner – Cheeseburger and a Lager. Both were good.

                After returning to the hotel, we enjoyed the remainder of the evening around the dock area where there was a campfire going next to the lake. It was nice to sit around and enjoy the ambiance. It did not get dark until 2300, due to the high northern latitude that we were at. However, once it got dark there was extraordinarily little light pollution, which made the stars in the sky impressive. Sunrise is early – 0400. That did make it difficult to sleep, but my wife did get impressive pictures of the sunrise.

                The next day looked for attractions in our area to visit. I was surprised to see that “Wolf’s Lair” was so close. I thought it was farther east if not in Ukraine. It was about an hour’s drive north (fifty-two KM or thirty-two miles) from our location. Two-lane roads all the way and there was even a portion that was unpaved for about 10 KM (6 miles). We drove through wooded areas, farmlands, and small villages. It was really a pretty drive. Entry fees were very reasonable for the two of us. There was an audio guide that I was happy that we got these. There were only about 5 or 6 languages and English was one of them. These audio guides had GPS adaptations so that they would play the audio for the location we were viewing. We slowly walked around the area and the audio guide did the rest. I was amazed at the size of the bunkers which are now in ruins after the German forces attempted to destroy these as they were fleeing from the oncoming Russian forces in late 1944 and early 1945. The history of this area was extremely interesting. The box office hit “Valkyrie,” starring Tom Cruise was a recreation of the actual assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in 1944. We were able to walk through the events of that day thanks to the setup of the park and the use of the audio guide. It was a site well worth the time and effort.

I am not a bird watcher by any means, but I was genuinely surprised to see the enormous number of nests that the storks had built in this area. Every town had a plan to support this population of birds. There were easily 70+ nests along the main road. Many of the nests were being actively used. Oftentimes we could see 3-5 heads sticking out from the nest. The only other place that I have seen this many storks was in the Algarve area of Portugal. They liked walking behind a tractor cultivating the ground or cutting the grass. Evidently, this disturbed the area enough that food was plentiful for the storks. Otherwise, they did not interact with people.

A short distance from my house is the location and museum of the Ghetto Uprising. There are several monuments to commemorate this event in human history.  Although I have not yet visited the Ghetto Uprising Museum, I have visited the Warsaw Uprising Museum which occurred about 18 months later.   We are planning to participate in a walking tour this weekend, so hopefully I will have more to discuss on this subject. 

There are numerous monuments and tributes to all those who died during the Nazi occupation from 1939 until 1944 in Warsaw. This city was destroyed. There is a large hill south of town that has a peculiar flag raised above it. It really seemed out of place, so I asked one of my colleagues. She told me that this hill was where all the debris from the city was dumped.  Over time it was overgrown. It really put the amount of destruction into context.  Hitler had achieved his goal of complete destruction of Warsaw.  However, he did not extinguish the spirit of the people who lived here. Their legacy lives on and the people of today are not going to let them be forgotten.

I was surprised to hear that the president of Germany was here to speak in the area where the uprising took place.  He asked for forgiveness.  That doesn’t change history, but it is a step in the right direction for the healing process.  I’m sure there were some survivors in the crowd, and I really wonder what they thought. Regardless, I’m glad that he came to Warsaw to speak and apologize for the atrocities committed by Germany so long ago.

Now we have Ukraine suffering very similarly to the Polish people of 80 years ago.  Although this is not a repeat of history, it really does rhyme.  Dan Carlin made this comment about other relationships between historical events, “that history doesn’t truly repeat, but it sure rhymes.”  He went on to explain that the circumstances were extremely difficult to create identical events from identical situations.  However, he was surprised at how often things were very similar.

World War Two history: Today, 01 August, was the anniversary of the commencement of the “Warsaw (Polish) Insurgenecy.” Not to be confused with the Jewish (Warsaw Ghetto) Uprising that took place in 1943. The Polish Insurgency began on 01 August 1944 at 5:00 p.m. and lasted for just over two months. Both were historically momentous events to fight Nazi occupying forces. The Polish Insurgents attempted to coordinate the uprising with the advance of the Russian army as they were fighting their way west toward Germany. The intent was to help the advancing Russian forces. However, the Russian forces stopped and camped on the eastern shores of the “Wistula” River. Some of their encampments were only a 20-minute walk across a viaduct that connects central Warsaw to what is now “Praga.” The national stadium is located there, and we have attended a couple of the national league soccer matches (or “football”). They fought this insurgency with extraordinarily little help from outside sources. 

The Allies in 1944 were attempting to get the Russian army to support the efforts of the Polish Insurgents, who were severely outnumbered, outgunned, and out trained. Really the only chance that they had was the support from the Russian Army. Diplomatic efforts did not help much. The Allied army on the western front were just too far away to have effect on this situation. However, the US did manage to get the Russians to agree to allow allied planes land and refuel. The distance between the closest airfields on the western front and Warsaw were too far for a round trip. Refueling was the only possibility. Allied planes from various airfields on the western front and some from Russia’s eastern front were sent to resupply the besieged Poles in Warsaw. Due to the damage sustained to the structures in and around Warsaw it was exceedingly difficult to get any supplies into these fighters. Many of the supplies fell into the hands of the Nazis.  

Over the 62-day battle about it is estimated that 16,000 resistance fighters were killed and approximately 200,000 civilians were killed. Most of the civilians were killed by mass executions that took place throughout the city. It is common to find a plaque or a memorial stone noting the location of a horrific event that took place sometime between 01 August and 02 October 1944. The Polish Insurgent’s Museum is well worth the time to tour. It will take 4-6 hours to really see all the exhibits. Audio guides available and it made my tour much more enjoyable. There is a lot of reading involved at each exhibit. One of the last exhibits was a film from a plane that overflew Warsaw sometime shortly after the Russian forces captured Warsaw. I was utterly surprised to see the devastation. The statistic is at least 85% of the structures in Warsaw were destroyed. However, I the area of the actual battle I think that 100% of the structures were destroyed.  

My wife and I arrived in Warsaw extremely late in July of 2021. I do remember the “air raid” sirens sounding at exactly 5:00 p.m. I was a bit surprised because it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I was not prepared for this and found it a bit startling. Later I found out the reason. This year I went outside with a colleague to see this event. At exactly 5:00 p.m. the air raid sirens, police car sirens, and a few other city vehicles sounded their car horn. Everyone stopped for 60 seconds to pay their respects. Only a few people did not stop, and they were foreigners in the area and one Uber food delivery person. It was really an awesome display of national pride. The Poles are immensely proud of their history and talk about it often. 

We had a wonderful day trip to Lublin, Poland the other day with our daughter who came to visit us here in Warsaw. Lublin is a little over a two-hour drive from Warsaw and is about halfway between Warsaw and Ukraine border. It was an enjoyable day, sun was shining, and it was an easy drive. We intended to visit Majdanek Museum (Majdanek Concentration Camp) and the travel onto Treblinka (Death Camp) later in the day. However, plans are plans and then something happens, and we had to change our plans. We did not get up early enough. 

World War Two history: Poland has the misfortune of being home to many concentration camps that were set up by the Nazis from 1939 to 44. Many of these sites have been converted into museums or historical sites. The State Musuem of Majdanek was a very wide-open field with quite a few structures still standing. The Nazi party built this camp to house anyone they felt it was necessary to confine them to a small location. They were originally used as slave labor. However, policy changes within the Nazi regime dictated another path. As people were sent to this camp in 1942 through 44, they were put through a selection process where a Nazi Doctor who would make a quick decision to either keep the people who were at least a little bit healthy and who could contribute to the war effort. The others would be directed to a different door where they were sent to the gas chamber. The gas chamber still exists and is in its original condition – I stood at the door and the thought of what had happened in this room just 80 years ago just astonished me. There were several other rooms that could be explored. There were exhibits throughout the complex in both English and Polish. We were able to investigate this room. It brought on some mixed emotions. There were about thirty structures that were used to house these people. Many of them were open to the public, so that everyone could walk through them. This was a sad part of our history, but it is particularly important to keep this place open, so that the story will continue.  

After our tour through Majdanek we decided to go to “Lublin Village Open Air Museum.” This was a small community that existing at the turn of the last century and is the largest open-air museum (according to their advertisement) in Poland. The community was active from the late 1800’s to the early 1930. Many of these homes, shops, church, and other community areas were open to the public. It was remarkably interesting to see the construction of these dwellings and to see the simple lifestyle before electricity was readily available. We were able to walk into several the dwellings and saw how simple their lives were. The one thing that really stood out to me was that they must have been short people. All the height of the door frames were short, even my wife had to duck.  

It was a very quant area within the city limits of Lublin. The cultural diversity in this community was interesting. It was remarkably quite in this area. All I could hear was an occasional car. All the other noises were from the birds and animals in the area. It was an easy to moderate walk around the area. Some areas were a bit difficult to walk and it would not be recommended for someone who has difficulty walking. I would like to return to this place in the future. It really seemed like a small community that still had some life left in it. There were a few farmers and merchants in the area. The merchants made sense, but the famers, well that was a little bit different. Several of them had livestock. They served a dual purpose of giving this community some life along with giving the farmer somewhere to raise his livestock.  

We did stop at a Kebab restaurant for a quick meal. I have found that Kebabs do not adversely affect my blood sugar, and they are good. There are Kebab restaurants all over Poland. They are good and inexpensive. Although many of the employees speak a limited English, but I spent a little bit of time and spoke slowly and simply, I got exactly what I wanted.  

Our working hours were excessively long. We all worked exceptionally long hours (10 minimum), usually 6 days a week. Friday was our day off and we really looked forward to that. Often several of us would get together around a small bonfire, listen to music, and drink beer. In late September of 2020 I received the news that really changed my life. About 10 days (about 1 and a half weeks) prior to this diagnosis, I was starting to feel very strange. I was constantly thirsty, and I could not drink enough water. No matter how much I tried to consume it was just not enough to quench my thirst. Every night during this 10-day period I had a series of leg cramps. I never did count the actual number, but it sure seemed like 20-25 times per night for a couple of those nights. Although I liked to see my weight drop, loosing 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) in a week was not normal. “What the heck is going on”? I finally made an appointment to see the doctor at the compound’s medical unit.  

A couple days later I was in the health unit explaining all my symptoms. The nurse quickly grabbed a small device, pricked my finger, and with a meter analyzed a small amount of blood. A couple seconds later there was a number on the screen. It was well over 300. The nurse started to tell me that this was a big problem and that she would need to draw another blood sample to complete another test.  She completed the HbA1C (this took me a while to say and spell, let alone understand) test and told me that I have Diabetes, Type 2.   She mentioned my glucose level was too high. My HbA1C was over 12. I was wondering, “what is glucose”? “What is too high”? I really had no clue. I did not know anything about this “HbA1C,” but she said it was dangerous. Therefore, I could not stay in Kabul with this medical condition. 5 days later I left Kabul, not knowing if I would return or not. I really had the feeling that I would not return, based on the conversations I had with personnel in the medical unit.  

It was easy for me to make up my mind and do something.   First thing: “No more sugar.”  Although this really wasn’t hard, even though the Macadamia Nut cookies were awesome.  This would be my first rule. It was easy to stay away from the obvious sources of sugar. However, I would quickly learn just how bad the condition of our food supply. I also knew that I would have to change how & what I could or would consume. 

Shortly after I arrived in Washington, DC for medical evaluation and treatment, I was able to get my glucose levels down to 100-120 averages within a few weeks. However, I would get these occasional spikes in my glucose levels. It was a good thing that I was logging my food intake. I started using an app (Diabetes Pal) to track my results as soon as I found out about my condition. One of the first spikes really showed me how bad our food sources are for us. I was staying at a hotel with a kitchenette, which allowed me to cook simple meals. I knew that seafood was healthy, so I decided to make a simple shrimp cocktail. I also bought cocktail sauce. About an hour after I ate, I tested my blood and got a result of over 170. t happened??   I looked at the label, which is something that I never did before, and read it. the lines really stood out to me – “Sugars.”  It was in grams – 18 grams, per serving. Well, I did know that that was well above a half an ounce. I threw the rest of it in the garbage. I knew I had to set another goal – maximum level of sugar / serving. For some reason I set my goal as 5 grams maximum of “added sugars.”  This turned out to be a suitable goal to use and during a consultation with a dietitian she agreed with that goad. I was going to have to read labels – oh what fun! 

I really thought it was a very smart marketing tool to use grams. I was one of the small percentage of Americans that really used the metric system. All the countries that I have visited use the metric system. The US – we tried in the late 70’s, but quickly gave that up. However, companies have adopted the genius method to tell the truth, but no one really understands. Absolutely a valuable marketing strategy. 

My wife was staying in Japan during my time in Kabul. However, she did join me in Washington DC for a couple of months. She really helped me get back on to a healthy diet. “DC” is a wonderful place to visit, not sure I would ever want to live there, but there are a lot of attractions. I could find any type of restaurant to satisfy any craving. However, I had to be careful. Most restaurants use a lot of sugar or corn syrup in their meals. There are also a substantial number of museums and parks to visit. I took advantage of this to get my exercise. After about three months I got my A1C down to 6.5 and I was able to return to Kabul to finish my tour. My wife returned to Japan after a longer stay in the Seattle area. It was difficult for her to travel into Japan due to COVID. I remained in Kabul until May 2021 when I was transferred to Warsaw, Poland.