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Blogs from Brest, Brest Voblast, Belarus, Europe
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April 27th 2011
After narrowly escaping a few run-ins with the Belarusian Military and the KGB, I was looking forward to getting out of Minsk. We had an unearthly early start to the morning and found ourselves back on one of those odd sleeper train carriages (which stunk like I don’t know what) but at least this time we had more normal seats for another olympic session of cards for the next 4-5 hours on the way to Brest. It was a gloriously hot day (despite the forecast to snow the same time next week), but with our limited time here we only came to see one thing: The Brest Fortress – a WWII Soviet memorial, and originally the largest 19th century fortress of the Russian Empire. The long walk to the fortress in the heat just about killed ... read more
December 23rd 2010
Polished black like a soldier’s boot, the surface of the small Mukhavets River in Belarus is a varnished strip of birch, twisted willow and spongy rotting leaves. The river spread its arms around a small green island, growing dim in the 4.30 p.m. November light, the air thickening with fog. The island wasn’t always peaceful. It used to be the centre of Brest, a bustling trade town from around 1000 A.D. The oldest church in Brest is still there, but the rest of the town was moved in 1838 off the island to allow for the construction of a fort. For five hundred canons, six hundred bombs and one month, two Soviet regiments held the fort when the Nazis attacked in 1941. It was the start of the occupation of Belarus, which would kill one in ... read more
Part 10: Brest (Days 22 and 23)
Published: September 17th 2008Europe » Belarus » Brest Voblast » Brest
September 12th 2008
Regular readers will already be aware of the childish undercurrent to my sense of humour, so when the opportunity arose to explore a bit of Brest I was not going to turn it down. We did not want to milk it though, so we stayed in the small south western border town for just 20 hours. We had enjoyed a first class four hour journey from Minsk. It only cost 11 pounds but we didn't get any food. We did, however, enjoy the screening of 101 Dalmatians in Russian. Fortunately it's not a deep film so we could work out what was going on, although it was a little strange watching Mark Williams and Hugh Laurie frolicking around and being heavily dubbed. On arrival we found our way through the tree-lined streets to our hotel past ... read more
September 6th 2000
Came here to see the one of the Great Patriotic Battle grounds of WWII.... read more
