Blogs from Brest, Brest Voblast, Belarus, Europe

Sunday April 14 – My alarm went off at 5:30 today and I woke up with a headache. Never good. I ate a few peanuts and took some advil, then started to get everything packed up. I’m not bringing that much, so it all fits in my daypack, but with the water and laptop it’s a little heavy and inconvenient. I checked email and facebook, which was a waste, since the “most recent” feed is coming up random, so I’m not seeing most of what anyone posts now. I don’t even have a reason to use it now if nothing is there. I left at 6:20 and walked to the train station. It took just over 10 minutes and there was hardly anyone on the large, open streets. The city doesn’t have a lot of feeling, ... read more

Rano v pohodicke budicek o 9/00. Pomalicky pobalenie a smer recepcia vyplatit ubytko. Na recepcii chalan, anglicky uplne hovno. Vyplacam ubytko (drbovci cez vikend uctuju vacsiu sumu ako cez tyzden), pytam svoju registraciu. Chalan kuka,ze co chcem, ma presvieca ,ze registracia netreba. Vola majitelke (vcera bola na recepcii cca 28 rocna baba). Mam vraj pockat. Ok pohodicka, mam cas. Prichadza majitelka (ang velmi slaba,horsie nez ja), opat ma presvieca,ze registracia netreba. Niekam vola, zachvilu,ze oni o registracii nevedeli. Tak ma posiela s chalanom na registracny urad. Po prichode chalan uplne strateny, nevi kam ma ist, nechava ma cakat, prichadza majitelka. Po 2 hodinach zistene,ze som sa mal registrovat uz sobotu, bo sobotu povazuju za pracovny den, ked den pred tym je sviatok. Podla mojich vypoctov som mal mat registraciu vcera (pondelok), co mi napisala aj pica ... read more

opat stres pred cestou tak budicke uz o 7/00, miesto 8/00 ako som bol dohodnuty s CS. Nakoniec sme vyrazili 8/45. On siel do prace, cestou mi zas rozpraval rozne historicke veci. Navigoval k bus stanici. Tu sme sa rozlucili a sli kazdy svojou cestou. Nakup v supermarkete, kuknutie mini mestecka. Chvalabohu svietilo slnko. Hrad je famozny, paradan hradna priekopa naplnena vodou. Do muzea som nesiel (vstup 80 000br). Pokracoval som obhliadkou hrandeho parku. Paradny relax, slnko svietilo ,vtaci pospevovali. Bomba Odlovena keska. Obed na lavicke pri jazere. Som si kupil bielorusky syr, nevladzal som to dojest tak som musel par okruzielok vyhodit, bo v tom teple co som to roznasal v batohu uz to malo zaujimavu vonou. Z hradu kuknuta este jedna brana, relax pri fontane na mini namesticku. Kupa bus listku do haradzieja. Asi ... read more

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

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