Belarus

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Again we must begin with apologies to our regular readers for the lateness of todays entry. We have made it to the Crimea, but the lack of internet facilities in the resort town of Yalta is quite astounding...more on this southern tip of the Ukraine at a later date though, as we must fill you in on one of the most interesting places we have visited thus far...

Minsk, Belarus

All the guidebooks (including the one that was unfortunately stolen from us) have 'warned' that Belarus, and especially its capital, is like a soviet time-warp. We can but confirm that philosophy. However, it was not so difficult to enter as the books made out, in fact the passport officers at the Lithuanian border were positively intrigued by our wish to enter and the sight of a biometric passport, the microchip on the back page was very much admired!

We arrived into the gleaming palace that is Minsk Central Station at a quite civilised time, the train from Vilnius having been both refreshingly short and also very enjoyable - if a little hot. The ease of travel unfortunately ended there. We attempted to take the (apparently very efficient) Minsk metro to the station closest to our hotel - only to realise, as we sped through it, that it was closed. Bear in mind that this station is also the only one at which change between the two lines of the system is facilitated. So, we returned to the central station, and resolved to walk to the hotel.

We were staying at Hotel October, right next to the foreboding behemoth where the self-imposed President lives so apparently this means you don't get calls from prostitutes in the middle of the night, which indeed we didn't - they wouldn't have spoken English anyway... As it was getting on in the day we settled for a meal at the local Lebanese(?!) restaurant and headed back to the hotel bar.

The next day started with us buying tickets for the Dinamo Minsk - Dinamo Brest game for the princely sum of £1.25 and with relative ease. With somewhat more difficulty, we then bought tickets for our onward journey to Simferopol...all of four attempts were required for us to get through to the less-than-patient people behind the ticket desks... Bizarrely each individual ticket desk even had its own open and close times covering various 15 minute intervals so it was all generally quite unpredictable. This was not aided by the Belarussian 'queuing' tactic which either involves a scrum or is a sort-of sideways line which is most impractical for a row of ticket offices. While we were there a slanging match broke out with much raised voices and general crowd involvement, don't argue with someone wearing stilettos!

Having spent much longer than anticipated at the train station we headed back to the hotel for a brief rest before gearing ourselves up for the match. Dinamo Minsk stadium was pretty much on the same street as where we were staying and a short two minute stroll along the ridiculously over-wide pavement. This pretty much sums up our impression of Minsk - vast, spotlessly clean spaces watched over by officious looking, slightly spooky guards/policemen with great scooping hats. These characters were also in high attendance at the game, along with a rather over-zealous number of soldiers, whose job it was to monitor the crowd (and make you feel a little uncomfortable, it would seem). This was somewhat unnecessary though as the stadium was filled far from capacity and our arrival an hour before kick-off completely over-compensated! Football appears to be a very different game in Belarus to the kind the overpaid premier league nancies entertain. The match itself was very enjoyable, despite ending up 4-1 to the visitors, the banter from the seats behind and general atmosphere rivalled anything the premiership...ok, perhaps the second division, can offer.

On our last day in Minsk we resolved to see a bit more of the city, having spent a large portion of the previous day struggling to buy a train ticket. Walking around is a pleasure, thanks again to the vast pavements and the utter lack of any tourists - made us feel quite trailblazing! However the amount of stares given for wearing trainers and not stilletos (Fiona not Adam...) was glared upon with obvious intrigue. We passed by the enormous 'Palace Of The Republic' which is, in fact, a concert hall and headed down to the 'Victory Obelisk' along the 11km main highway 'Independence St' (you can sense a common theme in the dedication of buildings and structures here...). Also on this street is the absolutely massive corinthian style KGB building (next to the McDonalds of course) which is still in full working force in this last bastion of soviet-style rule. We dared to pop in to the Belarussian Popular Front Office but were assured by the Lonely Planet guide that this is all perfectly legal despite more official people lingering next door guarding yet another mysterious establishment.

Using the minsk metro again - this time, very efficient - we headed to Independence Square, watched over by a giant statue of Lenin, standing defiantly in front of the government building (yet another towering official building of bland design). The red-brick church of Saint Simon and Helena was a pleasant contrast to these dominating structures. Our curiosity for architecture excited, we boarded the metro again and travelled out to probably the most bizarre construction in all the former USSR...the National Library Of Belarus. This rhombicuboctahedroidal oddity dominates the 'Vostok' area of Minsk, and is especially impressive after sunset, when an illuminatory spectacle begins...perhaps a youtube search will do this better justice than mere words!



This was our last night in Minsk, and we boarded our THIRTY HOUR train to Simferopol with a sense of enlightenment about this most misunderstood of countries. We can only hope that some kind of (peaceful) revolution succeeds here soon to depose the moustache-sporting 'President' Lukashenko (clearly he uses Just for Men for that shade) and his cronies...the country deserves to be more recognised by the wider world.

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Comments

[Anna]

Oooh, 30 WHOLE HOURS on a train, however did you cope?? That must have been EXCRUCIATING! (I'm not bitter) (That was a lie) (Fucking Transiberian.) xxxxx ps - underneath all the jealousy and trauma I'm glad you're having an amazing time!