So here we are. Minsk. Who would have thought a place with such an amusing name could be so grey. And that goes for the people as well as the weather. We have arrived safely, if a little tired and dizzy spending 21hours cramped into a tiny cabin with the bag lady from Moscow taking up all available space and not a soul speaking English - which would have been ok if we weren't glared at by every person in the carriage every time we walked anywhere - or anyone walked passed us (aparently a glare is the same as "please [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Minsk on a warm Monday afternoon, I half-expected the place to be set in black and white like an old war film. I expected serious, moustachioed men in beige trenchcoats and sunglasses to exchange briefcases in dark alleyways, stopping only to utter something like "Red Fox, November in Sevastopol is always clement" before scurrying off. For Belarus is technically a dictatorship, run by controversial president Aleksander Lukashenko, who encourages homophobia, xenaphobia, and has gotten away with tweaking the constitution to ensure he has stayed in power for 14 years. The KGB is [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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I'm listing this as Belarus since I'll have plenty of time to list for Poland again since today is my first day of that two week vacation. Our trip was fantastic. It started out in Krakow with some typical large group drama. We had about a million walking tours and went to Aushwitz as well. After 3 days there we flew back to Warszawa to take another flight to Minsk. Both the Minsk airport and Krakow airport are tiny. Warszawa airport, on the other hand, has undergone serious renovations and the security there now rivals that of the US. What insanity [View Full Entry]

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It was a short train journey from the Polish border to Brest, and the train was crammed with lots of bulky women, but possibly more packed with their even bulkier bags. It seems this border is a major smuggling and trade route, with goods unobtainable in Belarus being bought in Poland, then sold on. However, this is soon set to stop with Poland entering the Schengen area, making the visa process for Belarussians far more difficult. I was later told that the cross-border Belarussian traders have to change their passports every two weeks, as they are so quickly filled with Polish [View Full Entry]

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12/02-1/03 This 3 week trip had two purposes: to visit some of my Eastern European friends and to finally go to Belarus. I was successful on both counts. I flew to Budapest, but immediately went Kosice in Slovakia to visit some friends there. I went back to Budapest after that to spend New Year's with Attila my friendfrom when I was studying in Prague. I then took a train north to Warsaw to spent time with my friend Radek and to arrange a visa for Belarus. I spent the next 8 days in Minsk, Europe's only dictatorship. Since the town was [View Full Entry]

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I must admit, when the idea of going to Belarus first cropped up my initial thoughts were; “umm…no way…it’s too dangerous…it’s too communistic.” Strangely enough, the longer I mulled it over, the more excited I became and decided that this was just too good of an adventure to pass up. Well, fast forward two weeks later… train tickets purchased and visas freshly stamped we were off to Minsk. I found the Russian night train to be surprisingly well appointed. The beds were soft, the linens were clean and the pre-war Soviet music which was bl [View Full Entry]

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I know now how easy it was for the Germans to get stuck going "shit, it's fucking freezing all of a sudden and we forgot our jackets." A week ago I was going out with a T-Shirt on (although this did get some funny looks and Marina's Dad thinking I was insane) because at 12C it really wasn't all that cold, especially without wind. A week or so later and it's -1 at 11am this morning. Not only that but there is something really cold about the air here, I suppose it must be to do with the humidity or something, [View Full Entry]

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Yep, I made it. Actually I'm kind of glad I ended up having to fork out the dough for the flights. Everything I read about the train trip to Belarus talked of problems people had. I just flew in, got my passport stamped and got out! Easy peasy. No difficult visa questions, no nothing. Marina came with a friend of hers to pick me up, it was really great to see her again. As if I wasn't attracting enough attention already for being the obvious westener, Marina then went and screamed loud enough to shatter glass when she saw me. Still, [View Full Entry]

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Long relaxing day as the train chuntered through the rest of Poland and then reached the border with Belarus - 1st stop in the former USSR. An amazing experience with changing the bogies - the track width is different in Russia and Europe so the whole train is lifted up, the undercarriage removed and replaced - takes many hours but is incredible to watch. Only downside being the lack of toilets for 6-7h - amazing how this thought makes you think of nothing else but needing the loo! Men crawling underneath train was very scary to watch! Women entered the train [View Full Entry]

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