I'm now in Moscow safe and sound. I enjoyed the train journey and would certainly recommend it. Talk about it being a small world. The first time I spoke to travellers was in Cologne station. They were waiting for the same train as me as they are doing a similar route. The Irish guy asked me where I was from so I told him Carlisle, expecting him to have never heard of it, but it turned out the girl he was with is from Carlisle. Bizarre. The standards went down somewhat when I got to Warsaw. The East station I had [View Full Entry]

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Day of arrival - if not without problems. It's the classical situation, almost ripe for a movie...you're almost there, but yet so far...anyways, let's start from the beginning. Waking up a last time, we go through the usual ritual: I make coffee, Hans takes down the tent, we have some breakfast, then get on our way. The road is good, but my rear tyre has lost pressure once again overnight and needs to be pumped up again. Not a good sign, but we're only about 50km from Lepel, surely it will last at least until we're there! Also, we're running pretty [View Full Entry]

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I wake up around 9 and the rain has finally stopped - no excuse to stay in bed any longer! Time to get up, make some coffee - and it starts raining again, fortunately before we start taking down the tent. So: back inside, play a round of cards, then another and another and another... As predicted by Hans' rule of thumb, the weather changes at 11 and we can take down the tent and get on the way. But the legs are tired (mine at least), the first 30kms a real torture. Around noon, we find a small shop and [View Full Entry]

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What a helpful bunch of people these Belarussians are! Some of the friendliest people I've met on our journey I met today, here in Belarus. But first, let's talk about what happened... Around 9am it seems that the rain finally stops and we crawl out of our tent that held up well against the storm. We use the last of our water for some coffee and continue along the M7 towards Ashmani. The first problem: we need money. I try a cash machine, but it turns out that Belarussian cash points don't accept debit cards. Fortunately, I have some Litas left [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 blaring throughout our compartment was actually quite [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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After an hour an a half and 3 stops, we make it over the border. It was the longest, drawn out border crossing I've ever been through but it was all good and we continue on to Minsk. I had no idea what to expect from Belarus. No pre-conceptions or even any imaginations of what I might see. The short drive from the border to Minsk was prosaic but driving into Minsk itself was a treat. Not because it was particually interesting or attractive but because it was totally unexpected. I was preparring myself for a monotonous journey of dour, gloomy [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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