Blogs from Belarus, Europe - page 4

BELARUS On arriving in Minsk I was pleasantly surprised by the modern central station. It had all the facilities one could ask for. I sat with my backpack in the main concourse. It was 8:10 a.m. on a sunny August morning. Studying the map of the downtown area in my guidebook, marking places of importance. I would shack-up at the Hotel Jubileynaya. Reservations had been made. The station was busy, people on the move, others waiting patiently for their train. Arrival passengers been greeted by loved ones. I glanced at the vast timetable, destinations in Cyrillic: St. Petersburg, Brest, Moscow, Odessa, Kiev. I was in no hurry. An hour had passed. An automatic teller machine near-by did not get a single customer. I wondered how many locals had bank accounts. Unsure the value of the Belarus ... read more

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 low on water, but we'll definitely find a shop sometime soon. With the type of road condition we're on right now, we'll be in Lepel in a few hours. Spoke too soon: soon, we arrive ... read more

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 over and I find a bank that does foreign exchange. Taking all my Belarussian (which I got out of a simple language book) together, I go in and manage to get my money exchanged, the ... read more

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 pleasant. We shared a four-person sleeper with two other Russian women who very generously offered us their aid with translating the Russian customs forms. So, I tucked myself into my bunk, popped two Unisoms and ... read more