http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Belarus en-us Wed, 14 May 2008 00:49:40 BST Wed, 14 May 2008 00:49:40 BST 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 th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/blog-234629.html 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 need http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/blog-209198.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/blog-209188.html 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 prob http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/blog-206996.html 1202103This 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 t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-176047.html I must admit when the idea of going to Belarus first cropped up my initial thoughts were ldquoummhellipno wayhellipitrsquos too dangeroushellipitrsquos too communistic.rdquo 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 laterhellip train tickets purchased an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-101546.html 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 TShirt 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 b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-96002.html 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 e http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-92323.html 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 preconceptions 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/blog-81487.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-79277.html Thank you Gidget and our Warsaw hostsWe loved collaborative gardening and the view.Geraniums red and a box of herbsAre happily blooming on your porch anew.This dance M gave for your orange treeWas full of zest and citrus zip...The city winked its dark sunset songTo carry us through on our train journey so hip. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-64640.html Woke up at 5pm I felt really hung over after a few too many beers at quiz night. We did not win again the Dog my great and wild living friend was looking up the answers on his mobile phone and we still came third. The driver was a talker who never shut up all the way up to the airport...rdquoWhere are you going materdquo ldquoPraguerdquo I told him which was kind of the truth. I rea http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/blog-55487.html Taking the night train from Kiev to Minsk last Friday the Belarussian border guards first stamped my passport as their colleagues in other contries would have done. Because of the upcoming elections however they didn't give me my passport back but probably called the capital. After some twenty minutes I was asked to leave the train with my lagguage around midnight. Without any explanation they http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Homiel-Voblast/Teryuha/blog-48018.html After a most wonderful night sleep in Warsaw I had breakfeast with the Ambassador and his wife overlooking the garden and then prepared to go to the station to get my train to Moscow going through Minsk. As I went down something happened to me which most horrible people fear with great apprehension having to meet again face to face the people I traumatised in Warsaw during my turbulent youth http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-23298.html Came here to see the one of the Great Patriotic Battle grounds of WWII. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Brest-Voblast/Brest/blog-6657.html I visited Minsk as well as Breast Belarus. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-6008.html Friday 7th September 1990I awoke fretting no pun intended about the chords to Yesterday.When we got to the school hall for the concert there were hundredsof people there. The enormous hall was jam packed with pupils.First surprise was a presentation to Trystan to mark his eighteenthbirthday tomorrow. He was given some flowers a medal and aplastic concrete mixer to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-79.html About This DocumentWhere it Came FromIn Summer 1990 I went on a school exchange trip to Minsk. I kept ahandwritten diary throughout the trip. When we got back I typed thediary up on the family BBC Microcomputer editing and sanitising it foran audience of family teachers and friends to whom I gave printedcopies.This year 2002 my parents gave me the floppy disk it was on. Isearched long and h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belarus/Minsk-Voblast/Minsk/blog-78.html