how about lunch at the KGB headquarters?

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As usual here in Belarus, the train left right on time, just before midnight the train started the 4 hour journey to Minsk, the night trip here are always sleepers, they did not give you a choice for just seats, which was fine, the ticket is so cheap anyway. We discovered we have the right side of the cabin, so one of us have to sleep on the upper deck, I volunteered. They provided you with pillow, mattress and blanket if you so chose to use it, but the bed/seat is cushioned already so I decided just grab a blanket and pass out. The problem is how to get up to my bed, there is only probably 3 feet of space between my bed and another bed on top of me, which is not used, I tried every angle to crawl in without success much to Mindas' delight, the triple deckers in China have more space in between than these ones, finally I was able to slide in and decided to stay put for the rest of the trip. All the while a local was in our cabin too and watching me struggle, probably scratching his head, amused.

As the train chugs on, comfortably lying on my bed the attendant came and said something to Mindas, he was being reprimanded for whatever reasons. They are very strict here, you have to behave accordingly(whatever that means) and gets told if you cross the line, it's has something to do with blankets I think.. since I did not speak Russian I did not catch the rest of the conversation. Waking up around 4am, we prepare to leave our car and move on to the next one, we are on the same train to Brest but here in Minsk we have to switch cabins again. A lady attendant took our ticket and we hopped on, it's very cold so we are relieved the trains are well heated, on our way to our seat/beds we grabbed a couple blankets each, using the other as a pillow. Once the train moved, the babushka attendant came and started yelling at us for some reason, Mindas explained, she is upset we took 2 extra blankets, we have to return it. How the hell she knows that, she must count it every time people get on, there is plenty of them to go around, what's the big deal? Letting that go, we slept through for the 4 1/2 hour trip.

Approaching Brest we noticed there is less snow here being in the southwest of the country, close to Poland, must be milder climate. We were sat looking out the window, maybe a good 15 minutes away from Brest then comes the bitchy babushka grabbing the blankets, she was upset we did not even return them, that time I lost it, I told Mindas we should give this miserable granny our piece of mind, why can't she wait till we arrive, on our way out we could just simply drop off the blankets where we picked them up on the tray, besides we are paying customers, he agreed with me as he will be the one doing it, me no speak Russkie. But for whatever reason we forgot, just glad to arrive on a sunny day in Brest, right away we got confused, we don't know where to head out, we went in the terminal but it's for international departure and there is Immigration to get past from to get out, wtf?? turns out that was the train headed for Poland, so we backtracked headed out again and found a WC, we freshened up then once we stepped out on the platform we saw Jakob, our CS guide for the day!

Jakob is German, here to see his Belarussian girlfriend, Olya, which we will meet later. He is all smiles as he greets us, went crossed an overpass and into the front of the terminal, and we started walking to town, 1st we visit Olya in her office, Jakob announces, we had tea in her office, she is an architect, and will join us for lunch later. We stopped by a shop to buy snacks as we never had time for breakfast and then made our way to the fortress, the main reason we came here, along the way passed by the soccer stadium and a local who stopped us and asked Mindas if he could take his foto, Mindas was surprised but obliged. Making it to the fortress it's a big area se saw a few tourist buses and as we enter we saw in the center a huge monument/face of a man and a tall obelisk, with a church nearby, this is where all the action is, the changing of the guards is happening at that time so we all watched them. Oh there are also a few tanks used during some war, other than that the place is underwhelming, we went to some monastery in the outskirts of the complex but were not even allowed in, after much walking we went back to town.

As it is almost lunch time, Jakob walked us to this tall building apparently the KGB headquarters, yes they still exist in this country, he said we wait for Olya here and we will have lunch there. Really? but... this instruction was given to me solely, try not to speak, just follow us, and be quiet and try not to attract attention( as if my Asian appearance will not give me away). The cafeteria serves good and cheap Belarussian fare and our hosts wants us to experience eating there, only thing is it is only supposedly for government employees, but they figured once we get past the guard at the front door, no one will ever care. And so that's what we did when Olya arrives, we walked in confidently, but the security guy told us we have to leave our packs in the coat room, there is no one there, just a small room, no locks, a few military hats, a few coats, some chairs, Mindas and I were reluctant to leave our things there, we have cameras and important stuff, don't worry no one would try to steal that, Olya assures us, there's heaps of security walking around, it will be fine. We found empty boxes, we piled them up in front of our packs which we positioned in a corner hidden from view and hope for the best.

The cafeteria is on the 2nd floor, it is a crowded mess hall with hard rock Western music playing in the background(go figure).Left our coats in the rack, and started queueing up, it's a small room where the kitchen/buffet cafeteria is, and it's busy this time of day, I see people glance at me wondering perhaps what an Asian dude is doing there, guest of your commandant I was prepared to say if ever prodded.. Olya whispers to me as we approach the buffet area, describing the meals, since I speak no Russkie nor Belarusskie she will order for me, a soup, some salad, a main course of minced meat with potatoes all for a hefty $2.5! Now that is a bargain!Like before I spread my money like a fan and Olya picks the right amount to pay for my lunch, the cashier giving me a quizzical look.While we eat no one bothered us as everybody is busy with their lunch. Now where else can you go and say as a tourist you had lunch at the KGB headquarters?? It was a rushed lunch though as Mindas was very worried about his camera gears getting stolen from the coat room, it was still there where we left it, our fears were unfounded.

We have sometime to spare before our train leaves at 2:15pm so we looked for a cafe to have dessert, service is slow and I was getting panicky we might miss our train, Mindas comforts me, there is another one leaving short time after if we miss it, no big deal, we take the next one. Olya have to rush back to work so Jakob walked us slowly to the train station, I was enganged in a conversation with Jakob when Mindas realized we have just 10 minutes to spare, now it's his turn to panic! and we started running to make it and we did in the nick of time with minutes to spare, quick hug to our guide promising to keep in touch and we boarded the train, It's a day train so all seats, the benches are full, I get all the stares from locals as usual. The attendant is very strict, as the train left she started yelling out what we can and cannot do on her train, one of which is smoking, not in the WC or even outside in between cars is prohibited. An old stubborn man made that mistake and we heard yelling coming from the front carriage and all eyes on the door, the man is being reprimanded by the attendant for attempting to smoke. He walks sheepishly back to his seat, head bowed down muttering some choice words for the dictator babushka!

Early evening we arrived at Minsk,we decided since this is our last night here we should have a small celebration at the hostel so we took the metro bac and stopped at a shop near our hostel and bought some food and booze of course, mostly beer. Arriving at the hostel, we noticed a number of people are congregating in the kitchen, 2 new backpackers, from Spain, Javi and Emil now joins our small crowd. They have an interesting story, they flew to Minsk from Moscow, with all paperwork in hand to get a visa on arrival, but they cannot find the visa counter at the airport and no one can help them out, so they walked out of the airport with no visa, basically illegal in Belarus! And for the last few days been trying to sort it out, went to a few police station with Andrew until finally getting it done, and they paid a fine. First time I heard you could get a visa at a police station, not extension but visa to enter. Lucky for them Andrew was there to help them, see he is not that crazy after all! So we all started drinking and being merry, I cooked the sausages we bought at the shop and I saw a fish head on a plate next to the sink, it's a sturgeon! The Spaniards bought it alive in the shop and brought home to the hostel to be cooked, It's a big one, Andrew killed it and now ready to be deep fried.

All types of heavy duty"strong drinks" at the table, vodka, mead, cognac, balsam and beer of course, Andrew keeps giving me shots and it's best to just down it as he does not budge. The Spaniards were very entertaining and I get to practice my Spanish which does get better after a few drinks. I could understand more than I can fluently speak and have to ask the boys to slow down a few times for me, Castillian accent is beautiful but hard to understand sometimes. This hostel, Easy Flat is closing down at the end of March sad to say, so in a way it's a last hurrah party for it too, the owner decided to sell the business for some reason. Too bad as it is really cozy and near the main drag and a banya. Hopefully they will change their minds. The next morning I can hear the Kazakh girl complaining to Andrew that we were very loud last night, hey you don't have to speak Russian to understand a ticked off girl.

The Spaniards left early to catch a bus to Vilnius, we are headed the same way only on a later bus, we made it early at the station and Mindas wants to buy a map of Belarus, he left me at the waiting area of the bus station and he run off looking for a bookstore, moments later he turned up disappointed, I changed all my local dibdobs to Euros but saved a couple for souvenir. Well it's been a good 5 days in Belarus despite the biting cold weather, people are warm, and they have good quality liqours to keep you pre occupied if bored, hoping to come back when the weather is warmer.

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