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Published: April 9th 2013
Minsk
Victory Sq, changing of the guardsSnow started to fall as I wait at Logan airport for my flight, luckily we left on time, 6 hours I was in cloudy Paris, still in a daze I followed directions towards my connecting flight and eventually ended up in a long queue of people at the Immigration,I got stamped in no time and off I go. I found the gate where AirBaltic is leaving from but it was delayed by half hour, I don't mind as I dozed off at the waiting area, eventually making it to Riga, grabbed my backpack, bought my fare to Bus #22 at a kiosk just before leaving the arrivals hall, soon as I got out I can feel the crisp Arctic air, it's about 15 F with wind chills, crap, I thought it's supposed to be spring already... While waiting for a bus there was this Brazilian dude who is having his foto taken waving a huge Brazilian flag, and screaming it's so cold, so cold!! Anyway,I got off bus at the Stockman stop in center of Riga and quickly found the bus station from memory, left my backpack at the 24 hour left luggage facility and headed for a walk, the attendant
Minsk
Victory Square at night ever patient with me as I lay out my mixed Latvian and Lithuanian coins on the desk, remnants of my previous travels here, I did not have enough so he says pay later when you claim your pack. Had a bit of a walk, but then it's too cold so I decided to purchase a ticket at the nearby Forum (Citadele) Cinema for Jack the Giant Slayer on 3D. First shop for late lunch and some water, I can't figure out what to eat, still jet lagged and feeling not hungry but knows I gotta eat before the long bus ride ahead, I ended up taking a shrimp salad croissant at a small cafe, then run for the movie. Oh what a disappointment, the movie was bad but it killed 2 hours off my waiting time, then I went back to the bus station where it is warmer and waited for my bus.
It was frigid cold and the platforms are outside the terminal, I braved the cold and made my way to the bus going to Minsk, the driver checked my documents and took my printed ticket from me, we were late by 10 minutes but
Minsk
Island of Tears memorial we made up pretty quickly, the bleak Latvian country side put me to sleep until we got to Panevezys in Lithuania, where my buddy Mindas was supposed to board the bus and join me on this Belarussian adventure. But he was nowhere in sight! I panicked a bit but we still have 5 minutes to wait, and in the nick of time I see Ben's car pull in next to the bus and out comes Mindas, a sigh of relief! A lot of catching up, it was 3 years ago when I last was here and stayed at Mindas' village of Pakruojis. We decided to sleep a bit before reaching the Belarussian border, the bus stopped in Vilnius briefly and not half hour later we are at the frontier. Miles and miles of trucks parked on the shoulder and waiting cars at the border, wow unbelievable, but buses have a special queue, so we bypassed everyone!
On the Lithuanian side, the customs people took our passports and handed it back 15 minutes later, no stamp in the passport, oh well.. At the Belarussian end we were made to get out in the freezing cold, went to a
Minsk
ducks and kids, behind is a camera crew filming a soap opera small office and got processed, when it was my turn, no word was uttered, a stern look by the unfriendly customs officer, she seems miserable at her job, scrutinizing my passport from front to back, then I handed the Medical Insurance original copy as we know it is needed, Mindas bought it for me in Vilnius though we were told there is a place to buy them at the border but we did not see an office so I think that we made a good decision to buy ahead of time and avoid delay, the lady took forever double checking my visa then handed it back to me unceremoniously, then comes the backpacks, we have to put it on the x ray machine, 2 guys manning the screen, asking every single person to open their bags, when it was my turn they made me take things out of the day bag and asked about the small pockets of thing they see in my big backpack in the x ray, I realized it must be the kisses chocolates I brought for Mindas and Ben, happy with my explanation they told me to put my stuff away, they are very thorough indeed
Minsk
Victory Sq, with Mindas ruining my fotos but very polite, it feels like though that they don't know how to read the old fashion x ray device they have, every single person was made to open their bags, but eventually we all got through thankfully.
As we left the border, we again saw miles and miles of trucks parked along the shoulder of the road, and even longer in the Belarussian side, and cars on their way to Lithuania, at 4 am this border is bustling. After that I totally passed out, woke up to see Mindas making videos of the countryside, we made it to Minsk around 8am, and oh my dear lord it was cold, in the negatives with a bone chilling wind to factor in. I looked at Mindas and thinking did we really make a good decision to come here at this time from Arctic Baltic to the Belarussian tundra! Now we have to get our bearings, we found the train station which is next door we entered it and tried to find ATM on 1st floor, we failed so we headed to 2nd floor we found money changers, we changed some money and headed down to figure out where
Minsk
Victory Sq, changing of the guards the tram stop is, I needed to pee so I headed at the basement where I found 2 ATM machines on each side of the stairs! Then walked out of the train station, turned left and saw a kiosk next to the subway entrance that sells both tickets for tram and token for the subway, we decided to take the tram, though we can't figure out where the stop is, eventually we asked some locals, thank god for Mindas' fluency in Russian, Tram 1 appreared and off we go, the trams are old fashioned clunky Soviet made pieces but it works, first stamp your tickets on those gadgets attached to the metal poles, the tram turned as I was doing mine and slipped, my empty water bottle falling from my daypack, a sitting old man balked at me and cursed in Belarussian(I would guess), what was that for, I asked Mindas, ignore him he implored, I can only think he probably thought I will leave trash in the tram.
6 stops later we got off and followed directions to Easy Flat hostel, it was easy enough to find, we found the building and was surprised it was actually
Minsk
Victory Sq, changing of the guards an apartment block, we buzzed and was let in, first impression not good, the stairs going up to the 3rd floor we musty and dark, but soon as we got in to the hostel it was great, it's clean and warm despite very small area. Kirrill checked us in and gave us a copy of the rules to abide by while staying, I protested about "strong drinks" not allowed, I said well, beers and some small amounts of liqour is not strong right? Kirrill was smirking and said "I guess not", he said ok to bring booze if you drink quietly in the kitchen area, but whatever happens, DO NOT drink in the streets! the police will get you! We showered to freshen up and went to sleep for a bit, our room has 6 beds, we are sharing with an old Russian couple from the Komi Republic and a cute Asian looking girl from Astana, Kazakhstan. That girl never spoke to me, and always run to Mindas to say something, later we found out she spoke no English, only Russian.
So after a brief nap, time to explore Minsk, we walked back to the main road
Minsk
Victory Sq, changing of the guards and noticed a banya not 2 minutes away from the hostel, we checked it out but Mindas could not understand the rules as some were in Belarussian so we decided to ask at the hostel later. So we walked straight down Independence Ave. and ended up at this Obelisk thing in the middle of Victory square, we saw young soldiers marching so we crossed the street via the underground tunnels. It was blistery cold and these young kids are standing there guarding an eternal flame and along the side of the square are plaques in honor of different cities that we think were destroyed by the Germans during the 2nd WW. Anyway it seems the young guards gets replaced every 15 minutes and a soldier dude was filming their marching so we just followed suit and started snapping away without any fear of being arrested or cameras confiscated. There are a few locals who actually had their fotos taken with the soldiers, of which some are girls, we wonder if everyone is mandated to serve a few years in the military here. My hands were freezing but at least the sun was out, we then proceeded on and found a
Minsk
Victory Sq, changing of the guards park with rides and a food stall next to the gate, we had some bread to eat to stave off hunger. I noticed a film crew next to the river so I investigated, it seems like a soap opera shooting, but it was cold and so we moved on following the river, armed with a map we bought at the hostel we ended up seeing the President's Palace(we think) and some other interesting buildings, we found a restaurant so we headed there and warmed up for a bit, but I was falling asleep after a meal so we walked some more again following the curve of the Svislach river ending up at the Island of Tears, a tribute to the Afgan war veterans, only the island is not discernible as the lake is frozen. It was a cool sculpture of weeping women in various stages of grief but no tears are to be seen, oddly enough.
Right, by now we are spent and decided to just quickly check out some malls, to check out some souvenirs, inside they look like they have a retro 70s style going on, but mainly because they haven't been updated, we found
Minsk
Independence Ave a shop and bought food and booze, the not so "strong kind" of course and Mindas found some kafir an in between milk and yoghurt according to him, that is popular here and in the Baltics. I noticed a big selection of smoked fish and sausages and meat, I guess if you have a horrid cold winter in the area you may as well preserve meat for long term shelf life. Now let me tell you about their money, the Belarussian ruble has no coins all paper money, $1 fetches roughly 8,600 rubles and so say you change $200 and you are counting in millions, for some reason my brain stops functioning when it goes above 5 figures and I resorted to spreading my wads of cash like a fan and letting the poor cashier pick out what she needs for me to settle business. Believe me it's much easier as I froze each time I try to pay.
Now we decided to head back to the hostel using the metro subway, we asked around and found a station, a token is 1,700 rubles, roughly $.20 per ride!As we struggle to figure out which side to ride
Minsk
some government Palace hidden by trees the train, a police with a baton or whatever he is, came and talked to Mindas and I saw my friend put back on his lens cap, he was told no fotos in the underground stations, ok then..It's rush hour, the train is full but surprisingly fast and efficient, we made it to our stop, which we figured out by looking at the map, walk back to hostel is tough as the winds have picked up. and snow still on the ground as there was a snowstorm 2 days before we arrived. Back at the hostel we hang out in the kitchen, an odd Belarussian also staying in the hostel started chatting with us, English was excellent but he was kind of erratic, changes subject very quickly as if multi tasking, trying to engage different topics with each person, I told Mindas this boy is cuckoo! Hey 1st impression can be harsh, he ended up being nice and was entertaining, we tried some of the beers we bought, and like any other ex Soviet republics, booze is up to par with the best in the world, beer is great and liquors, i.e. vodka is world class. I felt exhausted so
Minsk
Pharmacy I turned in early, fell asleep then realized need to pee, the boys were still "quietly" drinking not so "strong drinks" in the kitchen at 2am, Andrew(the strange one) followed me in the room with a shot glass, balsam(herby liquor) he says, good for sleeping, no amount of refusal is going to dissuade a drunk Belarussian it seems so I relented and downed it, it warmed my insides and slept pretty well after that, wow, I need to bring home some of these...(to be continued)
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Congratulations on your milestone.
A wonderful accomplishment to have visited all the ex soviet republics. Maybe you can do a contrast blog summarizing the similarities and differences of each. Spring is not in the air. Sounds like you are meeting some interesting people.