Eastern Block Party - Belarus and Poland

So we leave Moscow on another sunny morning (got pretty lucky with our weather in Russia!) for an anticipated long drive to our next country, Belarus.


A fairly uneventful drive was punctuated by the dodgiest lunch stop so far. We had to stop a 'hotel' (that's being generous) as there was no where else to stop on out drive - Russia needs to work on service stations!. Now apparently Contiki actually used to do a night stop there but ended that after complaints about the, shall we say, ladies of the night? Turns out the hotel is frequented by truckers and well truckers need company . . .


We had lunch (more chicken kiev - yay . . .) in a weird dining room with a stage. The walls were painted with strange pictures of cowboy types dancing and women. I wonder what goes on on that stage! Next we made a short drive to the border where we got to wait in large queues, get stared at by border guards, wait ages for them to do god-knows-what with our passports until we were finally free to enter the amazing BELARUS!!


Okay, I'll be honest. Prior to this trip my only knowledge of Minsk was that Phoebe's boyfriend went to live there. Driving into Minsk was a bit odd. I mean, I really felt like I was in Eastern Europe, which is hard to quanitfy but imagine very soviet era, Eurovision-esque, posters showing happy little Belarussians. Minsk the city was actually designed as a model city by the Soviets after WW2 which is why it seem modern with wide open streets and imposing buildings.

Soviet era statues in Minsk

We had our hotel changed at the last minute but apparently this was good as we were closer to the town (not that I planned on going a-wander). So everything in Belarus was a bit dodgy. Starters the hotel - I'll get to the worst later but lets say it has a certain clientele who are looking for a certain something at 1am . . .

When we arrived we went to our rooms, more odd spaces with more crazy built in wooden beds (these were everywhere - really wish I had taken photos!) but it was only for one night so I got refreshed and headed downstairs to change the last of my Russian cash in to Belarussian roubles. We were only spending the night but I had about £10-15 worth left so I figured I spend it on a few drinks and then buy some items from the supermarket to use up the rest. Now firstly, the exchange rate is crazy. Belarussian money is worth nothing, todays exchange rate to the £ is12857.52440! So my few Russian notes turned into a pile of Belarussian ones. My biggest note was 20000 (but they go up to 5MILLION!).

Money money money

So I took this huge pile of notes to the next door supermarket to buy a few things (I knew dinner would be awful - it was) and it was so cheap it was impossible to spend the money and when I did I was handed back an even bigger pile of smaller notes! It would be laughable if it wasn't the way people had to live. Our city guide told up everyone is paid in US$ and all big purchases (cars, homes) are in US$ too as the currency is unstable. Not that they earn much anyway, but more on that later.

After our strange dinner, which began with some odd kind of terrine, we met with our local guide who was going to give us a short walking tour of Minsk (I nearly bailed as I was feeling iffy but I'm glad I manned up and went - some girls just went to bed. So you go all the way to Minsk and sleep without seeing any of it??).

The city is quite beautiful, it was mostly destroyed during World War II and the Soviets rebuilt it as a modern cities with wide sweeping streets and parks. There is also a metro system there and we saw lots of churches. There are also lots of security people - they are paranoid! Large groups meeting are banned, our guide needed special dispensation to take large groups around. Also guides often have 'minders' so they don't say the 'wrong' thing. 

Belarus has not exactly embraced democracy, I came to understand the president is pretty much a dicator and by the sounds of it is a bit of a playboy (I seem to remember he arrives at work at about 10 and leaves early afternoon). People are really poorly paid, they are lots of fancy expensive flats being built in the city that its residents could never afford. Belarus seems to be still suffering from years of occupation but hopefully with young people like our tour guide things might change in the future.

At the end of our tour we visited the Island of Tears memorial which is in memory of those lost during the Afghan war. It is built like a little church with four entrances and surrounded by huge figures of weeping women. It's a very moving place, quite eerily quiet.

Later we sat at a local bar and had 80p beers (yay) and bought dodgy souvenirs from dodgier

 guy (and I left my bank card in the cashpoint - bad idea in any country). Before hitting the 

sack, although we were rudely awoken by the local 'girls' ringing all our rooms at 1am offering

 'sex massage'. Nice.

The next day we were heading back in the EU and Poland. Our lunch stop was the town of

 Brest, famous for it's part in WWII. Odd place, inside there are GIANT statues and as you walk 

through the star shaped entrance Soviet type music is blasted at you. Oh, and they had squat 

toilets, not my cup of tea! Really strange place . . .

We continued on our journey and after another fun border crossing we finally made it into the 

Polish capital Warsaw. I'd been to Warsaw already a couple of times but it was nice to be

back in the EU and have some sense of normalcy! Starting with a proper hotel with real

beds! We enjoyed our first night in with pizza and cough syrup (we were all getting sick by this 

point!).

The next day we took a whirlwind city tour where we saw the Euro 2012 stadium, the Chopin

memorial, Warsaw Uprising memorial, Holocaust memorial, Palace of Science and Culture and 

the old town.

One side of the holocaust memorial

Okay, quick Warsaw facts! Pre WWII, Poland had a huge Jewish population and as a result

when the Nazi's invaded they ended up have a huge ghetto where the Jew's were forced to

live and where Jew's from other parts of Europe were forced to go. I won't give you a history 

lesson but I recommend you read the book The Pianist, or watch the film, there is also a book

called 'Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust' which explains it better than I ever can. The ghetto 

was a staging point for sending people to concentration and extermination camps and was

gradually made smaller until it decided it should be 'liquidated'. The people inside bravely fought

back with the primative weapons they had but the place was eventually raised. Most of

the city was in fact destroyed and what is actually the 'old town' now is a post WWII 

reconstruction made from photographs and paintings. The area that was the ghetto is now

full of tower blocks from Soviet times and is a popular place to visit for Jewish people - 

while we were there there was a youth group from Israel visiting.

Whilst in Warsaw I sampled (for the first time) the famour Polish perogies! They are like

little dumplings either baked or fried, yum! I spend the afternoon wandering around and doing 

little shopping before our final group dinner. We then headed back to the hotel to change and

went out for some last night drinks at a local cocktail bar called 'Paprazzi'. I really wanted to stay

up late but my illness was taking it's toll and I had to admit defeat at midnight and hit the sack, 

ready for the long drive back to our starting point, Berlin!

Next time, Ich Bin Eirn Berliner, highlights of Berlin in 12 hours while sick and the joys of 

drunken people walking into your hostel room...