Woke up to a rainy day in Minsk, but today was the only day I am able to get on the city walking tour, so despite the rain, I just headed out.  Yuliya showed us around the sites and introduced some of the history of Minsk and Belarus: these tours help to figure out the city, but also to begin to understand the culture.  You can get advice on where to go and what to do, so they really are always an enjoyable couple of hours.  The pouring rain tested that at times, but we made it through, and the guide was able to shape my day.

From there I wandered some more, Gorky Park, Dinamo Stadium, Graffiti Street, Museum Strana Mini, Island of Tears, Svishlach River Bank and Minsk Gates were just some of the stop offs on a 15-16 miles trip around this great capital.

When I travelled to Bulgaria (South Slavic) a few years ago the written language was a real challenge being a westerner, in that it was just hard to comprehend and work with.  In Belarus (Russian is East Slavic) it is not the same, but for appearance is just as challenging …Сардэчна запрашаем у Мінск… for example, is welcome to Minsk, so you catch my drift.  It was with this in my mind’s eye, and knowing that in Belarus, English is only spoken in rare instances, that I headed to buy a train ticket to travel to Lithuania on Friday.  As expected, virtually no English is spoken.  It was once again “figure it out” time.  These situations are getting rarer these days, but they are thoroughly enjoyable to navigate.  It was like a little real life game of word search, where at every turn the game could turn into frustration.  I got lucky, the lady at the railway station really wanted to help, and we got there, eventually.  I still didn’t have a clue what seat and carriage I had booked, but I knew that I had booked the right train on the right day, so it was a
success :). This is one huge clear example of why travel is so enjoyable, other people in other counties, for the most part, are good, really nice, and want to help.  I was grateful for the experience, and thankful for her patience.   No question, it made me like Minsk more.

The Belarusian language is a mix of Russian and Ukrainian, I did learn it is also referred to as White Russia.  I delved to learn more, and it is a historical reference that dates back centuries.  It seems to find its way back to Belarusian historian Ales Bely, and is a term used by Western medieval scholars.  I also read that to be polite you don’t refer to it as that!

Wandering around the many parks in Minsk it was clear that fall is well set in.  This is from Gorky Park as a wandered through.

It didn’t surprise me to read that on a list of the most expensive countries to visit in Europe, Switzerland was number 1, I kind of had figured that out in the few days I was there.  Belarus is at 38th, and 19% of the cost of being in Switzerland.  It is just an incredible difference that you now don’t need a new mortgage to buy a meal in a restaurant, in fact here you could probably eat the whole menu in Minsk.  I like the idea of that challenge!  With that in mind I headed to Vasilki, a consistently recommended local restaurant that seemed like a must do.  Draniki seemed the be the most likely Belarusian meal candidate, and it went down well.

In Minsk this week there are two international soccer games, Belarus play Estonia today, not an exciting match up, so I was not interest to attend, and it ended 0-0, so it doesn’t seem either team could find their way to the goal.  Portugal and Ronaldo are in town on Sunday for a Euro qualifier, but I will be gone and headed to Ukraine, so will not be able to head to that game.  That might have been fun!

There was also Graffiti Street, otherwise known as Oktyabrskaya Street, is a street art excursion that takes some finding, but find it I did, it is pretty cool.  They don’t do much Street art in Minsk, but when they do they go big!

Tomorrow, new adventures and heading off to Lithuania by train.  Very much looking forward to it.