2 bus tickets, 1 visa, 80
euros well spent and ready to go on an adventure. Bus left late in the evening
and we were on the way for the whole night and early morning. 8 h total from
one point till the next one, with a few stops including boarder.
Ah … boarder, first
impression of the country. Already surprised and a bit scared of what will
happen next because at the Lithuanian boarder one passenger was asked to leave
the bus and she never returned. So there I sat alone in my space, waiting for
the local boarder guard to come in and collect my passport and the other little
paper they give to fill in. To my
surprise it was a pleasant looking girl with even a smile on her face. Already
got my first question. “Do I have life insurance? Yes. “
One point goes to me.
Received my first question in Russian language, understood it and could
reply. Fog on the boarder looked
impressive, so deep. By the way Wikipedia says that the capital city here has a
lot more fog on average than London who is so famous of the shitty weather.
That’s how I got into the
country. Oh by the way. I was going to Minsk, Belarus. When I got outside of
the bus at the bus stop I received my second question. An old lady asked me
where is the ticket office here. Noticed it when I came, understood the
question and could show the direction. Two points to me and the day hasn’t even
started yet. A great start.
Met my host. A person you
can actually expect everything from and each time will amaze you even more.
Something suspicious was in her eyes though or maybe her smile that hypnosis
you.
Noticed when she came down
the street but in a foxy manner. I glanced and saw that she thought I didn’t
see her. So I turned away and looked at the reflection on the wall. Yeah I
already told you can expect everything from her. She went through the people in
bus stop, behind one of the walls to come from my back and jump on me. Wanted
to turn around on the very last moment but her steps where so quiet I missed
the moment.
Ok so far so good, feeling
like at home and met my host, next thing I needed was to take money, so ATM it
was. I can say that during my stay in Minsk I spent something like
800 000.00. No I didn’t make a mistake. I actually spent near a million.
The currency is so worthless that they don’t even have any coins. Their
smallest bill now is 50.00 Belarusian rubbles. That is 0,003 euro cents. And
yes this bill for unknown reasons to me is still very popular. So you can imagine
how much paper money I always had in my wallet.
Stocking the money in wallet
though was no problem until you actually have to pay for your things in cash.
Then it gets really difficult. Firstly you don’t recognize the money as I just
got it, so the colour, size and other things don’t help a lot when trying to
say how much zeros the bill has. A
burger in underground shop cost me 14200,00. That was a shock and a challenge.
But once you arrange the
money starting from the biggest to the smallest it’s not so hard anymore. Still
on the last day I wasn’t advanced enough to go in a shop and count all the
money in order to spend most of it before returning home. The biggest thank you
goes to my second best friend in Belarus Irene, who is so skilled she left me with
only 0,09 cents in local money. Funny to say only 0,09 cents. Because in euros
it could be like 3 coins(really small), but in Belarus 0.09 cents where
some 6 paper bills. The biggest one
1000,00.
On the first day to save
some time, I left my baggage near the bus station in the storage place to go
and see the city. They ask you your surname, so they could write it down on the
paper, you will give back in order to get your bag. So I told her my surname as
clear as possible. Kleinšmits. She looked at me, and wrote something down. It
was written “tourist” on it.
I met some smart people in
the bike rent later too. I rented a bike, so of course they asked for my
documents, and I gave them my passport. He looked at it for a while, then
looked me in the eyes and asked: “Emmmm…..do you have a Belarusian passport?”
………WHAT? Jeah sure I have, a Belarusian
Chinese, American and some others which one do you prefer best?
Later that day with the
amazing host we participated in an event that is called Critical Mass. A lot of
people with their bikes come together to drive through the city and shout out
some slogans. It was an amazing way to see the city once again. Will definitely
join this motion again when it will happen in Riga.
Those of you who want to
have great parties at Belarus. Be warned, you can buy drinks at the shop from
18 but in most of bars you can drink them only if you are at least 21.
Minsk in overall is a great
city. There are not much old building as in the war it was hit really badly,
but still the ones that survived and the other ones built in an old fashion
style are great. All of them are well maintained, a couple of floors bigger
that in Riga on average, but the streets!!!! If our biggest street through the
city has 2 lanes to each side, then in Minsk most of them are at least 3. Also the sidewalks for pedestrians are huge.
The city has 2 million people in it, but you hardly ever feel it. Because the
streets are big and the city also is really big. They even have a metro. A
really old one and old fashioned but hey they have it and we don’t, so that is
great thing to have. Really fast way of moving from one place to another.
Trams are crazy there. Don’t
use them. It feels like you are in a washing machine. It shakes so much, brakes
so hard, and drives so fast it takes some muscles to hold on your legs. That’s
why there were no really old ladies on board. They already know this fact.
Ticket costs 3700.00 for all
public transport. Metro cost 4000.00 and that is quite cheap. One day had to
buy a ticket but didn’t have any small bills. Had to give a 100 000.00 for
one ticket. I am not exactly sure of what the cashier told me, because she
talked fast and loud, but I guess she just wished me good luck for that. She
had to give me change of 96 300.00 in bills where most of them are
1000.00. Because everyone else tries to pay in small ones.
Had the opportunity to see
the rehearsal of upcoming parade. So many tanks and other army cars. And yes,
they don’t care about the streets, because the tanks just ride on the streets,
so of course they damage it a lot. But the condition of street are really good,
as they repair them constantly and change the asphalt after the parade. Waste
of money? Well……. but at least they have work for everyone and the parade was
great. Funny still, usually after army parade there is nothing, but in Minsk
after the army came tractors, buses, and other farm equipment, because they
have a factory there.
So how about the USSR time.
Do they still live in that period of time? Drive really old busses and cars,
drink vodka for breakfast and have Lenin on every corner? Well about Lenin.
They have at least one Lenin statue in every city in the country, but, you most
likely won’t find it. I saw one USSR flag in the city, it was at the top of the
new II World War museum and that is about it. There is nothing that would seem
like the past. Minsk is a great European type city. Clean, green, beautiful,
not overcrowded, and the prices are about the same we have here in Latvia. And
if you know Russian language, no problems at all. And I was even kind of disappointed, because
everyone told me I’m crazy to go there or it would be great for me to see the
past. And there is nothing of that. People have never been to this country but
still they think they know everything about it. Just go and see yourself. The
news lies.
I really liked it.
