Belarus--Wonder Why They Left the USSR


They Don't Tear Down Lenin Statues in Belarus

The visa on arrival system worked well. You are supposed to buy health insurance for all the days one spends in the country, but the immigration lady was nice enough to just accept our Medicare cards as proof of insurance and we passed quickly to the taxi booth where we were told there were no taxis for what’s close to an hour journey into the city. It seems incomprehensible why they placed the airport nearly 40 miles from town, out in the middle of nowhere, though we were later told that it’s near an important WWII victory site; still…….

As for the taxi, we just dashed outside and got lucky enough to find someone to take us into town. The going rate is $30 and that’s what we were charged for what turned out to be a fantastic trip with the driver pointing out dozens of monuments and giving us what was essentially a free tour of the city before we arrived at a lovely apartment just a few subway stops from the center. This particular place was on the top floor of a 25 story building and afforded brilliant views of the city. The bed was great and there was AC.

I’ll digress a bit here and hope I’m not repeating myself. Our accommodation of choice is AirBnb; generally way cheaper than a hotel, but most importantly a lot bigger with washers (dryers hardly exist in this part of the world….must be a bitch to dry clothes in the winter!), fridges, microwaves, etc. One very real problem is bed quality and that’s not helpful to our quickly-getting-ancient backs. Normally when I research AirBnbs at home, I look for good window coverings and quiet streets. At this point I’m focusing on photos showing bed thickness and then having it backed up by at least of couple of reviews. Up until 20 years ago, I could pretty much sleep on anything, but both Sharon and I have developed some lower back problems as a result of a couple of places with mediocre foam mattresses. While we’re certainly willing to pay more when necessary, an expensive place doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good mattress. The value point seems to be about $50, though we have gotten some really nice places for $40….and really shitty ones for $70. Last night I booked five nights in Sofia, Bulgaria with a super thick bed for $40/night.

OK, back to Belarus which might as well just go back and be part of the USSR. Most everything is in cyrillic which might as well be hieroglyphics and little English is spoken, except in touristy spots. People tend to be brusque, just like in Russia, and the WWII museum credits Russia with saving Belarus during WWII, with scant recognition of the Allied Forces. As I write this from Romania, Belarus has been our least favorite country thus far, but it had a great subway system, prices were dirt cheap, we stayed in a lovely penthouse apartment on the 25th floor of a building for next to nothing and it was a good walking city with cheap taxis when necessary. Highlights included a visit to the old Russian GUM department store (which is horribly behind the times in its offerings), checking out the apartment building where Lee Harvey Oswald lived for three years before his return to the US, the WWII museum (if only to see how slanted a view of a major event can be), and some great meals at Kuhmistr, near the center of town.  We spent a day visiting two palaces about 100km S of the capital, a bit of a chore since we pretty much had to figure it out ourselves and there weren't many English speaking folk out in the country.  The Radziwill Palace was fantastic; well restored with a lot of original furnishings  The Mir Castle a huge disappointment since the interiors were far from original.
Nice AirBnb with a View

Outside the Minsk Circus
The Lee Harvey Oswald Apartment.  It's the one with the balcony
The Fantastic Radziwell Estate
All in all,  Belarus was not a terrible place to spend a few days, however unfriendly many of the locals and how authoritarian the security forces are about minor transgressions like leaning on the wrong lampost or whatever.

The next morning we boarded our one hour flight to Kiev after experiencing some of the worst airport lounge food ever. At least the beer was good.

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