Belarus - Back in Minsk for a final night

27th - 28th June 2017

 

Ten nights in and although it spelled the end of our trip to Belarus we were looking forward to going back to Minsk as we were meeting up with a couple of local lads we met earlier in the trip.



Our drinking buddies for the last night



They promised us a good send of, even setting up a Facebook group for our night out.

Before all of that, we had time to have a further look around the enormous city. We based ourselves back at the Hotel Belarus again, although now all the Powerlifters had departed allowing for breakfast in peace.

It was Independence Day a few days later, although we were a bit gutted to miss out on this, we did see some of the rehearsals where they closed one of the main 8 lane roads.



The Stork, the national symbol of Belarus (Hotel Belarus in background)



A quick bit of souvenir shopping, and a few repeat visits to squares which were colourfully decorated for Independence Day. 



A bit of colour in preparation for Independence Day



We had a coffee in the aptly named Grand Cafe. All the waiters were in evening suits and we were bracing ourselves for a mega hit on the bill, but the drinks didn't hammer the bank account severely.



Grand Café, Minsk



We thought the "Minsk Alco Rush" as our mates named it was going to be a heavy one so we decided to get a decent meal in preparation.

Meeting the lads in our favourite bar "BeerCap" we soon moved on with the lads determined to show us a good night, despite them both having work the next day.

They took us to a homemade vodka shots bar and foolishly we let them order us one of everyone of the 11 shots. Those boys took it a tiny bit easier.



All good nights out should start like this



Once the vodkas were polished off, the crawl begin in earnest. A few nice bars followed. It was getting late so decided on a cocktail nightclub in a swish bar. Once that was sunk everyone had the taste for it, and they finished both us and the night off with drinks in a beach bar.



Cocktail Hour



They plumped for "Zombies" all round, which was best part of a pint of shots topped with lime and coke. Never has a drink been more aptly named, as Zombie perfectly described me and my mate the morning after. Goodness knows how those lads managed to get to work the next day.

The Zombies were kicking in

So that was it from our trip to Belarus. Was it worth it? Definitely! You can get visa few access (for many countries) for a max 5 days and for those that don't have it on their travel CV I can thoroughly recommend. For me I was glad we sorted out a longer visa as it took us to some great places and met some fabulous people. Just brace yourself for a few weeks of detox if you, like us, get drinking with the locals.

 

We flew by Lufthansa changing in Germany and our Itinerary was:

 

3 Nights in Minsk (Minsk Blog)

2 Nights in Vitebsk (Vitebsk blog)

1 Night on the overnight train to Brest

2 Nights in Brest (Brest Blog)

2 Nights in Nesvizh (Nesvizh Blog)

1 final night back in Minsk




 

Belarus - Castles and mixing it with the locals

25th - 27th June 2017

Day 1 - Nesvizh Castle

They say an Englishman's home is his Castle, well Nesvizh Castle was to be my home for a couple of nights. Got to say over the years I've stayed in worse places.

Nesvizh Castle, hotel for a couple of nights

We were nearing the end of our trip to Belarus, and these two days were supposed to be our relax and recuperate days, staying in the UNESCO heritage site. It was really nice and relaxing, but even in near empty bars we met locals and ended up partying with them.

Looks even better without me in the way

After days of mixed weather the sun came out, allowing us to make the most of the great views we had in the castle grounds. Inside the castle they were putting the finishing touches to a huge stage where the opera was to be held that evening. We watched 10 minutes of the rehearsal which was probably enough for us boys.

Budding photographer in action

More our scene outside the castle walls in the park was a stage where local performers sang and danced. It was kind of Belarus got talent. Importantly there was a beer tent attached.

Selfie with 'Belarus Got Talent' in Traditional Fatigues

It was a Sunday afternoon, and the place was busy with local weekend daytrippers.

On the 'Bobpob' from the beer tent

The castle has a lovely dining room which is the hotel restaurant. It is up a couple of flights of stairs which meant we had a great view of the opera from the window. Sadly though so did the plentiful staff, 30 minutes later and 3 or 4 requests for a menu we gave up. We went outside the castle grounds to a cafe/restaurant.

Opera in full swing from the Castle Restaurant

The girl working there (Yulia) could speak perfect English, in fact she was the local English teacher by day.

Only a couple of the outside tables were populated but between them groups of about 8 they made more than enough atmosphere.  It was a birthday party and they had bottles of whiskey, vodka, brandy and wine in addition to the banquet of food on the table. They had clearly been supping for a while. One of them had a guitar and keep singing songs and handing out free shots to us.

Party well ad truly started

Once again a potential quiet night was sabotaged by Belarusian hospitality. It was quite late (or early) when we got back to the castle. Having to negotiate a portcullis after a night on the pop was a new one on me.

Day 2 - Mir Castle

Another day another castle. This time it was Mir Castle. A chap in our castle who could speak reasonable English had arranged for his girlfriend to take us on a day trip to Mir. Although she couldn't speak English, she looked the part and she knew how to handle the Subaru Impretza.

Day trip to Mir Castle

Mir Castle was set in lovely grounds with a lake in front which gave off great reflections of the Castle. As I often find, I prefer castles from the outside, rather than the castle rooms.

Impressive interior rooms

There was a rabbit warren like run of corridors within the castle walls each leading to good views outside the castle or views of the courtyard.

Decent views from within the Castle Walls

Mir Castle Courtyard

We met at the agreed meeting point (a restaurant over the road). Our drivers boyfriend had turned up! We were introduced to the owner of the restaurant and the castle, and were presented with complimentary fruits and beer.

Love a reflection from Mir Castle

Back in Nesvizh we utilised the free ticket (from our hotel booking) to have a look around our castle rooms, we were both a bit 'castled out' and powerticked our way through some lovely rooms.

Castle #2 of the day Nesvizh

Nesvizh Castle games room

So it was a Monday night, we had had some heavy nights in Belarus, surely this would be a quiet night, especially as we had the "Minsk alcohol rush" lined up with our mates the next evening.

We went back to the place we ended up the night before, this time we were the only customers so Yulia joined us. She phoned her mate Dianka up who came down and also sat with us. We had hours chatting about our trip, life in Belarus and travel in general. The only work Yulia did that night was to get more beer out of the fridge every 30 mins or so.

Same Bar - different beer (easy to pronounce this one

At closing time Yulia phoned her boyfriend to come and get us and take us somewhere else which was busy. A couple of minutes later we all squeezed into a 1980s Mercedes of a bloke we hadn't even met.

Not such a quiet night - but a good one

He did indeed know somewhere busy for more late night drinks. I felt a bit sorry for the bloke as he was working again in 4 hours.


Day 3 Castle in the morning

Getting up early offered us the Castle virtually to ourselves, a quick wander around, taking a few repeat photos and it was time to move on back to Minsk for our last night.  Our mate who had organised our day trip had booked us on the minibus to back to the capital city.

Saying goodbye to our castle hotel

Not many tourists early in the morning

So we just had time to get back to our favourite bar where we were now regulars for a coffee and get some advice on what vodka we should take home.

Horseradish, Raspberry and many more vodkas to choose from

The last Belarus blog we contain the "Minsk Alco Rush" which we set up with a couple of local lads earlier on the trip

Western Belarus - Brest is Best

After the overnight train from the Russian border of Belarus, Vitebsk we had a two full days to explore the Western City of Brest near the Polish border.

Courage Monument at Brest Fort

The night on board the train was at best sleepless. It wasn't anything to do with the comfort as it was ok, it was just one of those nights you get no sleep.  I spent most of it outside our 4 berth sleeping cabin watching the world whizz by out the window. At about £8 the train ride was a bargain. 

Belarusian Railway Museum

We were hit with rain again, so we spent the day in the coffee shops of Brest high street, dodging the rain and staying awake. We didn't last long, so we went back to our appartment and caught up on some much needed sleep.

Our two nights were Friday and Saturday so going out on the town was a must. Which day were we going to take it easy on this holiday?

We did most of the bars on Brest high Street (including the mini casino bar) and followed it up with a club full of youngsters. A decent night out, relatively steady away.

Day 2

Brest fortress was the reason why we ended up in Belarus. A few years ago we were in Albania travelling with the Bradt travel guide and my mate saw an advert for the Belarus edition. On the cover was a giant statue and my mate was desperate to see this.

The front cover of the book that inspired our trip

On our way to the Fort we came across the Belarusian railway museum. We had a look in and were treated to dozens of Soviet steam trains parked up.

One of the many steam trains at the railway museum

We were told it was a special day at the fort with milatary parades. Whilst looking at the trains we could hear the parade and gun fire and we couldn't wait to see what was going on.

The entrance to the fort was very impressive, you had to walk through a giant Soviet star etched into a huge concrete block.  As you went through the Star, old radio clips were playing informing visitors (in Russian) of the German invasion.

Fortress Entrance

We could hear the parade in full swing but sadly it was the finale and by the time we got inside it was just ending. A bit of a disappointment, but the crowds quickly dispersed leaving us with plenty of space to wander around.

Once you have navigated past the series of military hardware (tanks etc.) the very impressive and moving statue named "Thirst" depicting an injured soldier in a quest for water, is the first thing that grabs you.

Thirst Monument

Then it was onto the main statue the Courage Monument. It was huge standing an impressive 33.5m high

The Courage Monument

Around the fort there are plenty of other monuments.

Brest Fortress

The main building inside the fort was riddled with bullet holes.

War damage

Brest fortress was a great attraction quite easily walkable from town, there is an hourly bus if you want to save your legs.

We followed this up with a walk back into the town.  Walking past the football ground we saw we had only just missed a home game, which would have been a good one to get in.

We took a walk through the town taking in some of the many other statues and churches.  It is a nice city.

Our tour ended up at the very impressive train station.  Surprisingly due to the alcohol ban on Belarus trains (see previous blog) there was a very plush station bar, where supped a nice beer and had some local snacks.

Brest Railway Station

No rest for the wicked it was the long walk back to our hotel, a quick shower and change and back on the streets on Brest for a Saturday night on the town.

We had been talking to a guy earlier that day who worked at one of the bar/restaurants.  He was thoroughly made up when he saw us coming in to eat.

This was my evening meal which turned out to be better drinking food than it looked

We had our favourite bar in Brest, Bar Pub (or something like that) it was called.  We liked it because the girls behind the bar treated us like some sort of celebrities. 

The next leg of the journey was he next day when we were heading West to Nesvizh Castle for a few days.  All the research we had done didn't seem like it was possible to sort on public transport.  We had a train booked to a place some 40km away called Baranavicy, however we had no idea how to compete the journey.

We were just discussing this over a beer in Bar Pub, when a local chap (Andrei) started to chat to us. As happens when you are travelling everything just seemed to fall into place.  Andrei was a top bloke and when we asked what he did for a profession we found he and his mates had written an Uber style App which covered the whole of the country.  Andrei fixed us up with a taxi at a very reasonable local price which met us from the train and took us direct to Nesvizh.  He sent us photos of the car and the driver which made the meet up easy. If you are ever stuck in Belarus PROTAXI.br will help you out.

Andrei and his mates

Later Andrei invited us to join him and his mates to Coyote club, where we had a VIP spot overlooking the dancefloor.  One of his mates bizarrely was a Luton Town fan, who was desperate to talk to us about Football Hooliganism in the UK.

Andrei's mate the Luton Town fan

We had a few beers, paid our way and made it back to our hotel as we had an early train the next morning.

Mixing it with the locals

The taxi Andrei arranged for us was easy to spot, it was the only taxi in the station car park, if we hadn't arranged this, it could have been difficult to sort onward travel as it was definitely not a tourist town.

Next up our time staying in Nesvizh Castle and a day trip to Mir castle

Eastern Belarus - Vitebsk and Polotsk

Feeling a little jaded from our boozy stay in Minsk we caught a Marshrutka (privately owned minibus) to the East of Belarus to a place called Vitebsk by the Russian border.  The Uber driver that took us all the way out to the bus park for less than a couple of quid was sound, he even came running after us when he found he had dropped us by the wrong set of minibuses.

We were to stay in Vitebsk for two nights, giving us almost three full days to explore the area as we were leaving on the late overnight train. The plan was day one to have a little wonder around the town. Day two a day trip to Polotsk and finally the third day to explore the city of Vitebsk in more detail.

Vitebsk

We were stopping quite close to the train station, but not that close to the town centre in a hotel called Zolotoy Telenok, which was an old style tower block with a few rooms above a bowling alley.  It looked as though they had hardly had any tourists let alone people from the UK staying there ever. Check in with our Visa and associated documents took quite a while.  Each place you visit you must get your departure card stamped and registered with the police.

It was immediately obvious that the town of Vitebsk was not as affluent as Minsk.  The weather was quite moody with some menacing looking black clouds hanging over us as we took in the city.  We were literally just having a wonder around rather then proper sight-seeing which we were to do on the third day in the area.

One of the Churches as the weather started to turn

The weather was still hit and miss after lunch so we decided to have a few pints. The first place we went into was the Belarusian equivalent to Wetherspoons.  It was ultra cheap and had a mix of strange characters.  A few lads who had been out all day sat with us at the table and spoke to us in Russian for a good 20 minutes.  They were getting frustrated that we had no idea what they were saying.

One of the harder beers to order

We decided on taking an early evening meal and went to the number one place on Trip Adviser, Vitebsky Traktir.  It really was top quality food and didn't disappoint. Whilst we were eating the heavens well and truly opened up and the downpour that followed was quite brutal.

I had mixed meat and veg

My mate had something else!

Once the rain had eased, we found another bar, this seemed to be the same chain as the 'Wetherspoons' bar we were in earlier but was posher with better clientele, we called this one Lloyds Bar.

A group of girls came in and sat on the next table to us, they were celebrating a birthday.  When I went to the bar I thought I'd get them a bottle of Belarusian Champagne.  That went down a treat, they were well happy with that, and so was I, as it only cost £2.




Belarussian Champagne

One bottle of champagne later

Day trip to Polotsk

My mate had managed to book trains on-line before we left for Belarus, so that was one language problem we didn't have to negotiate. Local trains are ultra cheap in Belarus and a good way of seeing the country.

Polotsk, just like Vitebsk was not as affluent as Minsk, but it had lots of old buildings, churches and statues to fill in the day time. As we wandered the city a young student came over to us and in perfect English tried to be our guide for the day.  We weren't really in the mood for a full-on day so we had a chat with the guy and did our own thing.

One of the many statues in the city

We had a walk along the river taking in some nice old buildings until we came across Saint Sofia Cathedral, perched on a hill.  We tried to get in and have a look around, but for some reason we weren't allowed in for 30 mins.  When we got back there was quite a queue waiting to look around, once inside it was neither worth the entrance fee or the wait but was quite nice (I'd say 3 stars). 

Saint Sofia Cathedral

We continued the Bradt Guide walking tour meticulously however as we were doing so there were some menacing clouds developing again.

A quick lunch stop by the football ground, encountered very little English written or spoken, but eventually we got fed, very pleasant it was too.

The main square in Polotsk

Here like everywhere we had visited in Belarus had beautifully, kept flower beds all around the city.  I'm not one to notice such things so they must have been nice.

Flower beds by the main square

Our train back was quite late in the evening so we had a couple of beers in the town.  We had one guy come and sit with us, hardly speaking any English and drawing of maps he 'chatted' to us for ages.  At one point he tried to give me his ring, necklace and watch.  Not sure what was going on there, but I managed to escape the pub without any of his jewelry.

We got a couple of beers for the train back, however just as I was posing for the obligatory beer train shot, the guard came in and gave us the hard word.  It seems alcohol is banned from trains in Belarus, a fact we confirmed when we got back to Vitetbsk.

This drinking shot almost got us in trouble

A quick nightcap in the bowling alley below our hotel and it was an early night.

Vitebsk before the night train.

Day three of our Eastern Belarus adventure was our sightseeing day.  We had planned the overnight train to Brest.  There were two to choose from one around 6pm the other around 10pm.  We had booked the early one with the idea of having a few pints on-board to help us sleep on the train.  That plan was scuppered by the alcohol ban, and trust me, Belarus isn't somewhere you want to brake the rules.

Whilst the receptionist in our hotel couldn't speak any English, we did have a few conversations using google translate, with varying degrees of success.  When leaving the hotel on the morning we asking if they could store our bags until 5pm.  She spoke into our google translate app, and what came written on the screen was "You want to leave your bags here for 5 years!". Once she understood it wasn't a problem.

Victory Square is the largest (of some very large) squares in Belarus.  It was nice to send time with Statue's, flowers and heavy war artillery (lots of it).  I particularly like the "Three Bayonets" memorial which rose high above one end of the square.  The statue was a tribute to the inhabitants of Vitebsk in the fight against Nazi invaders.

Three Bayonets

Artistically done

One of the many helicopters in and around the square

Tanks, tanks and more tanks

Statues flanking Victory Square

Continuing our walk we passed by many more churches, monuments and we even spent time in the art gallery found at Marc Chagall's former home. It really is a good city. The weather was starting to turn (again)

Dark clouds form over Vitebsk Catherdral

As we had predicted the bad weather did kick in, so we dived into the Theater/Opera Bar which was a restaurant by day and a nightclub by night.  Bit strange having a meal on the dance floor surrounded by pole dancing poles and a DJ booth.

When we got in I went straight to the toilet on returning my mate said "don't worry I've got it sorted they are coming over with menus".  10 minutes later, we still had no menu, and just as we were about to leave, trays and trays of food came to our table.  My mates Russian wasn't the best, but it seemed he had ordered a 3 course special for both of us.  Cracking value at about £2 each.

The weather got out again and we stopped by a few final churches, the wooden church of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky was particularly pleasant.

St. Prince Alexander Nevsky Church

With time marching on, we fancied a couple of beers before boarding the alcohol free train. Beer in Belarus is good, but all of them are hard to pronounce, the letters on the bottles had no relevance to the name of them.

On the Bobpob as I called it (the real name was significantly different)

The sun just popped out long enough for one last picture of a church before we got to the train station for the over-nighter to Brest.