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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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