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