It's quite difficult to find time in between trains to write about what we're up to so it's going to be a bit staggered. Here's a bit of an update from Minsk, Belarus.
Minsk is an odd place. It still has more of the characteristics of a communist society than Russia itself. All the hotels are run by the government and the prices are set really high. The best option we found was quite nice if pricey. It was quite an upmarket hotel and they proudly announced that Bill Clinton had once stayed there. Beyond the marble hallway and the greek statues in reception there was also a gaudy casino attached to the building and a nightly strip show for the more discerning businessmen at 8pm every night. Perhaps this is what attracted Mr Clinton.
Minsk itself is a beautiful town. The architecture has a classical European feel to it. There are also a number of lovely Orthodox Christian churches. We fortunately arrived on Christmas day for the Orthodox church (7th Jan). This meant that everyone (including the omnipresent police) appeared to be in reasonably good spirits. People were ice skating in the central square and there was an amplified choir from the main church in town. It was -9 degrees here (eek!) and the river was so thickly frozen people were walking across it.
Photos of Minsk can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianwhitfield/sets/72157603712239207/
More to come. Have run out of time in the Internet cafe now...
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2 comments:
Hi Ian - the description that I heard of Belarus was that it is the last single party dictatorship left in Europe (maybe this was before recent events in Russia). So maybe it's not surprising that it's got quite a communist feel to it.
You're right I think. Lukashenko has been in power for 13 years and elections have been declared undemocratic by monitors. Only went to Minsk for a day on the way through to Russia so don't know a huge amount about Belarus. Have you been there? Although Belarus is a single party communist government it still has many western characteristics: swanky bars with western music and fashion shows on TV, big screens in public places advertising western banking products/coca cola/fashion brands etc..
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