Thread: Travel Blog; CIS/ex-USSR countries (i.e. Russian speaking)

Yes! I saw it this earlier today, just before I was heading out. Too bad I didn't notice it earlier - it had been sitting there for 2 days without me noticing! Now I've already settled into a hotel.
I am considering all the options - was meaning to respond to you just now.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Probably another Waffen SS march.

What if they just ignore it this time? I think they can't calmly watch a parade of men in NKVD uniform either... for many reasons. And I can understand them.

if Belarussian has taken over in Belarus

IT HAS NOT. Russian is official language of Belorussia. Belorussian has a very limited use.

that was (at least technically) owned by the people only 20 years ago.

What do you mean?

Originally Posted by Marcus

IT HAS NOT. Russian is official language of Belorussia. Belorussian has a very limited use.

What do you mean?

Thanks for the info Marcus!
Well with my comment, I meant that 20 years ago - serious real estate here in Ukraine was owned by the state, right..? And the state is technically speaking just an extension of the people.... But tofay, the state is left with the things that nobody wanted... and a small clique of people own the property and capital that was worth having. While some decent old people in the country can hardly afford to buy food! I think it's sad. Ukraine is not my country, so none of this is my business, but I don't like to see decent people lose out to greedy gangster type business men. It's the regular people who have been nice to me here in Ukraine and those are the people who I sympathise with. Of course, in Kiev lots of people are doing very well as a new "middle class". But I saw some hard-hit areas from the train; where repairs and improvements are sorely needed. The money that some "oligarch" spends on a watch and a new car, could make a huge difference in these villages where many people don't seem to be able to afford even basic repairs to their houses. I don't mean to turn this "blog" into anything political though - that's just my view of the world, and I respect that others may have other points of view.

I'd like a good train story. I'm a bit of a Rail Fan (trainspotter). My Eastern European friends send me railroad photos and it's another part of the reason I'd like to visit.
The only trains near me take the trash off Cape Cod, a nice tourist train and my model trains.

Did you get to the Potemkin Steps in Odessa? My friend Odessa-Olga wants me to see them.

Train stories coming, and they are good. Thumbs up for trains in Ukraine!

I cannot recommend the Rus Hotel in Kiev highly enough. For the price you are paying you have a really nice experience.
The hotel is 3 star, but the breakfast buffee is 5 star! Something to the tastes of all European nationalities and some Asians too! Perfect croissants, etc, etc. And while having breakfast, listening to lovely live piano music (Chopin, Mozart, Russian melodies) by a talented pianist. Rooms do not have the generic boring hotel furnishings or layout, instead they have a clever unusual design. The hotel has done a tasteful renovation and kept the old furniture and designs where possible. Huge deep bathtubs, nice staff. Fast wifi, safe, central and good looking. This hotel was built in 1990. All this for 50 EUR a night, in a major capital city. Booking earlier, you'd probably get it cheaper. Some French people sitting near me at breakfast had the same opinion. Stay here if you visit Kiev!

Hanna, what places do you want to visit in Belarus?

Originally Posted by Dmitry Khomitchuk

Hanna, what places do you want to visit in Belarus?

I wanted to visit Gomel (I am there right now!), Minsk, Vitebsk and some of the nature reserves that Belarus has set up.

I also think Belarus might be a good place to take a course in Russian. Nice, safe environment, good value for money and Russian is the main language. So I am trying to find a suitable place for a course.

Dmitry, if you are in Belarus; perhaps you could recommend some nice places to visit?
I only know about what's in the guide book. I am particularly interested in history, ecological initiatives and things like folk art tradition and culture.

More on my experiences of Belarus later, but so far, big thumbs up. Gomel is very nice.
And my word, what a border check for entering Belarus!

I wanted to visit Gomel

You are quick!

good value for money

You chose the wright time again. Belorussian ruble has been devaluated (is there such a word?) recently.
There is one more advantage there: Belorussians speak slowly.

Entering BELARUS (as a non-CIS citizen) + bad luck with hotel
I almost thought I wouldn't get into Belarus while waiting for the extremely lengthy border check. I took the train from Kiev to Gomel.

For the border check; first they went through the train compartment with 2 different dogs. Then everyone had to identify their bags, and I had to open my small backpack, containing my laptop and some makeup (thankfully not my larger bag!).

Several officers came and investigated my passport. One officer spent well over 5 minutes, examining my particular passport. Checking every page in the passport (I don't have a lot of stamps, there is nothing to see...) checking all the laser marks, computerized information. At two different ocassions, he actually pulled out a magnifying glass and checked the construction of the passport.

While all this was happening I maintained an uninterested look and said nothing, but I was really quite blown away by the thoroughness and was wondering what was going on. It has NEVER happened to me before; usually they just take a look if it's you in the photo, scan the pass and that's it. I have no idea why my passport was so suspect.

The people sitting next to me on the train were Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian and Uzbek. (first time I meet an Uzbek person, I think - he was very nice and helped me with my bag). The processing of their passports took about a minute each, still quite thorough though.

I am not happy with my hotel in Gomel (too pretentious, expensive and they messed up my reservation, then gave me a smokers room that smells like an old ashtray). So I am changing tomorrow. This is allegedly the new chic hotel in town. I'll swap to the old "un-chic" hotel.

For hotels and some other things, Belarus has different tarriffs for local people, CIS citizens and everyone else. Rubbish, I think - that particular policy is straight from the USSR, only thing is; Belarus now has market economy (or mixed economy), so how can such policies be justified?

Actually, I am just irritated about this useless, smelly hotel room. I'll write more tomorrow. Gomel is very nice indeed, just not in a mood to write anything right now.

Originally Posted by Marcus

There is one more advantage there: Belorussians speak slowly.

Really? I mean, do they speak slower than the Russians? I've never really realized that...

Originally Posted by Hanna

While all this was happening I maintained an uninterested look and said nothing, but I was really quite blown away by the thoroughness and was wondering what was going on. It has NEVER happened to me before; usually they just take a look if it's you in the photo, scan the pass and that's it. I have no idea why my passport was so suspect.

I think they didn't like you were from the UK and spoke English overall.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Rockzmom - Move to Kiev! Extremely cool city for lots of different reasons. Fantastic buildings, nice parks - quality shopping, cheap shopping, good food, seems completely safe - and a ride on the metro is 10 cent USD. People are mostly friendly and cool...

No just kidding, but what is going on with your internet connection? Have you only got dial-up, not broadband? If that's supposed to be broadband, then you are being ripped off! There are quite a lot of things you can't do online, with such bad speeds.

Hanna, I must say first off... I have been enjoying your blog very much. Thank you for including all of us on your vacation!!!

I am also glad to read that you found your iron! That was an episode all it's own I learned traveling to El Salvador to only pack wash and wear items as everything is washed in the stone sinks and lined dry and many times there is no power so you can't iron. However, it is hard to find nice affordable garments these days that fit that bill.

I am also learning about SIM cards from you. Never knew about them before.

About my netspeed... hmmm. Well it is the cheapest you can get without being dialup, so I guess it is basically the "new" dialup. Maybe soon I can afford faster. I heard the other day that many people in the US are giving up cable TV (and their TVs, less homes have TVs than last year) and just getting faster, better, stronger Internet and using that for everything. Watching their TV via Hulu and movies online via NetFlicks or whatever. This way they are saving the cost of the cable bill. Maybe we will go that way too.

Lampada.... thanks.. I don't feel sooooo bad now!

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I think they didn't like you were from the UK and spoke English overall.

Eric: So there aren't many tourists in Belarus from the west? What would they think of a Chinese-looking person carrying an U.S. passport? What if I try to speak Russian to them? Will that make things better, or worse?

If you can go to the western part of the country visit Brest and Grodno. Brest is the place where Great Patriotic War began, Brest Hero Fortress is a sacred place of all Soviet Union. Also you can visit trains museum and museum of saved values (cultural values confiscated from illegal transporters). Grodno is the most medieval city of Belarus.

I know that you want to see military parade on 9 May. But I don't know if it is a good idea. There will be huge crowd of people and security measures. We had a bomb blow in underground in April so I think security measures will be increased.

You can see "Stalin's line" historical complex of WWII, renovated part of Minsk fortified region.

Border control. Sorry but I think they just never or rarely saw UK passport, you should know that there are no border between Russia and Belarus, and border guard catches many illegal people with fake passports (even I saw passport of the citizen of the world ) every day. Belarus is filter, we are getting grants from European Union for border guard, so forgive them.

Ann, problems can be because you are citizen of USA, because we have political war with USA, USA embassy is closed, and our embassy is closed in USA, money in USA banks are arrested.

But I think you should try.

About our hotels I can say nothing, sorry, I had never used it.

Now I live in Minsk, but maybe I will go to the Brest on holidays, so if you need some help just ask. But my English is bad and pronunciation is awful

Originally Posted by Dmitry Khomitchuk

Ann, problems can be because you are citizen of USA, because we have political war with USA, USA embassy is closed, and our embassy is closed in USA, money in USA banks are arrested.

But I think you should try.

Really? That's a shame, about political war..In fact, that's not strong enough. Instead I'll say: that sucks! (At least for us s-sha citizens)

I think it's disappointing that my country is in so many tiffs with various forces that citizens can't even keep track of them all.

Or maybe they can, but just not me.. .=)

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I think they didn't like you were from the UK and spoke English overall.

I am not from the UK! I just lived there for a while. My nationality is Swedish and I have a Swedish European Union passport.

And I did not speak English with this meticulous border guard. I did not say anything at all to him, and neither did any of the other passengers. During this entire train journey, I did not utter a word in any language other than Russian!

Upon further thought - I think he probably simply doesn't see Swedish passports a lot (since he works a train border check point, with Ukraine). Probably he was just interested in the construction etc (after all, that's his job). Mine is one of the new style, very high-tech [USA-entry approved] passports. He checked every feature of that carefully.
I bet if I had crossed on the land-border with Lithuania or flew in, they see Swedish passports there on a regular basis, and it would probably not be very interesting. As a comparison, I travelled to Leningrad from Helsinki, by train, in 1989 to a choir festival (with my choir). That border check was less thorough than the one yesterday between Ukraine and Belarus!

Sweden is not even in NATO and has not been involved in any rhetoric etc against Belarus. But we are not a big country and I doubt anyone cares what we say or do.

There is a lot of interest in increasing ties with Belarus, because it's geographically relatively close to Sweden. Also Sweden is VERY big on social justice, and a lot of people sympathise with the idea that Belarus does not have as big economic differences as Russia etc. There are also some Swedish blogs by people who support the anti-Lukashenko movement in Belarus because they think that he is too brutal against the opposition. I don't know what the truth in this matter is - that is the Belarussians problem, not mine.) Condolezza Rice said that Belarus is an "outpost of tyranny". That is a totally ridiculous statement and it is clearly completely untrue.

Originally Posted by kidkboom

I think it's disappointing that my country is in so many tiffs with various forces that citizens can't even keep track of them all.

I think you are right to feel that way. For the most part the US foreign policy serves the interest of US corporations like banks and multinationals. I don't think it represents what American people would really want, if they were well-informed. And it's easy for them to get away with it, when you have practically no non-commercial TV or newspapers, and the school system does not teach geography and other skills needed to stay informed.

Belarus is not completely open for economic investment/exploitation - I think that's the main thing that the USA doesn't like. The USA has supported many, many horrible dictators who are a lot more brutal and un-democratic than Lukashenko, because they supported an agenda that suited US commercial or military interests.

Whether Lukashenko is a good leader for the country or not and how democratic he is or isn't -- and whether that is a problem or not, is for Belarussians to say, not me.

GOMEL, BELARUS

First impressions:

This is a really nice town. It has about 500,000 inhabitants and is situated in South Eastern Belarus (sadly, not far from the Chernobyl evacuation area).

It has plenty of new and old buildings in much better repair than I saw in most of Ukraine and Moldova. It has mostly new trolleybuses but I haven't seen any trams and there is no metro (not needed). The old trolleybuses are well maintained.
Many of the buildings are "standard style" Northern European" 19th century buildings, again in a good state.

People are friendly and I was approached several times as I was checking my map, by people asking "What are you looking for, can I help?"

The situation with money here, is a bit confusing if you are a foreigner. The denominations are extremely high - a small thing may cost 25,000 rubel. There are no coins.
I am struggling to hear the numbers because they are high, and people speak fast.
Also, the whole wallet is packed with bills/notes of various denominations.
Several times when paying for things, rather than holding up a queue, I just held out my wallet and they picked the bills they needed. (These were women, honest looking - I trust them).

The town is completely clean, and completely safe. There is no graffiti, no thugs, no obvious beggars.

The level of commercialism is a very convenient balance, I think. It very much reminds me of how things were in Sweden, in my childhood. There are no neon signs, large tacky ads or other in-your-face advertising. But at the same time, there are plenty of shops with good availability of all kinds of goods.

Because the vegetation/nature, and the style of buildings is so similar to Sweden, people are relatively fair, everything is clean etc, it really feels home-like - but more like how things were in the 1980s, than now.. However, of course, there are modern cars, modern goods, etc - just talking about the overall feel.

Immediately outside my hotel is a very large and very well kept public park where tulips and violets were in bloom. I strolled through it and saw a large museum (did not see what for) and one of those Soviet-style mini-amusement park area with lots of rides that would interest a child. Lots of families and teens were there. The park was several square kilometre and really impressed me - I love parks and this was a fine specimen.

I exited the park at a church, where very loud chanting could be heard. I peeked in (as a woman, one should cover ones hair in orthodox churches - this is quite a serious requirement). There was a service on - everybody was standing up and chanting BEAUTIFULLY. Lots of people passing the church were crossing themselves; I think people in general in this area must be quite religious. If like me, you are used to Lutheran/Protestant churches, you will be blown away by the beauty and exoticness of orthodox churches.

There is a long and completely straight road running across town, called Sovietskaia. This street had been decorated with flags in many colours and some banners about Victory Day. Along this street are lots of food shops, bakeries, clothes shops and a few restaurants.

There is also a large circus on the Sovietskaia, which had a show on when I passed. Sounded really great, I might go!

Another venue had an opera on - sounded like "Figaro" I think - might go see that too!

I had dinner at a rather interesting place called Maxi or something like that. It was like fast food place for Russian-style food! You could choose from hundreds of dishes and say how many gram you wanted of each. They also had a patisserie attached, for dessert. Never seen such a place before but I liked the concept a lot.

I know there are some historical sights, castles etc in this area.
But for some reason the guide book does not mention it. I don't know how to find out more.

All and all, first impression of Belarus, very good!