Travelling in Belarus: Vitebsk

Photos:  Vitebsk - picasa

My primary aim is to focus on my Russian studies, but I’m a born traveller, so I cannot remain in one place for too long. I’m reached my “half-life” in Belarus (2 more months to go), so it was just about time to get out of Minsk and start exploring the rest of the country. I was warned beforehand that it may not be the easiest thing to buy a train ticket here, but in fact it is quite simple. The website is very easy to handle (available in English as well), you can buy your ticket online and then you can fetch your ticket at the train station (for that of course you need to have a command of Russian).

So, on Saturday (29th March) we woke up early and headed for the train station and departed to Vitebsk (RUS: Витебск). The journey takes around 4, 5 hours. This was my first time on these (for me) retro-looking and adorable trains. It was love at the first sight. You can transform the seats into beds and you can have a nice rest while you reach your destination.

Before boarding, you have to show your ticket and your documents for the conductor. There is one conductor per each cabin. He or she is the one who is responsible for the „well-being” of the cabin, thus it is better to approach them kindly. Each conductor has a leather case, where they keep the tickets (each bed/seat has its numbered case) and just before you have to get off, they give the ticket back to you. This way they can keep track of the people.

You can “rent” bedlinen for ~1 EUR, which you have to remove and give back at the end of you journey. I have one of my sleeping bags with me, so I didn’t take the opportunity to try them.

Opposite me a nice old lady sat on the train, with whom we had a nice chat. She was just very friendly and really flattered that we spoke in Russian.

We arrived to Vitebsk around 13.10. We then set out to explore the city.

 

Vitebsk is a small city in Eastern Belarus, with a population of ~ 360.000. According to a legend, Princess Olga of Kiev was so baffled by the beauty of the hill at the junction of the two rivers, Dvina and Vitba, that she ordered a city to be founded in that post. This town is today Vitebsk. Due to the popularity of the legend, 974 is the official year of foundation of the city.

Throughout history, Vitebsk has suffered great losses and damages due to different wars and battles (e.g. Northern Wars, WWII, etc.).

The city was annexed by Russia in 1772, which brought some improvements, but when Napoleon invaded the county in 1812, Vitebsk was in the line of the march to Moscow. The city was the scene of some bloody battles. Napoleon established his HQ in the Governor’s Palace. It can be visited today. It is where he held his 43^th birthday.

At the end of the 19^th century Vitebsk had a revival and became a city of arts and culture. Among others, Marc Chagall himself lived in Vitebsk for a while.

The World Wars brought just further deprivation. In both wars a military garrison was established at the city and there were some fierce fights. In WWII the Germans established a huge garrison and the locals were brutally repressed. The Red Army returned to reclaim the city and thus Vitebsk has seen one of the bloodiest of battles. Only 15 main buildings and 186 civilians survived.

Today Vitebsk is most known for being the cultural capital and each year the popular Slavianski Bazaar takes place there, a popular summer festival.

This one day was enough to see the main sites of the city. First we took a look at a huge monument (you will see on the pics), again a typical Soviet-style one. It commemorates all the heroes of the city. Next to the memorial we found a Soviet-style playground. There are many weapons of artillery on display, with tanks, helicopters and other vehicles. Children were playing all over them. One funny scene was, when 2 boys tried to start the propeller of one of the helicopters.

After this we walked around in the centre and what seemed to be the main street. We peeped in one of the enormous Orthodox churches. On the main, touristy street we found a nice, older man, who was selling all kinds of old relics. There were a tremendous amount of pins, old coins and banknotes. We were given many gifts and we purchased some interesting and unique pieces of history, e.g. Postcards, pins.

After lunch we just walked around. We went to Chagall Museum, then to the City Hall and saw the exhibition about WWII. It was quite interesting. Later, in the evening we found the house, where Marc Chagall lived. It was getting cold, so we returned to the train station and waited for our night train.

It was my first time ever on a night train. Couldn’t have been better. I felt like lying on a massage bed. Slowly I was shaken to sleep…

We were woken up at 5.30 AM. The train arrived around 6 at Minsk.

More adventures to follow!

Пока

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Source:

Nigel Roberts: Belaurs

March in Minsk + local life and view of life

March has arrived and went by. There were some warmer days with around 17-18 degrees outside, but here it is usually a quite chilly month with frosts. As of today (30/03/2014): it is about 6 degrees outside and if the predictions come true, we will welcome April with 5-7 Celsius in daytime and frosts in the nights. As usually, I got a bit of cold in this transitional weather, but it is getting better. The warmer weather has its advantages: I’m not freezing anymore in the study room.

I like observing people in general and I had plenty of time to do that here in the past 2 months. Especially, since the local people are rather different from what I am used to.

Though the locals earn a great deal less, than what is considered average in Hungary, let alone Western Europe, they have great liking for fashion, pretty dresses and high heels. Appearance is of the utmost importance.

Usually I get to university a bit early, thus it became my morning ritual to sit in the window and just watch people. The majority of the girls come to the university everyday dressed up with such pomp that just baffles me. I would never dress up like this, not even if going to e.g. the theatre.

The basic concept is to show as much as you can and wear as high high heels as possible. It is said, that what drives to local girls the most is to find a husband (and to leave the country in search of a better life). Note: I’m not making generalizations. It is what my observation and I share what strikes me as the most extreme.

Many girls dress up like this, because they go to different bars after lectures to get acquainted with men.

This is where you can see the cultural differences. I can accept why they do it, but I cannot always understand it. For example when they stare at me, because they think I’m not dressed well enough. Their looks are just sometimes annoying. We are frequently being stared at, if we speak in English, and just the other day I got despising looks from some girls, because I dared to wear my hiking boots (since we were walking around all day long in Vitebsk). Bloody hell. They can be nerve-racking as hell. Well, they like whores sometimes and I don’t care if they despise me. I shall proudly continue wearing all of my clothes.

It is hard not to be prejudicial and not to pass an angry look towards them in such times. Sometimes, I admit, I do not manage. For my eyes the way the girls dress here is most of the time outrageous, but I’m trying to keep my thoughts to myself. I just hope that they shall succeed in their pursuit of happiness.

When it comes to males, there are several groups I can define. First, the metrosexual look seems to be a fashion here as well. Thin men, skinny jeans, etc. We all know it.

Then, there are certain men (foreigners), who came here seeking a wife. Interesting indeed. Many of them come from Turkmenistan. Well, those who have some prior knowledge of the country and the current living circumstances shall not be surprised. In their pursuit of happiness, freedom and better life they ended up here.

Though I uttered it several times, this environment is the most interesting. One can learn so much.

What a pity I am not a sociologist. There is a great deal of material.

Armageddon, Haircuts, Белый Медведь, Christmas and so on…

In the last week I experienced a freefall in terms of motivation. In fact, I just felt that I had enough of the irritation I feel towards certain nations I’m surrounded by and of the fact that I couldn’t sleep well in the last few weeks. Plus on Monday I tried to do my laundry which turned out to be a disaster. I had to wash everything out again by hand. I’ll give it another try later on though. Moral lesson: don’t set unknown programmes on unknown washing machines!

It is good that it is for free. We can wash from 9-13 and 15-23 every day. You just have to be there 10-15 minutes prior to opening, otherwise you won’t get a machine/have to wait. And there are drying machines too. I don’t use them, because I brought a few meters of alpinist rope, so I dry everything in the room.

I managed to find the bright side of life again on Wednesday, when we went to the CS meeting again, which turned out to be the loveliest one so far. We were in a Georgian restaurant where the singer sang so unreasonably loud that we had to shout over our foods and beer (lovely one!). It was surreal!

My circle of acquaintances became bigger with some locals, an American, a French, a British and German. One can find so many great people in town! Incredible!

Another positive thing was on Wednesday that the Hungarian proofreader/teacher came to see me. She is very nice. I’ll visit her and her family.

We are working right now on visiting the Museum of Contemporary Belarusian Statehood (Музей современной белорусской государственности) which can be found in the building of the Presidential Office. I’m really looking forward to going there, but it is a bit circumstantial. First we have to go to the Natural History Museum, if I remember well, so that they could make a photocopy of our passports. I hope for the best. I’ve seen some pictures on their website. The museum sounds really promising. And the fact that it is in the building where Lukasenko works, just makes it even more interesting!

The weekend has arrived and with it the lovely sunny, spring weather went away. I’m writing this post on Sunday in the study room, and in the course of 10 minutes I’ve seen heavy snowfall, fierce wind and sunshine. Like Armageddon. I wouldn’t mind if the snow remained, but I doubt that it’ll happen.

Due to the rather bad weather I didn’t go anywhere this weekend. We watched together with Mélanie and Simon some Breaking Bad episode (new addiction) and turned Mélanie’s room into a hairdresser’s salon. It was definitely fun. We’ll continue today with another episode, during the course of which I plane to enjoy my delicious Belgian Peach Beer which is cooling in the fridge right now.

Now that I mentioned beers I must take a note of yet another discovery: Белый Медведь, that is, White Bear is a beer that I discovered and got to like here. It has a polar bear on the glass and is wheat beer.

I told you this already that I read a lot here (as well). Currently I’m reading the History of Terrorism which I found very interesting. This is a topic I’m absolutely absorbed in lately.

One last piece of info: I have watched Django Unchained on the weekend. It was the Russian version, which made it even better. I have to say that the Russian dubbing is good!

Merry Christmas! It’s snowing.

Пока!

Women’s Day

It is a peculiarity of this country that they take such celebrations quite seriously. Since I’m here, we had Valentine’s Day, Men’s Day and now, today, Woman’s Day.

Everybody knows Valentine’s Day, but maybe not the second one. We, for example, in Hungary, don’t have it (at least, as far as I am concerned). Here it is on the 23^rd of February. It used to be a day of the army, but they rethought the idea by making it the day of the men, whose duty is to protect their beloved ones. After all, that’s what our men do.

But today is Women’s Day. It is a nice thing, but I, personally, appreciate a fresh bundle of oregano or a pot of herb more than a flower.

Here they make a big deal out of it. Yesterday the florists were packed with packs of men. I had a lovely scene in front of me on my way to the university: three or four men came out of a florist and they were comparing and inspecting their bouquets whether they would do it or not. Adorable!

On the university I’ve seen most of the girls standing around with presents/flowers/teddy bears in their hands.

Though surprising it is, I like it. In addition, when such celebrations are coming up, they design and print special posters, which look rather old school for the foreign eye and make you feel like a time traveller.  Then you can find them in shop-windows, on the street, on the blackboard of the dormitory and so on.

We, foreigners, did not really participate in it, just drank some beers together with the Belgian girls and Simon, the German guy.

But this morning, while I was in the kitchen, preparing my breakfast, I got “involved”. The guard took one of his regular visits, checking for unwanted visitors and when he saw me, he wished all the best on this lovely day.

Happy Women’s Day, women! :)

Weekly doings, Facts & Observations

In the last one and half weeks no big event took place here, so that’s why I was silent. I’m officially here for over a month now. I celebrated with studying.

Since the last post we’ve been to 2 CouchSurfing meetings. They were as good as ever, I met many locals, Italians, and e.g. an Israeli and a Libyan guy as well.

On Sunday I took a walk in the huge park nearby the dormitory. The weather was gloomy, so I didn’t feel like taking photos, just a few random shot. I saw the Palace of Independence, about which I have to carry out a research, because it is a quite new bulding.

March arrived and with it the so called “Масленица” (Maclenicha), the local Carnival. It was held on the 1 March and it marked the beginning of spring. The locals always eat a considerable number of pancakes! In theory everyone should do so. Though I missed this opportunity, this weekend we’re going to make pancakes with Simon and Mélanie, make up for the things we’ve missed.

So, now you can read some observations and facts from the last month.

Observations:

• Understandably I make comparisons with the places where I’ve lived before. One similarity between Finns and Belarusians e.g. that both nations love ice cream! Anytime, anywhere! So am I! And it is great here. I frequently take advantage of this. ;)
  I always end up at the ride side of the world seemingly. :)


• The food is cheap. In the back of my self-made dictionary I note all of my expenses so that I could keep track of my money. I spent around 150 USD HUF for food this month (everything is included: water, groceries and everything that I had to buy at the beginning, e.g. washing powder & soap, knife, chopping board, etc.). I’m just sharing this piece of information so that you would have an idea about the local prices.
  
• The clothes are very expensive compared to the wages of the people. It is interesting, since Russians and Belarusians as well are crazy about fashion and famous brands, so I simply cannot imagine how they can buy clothes. Concerning taste though, I must say that some of them could improve it! But it is a feature that is existent in many countries though.
• On weekends people like walking in the parks: they’re stuffed with couples, who walk along the riverside. Older as well as younger ones. You can see some joggers as well, but it is still a bit cold, so in my opinion their number will increase as the weather improves.
•  The view of women doing their make-up on the street is completely normal.
  This is one thing that I would never do, so I always watch them with a smile on my face.
• One realization struck me: Although I didn’t consider myself addicted to Facebook and the Internet in general, here I had to realize that at home I spend way too much time on FB and on the Internet as well, without even realizing it. It is incredible! Perfect that I have this 4-month treatment (sort of) to get rid of this absolutely useless habit. I read a lot more and I can spare my time a lot better as well.
• If you ever start learning Russian, use only squared notebook.
• The coin has two sides. Though I love the international environment, the mass and the odour that it results in in the kitchen… is something I have no words for.
• The weather is getting better and better. However, one can only seldom see the sun.

Facts:

• Our teacher was on holiday for 2 weeks (she has a little daughter) and returned last week, thanks God! The classes are a lot faster and more interesting, because she speaks fast. Perfect! But one interesting thing is… I think I didn’t tell you this yet: we have a new student from China, and she has the strongest accent you can ever imagine. And combining that with the fact that we are studying here Russian… it is just IMPOSSIBLE to understand her. The replacement teacher could understand her well enough, but our usual teacher has not yet accustomed to it. It was hilarious today!
• I have alaways been aware of the fact, that we live in different countries, thus different nationalities have acces to different information. I know that e.g. China is a closed world as well, but it is quite shocking for me to see it for myself what it means actually. First I was just utterly shocked, and – I must admit – annoyed, but since then I’m just trying to be patient. We were talking about Europe in the class and one French-Italian woman was talking about Paris and the Chinese girl didn’t know what it was. The group was shocked. However, as I said, I’m trying to apply the appropriate behavior. Another advantage of such trips is that you simply must leave your comfort zone and come to learn to live with all the people. It is not at all easy.
• Last week somebody called the police that there is a bomb in the metro. Fortunately it turned out to be fake. But the metro was closed for a couple of hours.
  We mentioned an event that took place a few years back. A bomb was exploded at one of the metro stations and it resulted in the death of many people.
• In relation with the attacks, we discussed the subject of death penalty in class. It is still legal here. It is one of those controversial matters, about which you can argue endlessly. It is quite interesting in my opinion (the whole subject). It is even more interesting to discuss this matter, if you are surrounded by people from many nations.

I just have one more thing to add: I listen more and more to the local radio, “Radio Minsk”, 1. To listen to local music, 2. To listen to the broadcasters. The programmes are pretty good… it is only the broadcasting that is a bit annoying: it always hisses and crackles.

Whenever I online, I start reading about the situation in Ukraine. I hope that all of you follow the events, because it is very important to be up-to-date!

To finish the present flow of thoughts… in the last few days I felt a bit under the weather. Well, I felt terrible, but it’s mostly psychological I think. You don’t need big things though. You just have to find the things that you need in the right moment. I just started watching Julie & Julia, a cooking movie that I simply adore, because it is a lovely, real story and it records two women, who think (thought) in the same way about cooking as I do. It is just such a comfort and brings happiness into one’s life. All the spices, the smells and tastes. Hmm! It is one thing that I miss: to be in our kitchen and just to cook my soul out! J

I shed some tears I became so happy in an instant.

I hope everybody is fine out there! Have a lovely weekend!

Пока!