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26 January 2011
The Capital
Minsk is a bigger city than we were expecting. We're not exactly sure why we thought the industrial, cultural, economic and administrative capital of Belarus would be anything other than big. Unfortunately, after being in Saint Petersburg for two weeks and then experiencing small town Belarus for nearly a week, we were less than excited about being thrust into a metropolis again so soon. Quaintness isn't really Minsk's thing, but there's an attractiveness to its bizarre severity.
For a city 80% destroyed during World War II, it has an overwhelming sense of history. Stalinist architecture towers over the streets, which are peppered with busts of Lenin and black marble memorials to fallen Belarusians. The country's history has seen a lot of death and the monuments erected don't try to sugar coat it. This one was in honor of countrymen who died in the Afghan War. The women in the statues are wailing with grief, eyes and mouths agape horrifically. There's also a Jewish Memorial in the city, that we never got a chance to see, which is comprised of statues, arms raised and faces emoting, lined up for the firing squad.
There are three easy ways to see the human side to any city, though, no matter how inaccessible or imposing it may seem. The first, is to do laundry. The laundromat Tatyana dropped us off at happened to be located within the big outdoor market. It seemed to be patronized by cleaning women doing large loads of bedding. We were probably the strangest walk-ins they've ever had.
The second is to go to the flea market, which our laundromat happened to be located right inside of. We grabbed two pork-fat filled mushroom barley soups and successfully convinced the man behind the counter that we didn't need any pizza. Then, I bought some toiletries from one of the little windows above. As overwhelming as they seem at first, it really is nice to just be able to point at what you want.
The third way to find the charm just about anywhere with a church is to take a stroll early Sunday morning. Minsk happens to have quite a few churches, mostly Russian Orthodox, and the day was just snowless enough to make walking around and people watching not only possible, but pleasant.
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Castle Hunting: Mirsky Zamak
As you can see, it is a fairy-tale building in a tiny town of little, wooden houses (and little, wooden outhouses). It is perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in Belarus, though we saw no tourists. It is more of an attraction in theory - as in, "if tourists were attracted to Belarus, it would surely be thanks, in part, to Mir."
The castle itself was originally built at the end of the 15th century, but has been expanded twice - once during the Belarusian Renaissance and again in a more baroque style in the 18th century. It has also been damaged in many wars, most notably during the Napoleonic wars and during WWII, when it housed a garrison of soviet troops and was subsequently bombed. It has been painstakingly renovated, and it looks amazing. The building houses a restaurant and nearly-completed hotel, so it is not all that "authentic" inside, though the courtyard is nice enough.
We may be passing back through Mir on our way to Brest, so, if the weather is nice, I may get another shot at it. For now, though, these pictures will have to do. I like the way they came out, even if I probably won't use any of them.
25 January 2011
Belarusian Tractors
Minsk Groceries
Our rental apartment in Minsk was conveniently situated above one of the most impressive supermarkets we've seen yet. Like most places in Belarus, it seemed overstaffed and under-lit, but there are far worse things in life than too many attendants and a lack of fluorescent lighting. Around the entire perimeter of the fairly large space were manned counters. Imported candy and hard alcohol were first, followed by cheese, smoked meats, prepared salads, prepared meals, baked goods, bulk candy, dairy, raw meat, raw fish, smoked fish and, finally, eggs - where an attendant would count out and weight the amount of eggs you wanted and then hand them over in just a plastic bag. I actually was planning on getting eggs (we had a stove) but the idea of getting them home safely sans carton was too frightening.
I waited on line to have the broccoli I picked out weighed and bagged, while Merlin waited on line to procure some blue cheese and gin. Not only was it prime grocery shopping time, but it was a little difficult to figure out which counters necessitated payment right then and there (imported cheese and booze) and which didn't (produce). So, we decided to skip the queues and get the rest of our lunch from the central 'pre-packed' section of the store. We trudged home in the snow with the above feast.
Merlin picked out this container that we dubbed "fish paste." There were other ones that looked the same, but were pink or green, and we assumed that it was some sort of caviar pate. Merlin had already chosen a chunk of deep, deep red smoked meat and I grabbed a packet of imitation crab meat, so we had protein back up plans. All that was left were crackers.
It was hard to tell what sort of cracker was in what sort of box, so I went with the ones I thought were prettiest. The picture on the back showed thin, golden strips which reminded me of Lavasch. When we got home and hungrily opened the box (grocery shopping makes you hunger no matter what country you're in), a dainty, little napkin fell out. The adorable packaging continues! Then, we realized why we may need the napkin. The 'crackers' were actually long potato "wafers" - terminology we decided upon in order to subside our guilty/gross feelings about a meal of cheese spread on potato chips.
And this was the star of the show. The fish paste. At first, we worried that the separated liquid signaled some kind of spoilage, but Merlin was cavalier enough to dig in anyway. It was really, really delicious and went amazingly well with the potato wafers - though spreading it on without breakage was tricky. Every combination that involved the paste was amazing - paste with blue cheese, paste with smoked meat, paste garlicky carrot salad or mayonnaisey beet salad. That's really the best part of having a great market at your disposal. Sure, it's great to get the foreign things you've been craving (soba noodles, over-priced sesame chili oil), but it's really all about discovering that sort of gross thing that resembles cat food and tastes like heaven. It's really nice to be able to make your own drinks, too.
22 January 2011
Water We To Do?
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We've tried a number of different Belarusian bottled water. Some have been okay, others have had a salty taste to them. One night, we accidentally purchased the Medical and Table water again. The Russian language side of the label was facing outward and we just didn't put two and two together. It was fairly tragic.
Inauguration Day
Yesterday was inauguration day in Belarus. We're not going to say too much about it, because we don't want to have any problems with the authorities. The above picture is the view from our apartment, looking out over central Minsk. One block up and to the left is the square and the Palace of the Republic, where the ceremony took place.
We took a little video of the television screen tonight, which was rebroadcasting the event on three of the four state-controlled channels.
We were out most of the day, so we didn't get a chance to see what the crowd was like at the square, but the state was bussing in scores of people from the countryside to watch, so it must have been quite crowded. Our landlady, Tatyana, was driving us around less central parts of the city, trying to get us registered with the government. It was a complicated process involving a special bank office, an insurance office and the police station where our immigration cards were actually stamped. It took a while, but we got a good tour of the outer city. Our host deserves all of our gratitude, because we absolutely could not have accomplished this by ourselves - there were too many steps, too many lines to choose from, too much information that we had no access to.
This morning, we are sitting in a cafe that abuts the Square of the Republic, and where our computers have a good wi-fi connection from the hulking Beltelekom building across the way. The building where Alexander Lukashenko began his fourth term is right here next to us. Lukashenko has been the only president elected to the position since presidential elections were first held in 1994. Obviously, I'm going to say that he is a wonderful man - here is his wikipedia page.
Why Don't They Have This in America?
Drive-By Art
This is another tavern, next to a gas station. So much care seems to be taken to make things looks cheerful. No matter how many places like this we pass, they still strike me as surprising, heartwarming and sort of funny every time.
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Khatyn
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18 January 2011
Polotsk, The Most Belarusian City
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The Belarusian Border
Note: Obviously, we neither could nor wanted to take pictures of the actual border crossing process. So, instead, we've decided to break up the following text with photos of bus stops spotted along the post-border Belarusian road.
The woman in the insurance hut was equally bewildered by our paperwork, but in almost no time at all, we received an insurance document and were told to go back over to Transportation Control to file it. Back we went, papers were filed and we moved on to the next stage of the process: Customs. Now, we have a lot in our car. A day earlier, we had tried to organize things as best we could, but three backpacks, two wet bags, two suitcases, two pieces of hand luggage, a ten, two sleeping bags and three or four sacks filled with books are only going to look so neat. The tall uniformed man who seemed to be directing the process walked over to our car and told us to open the doors, at least that's what we figured he said.
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