Here's your brain dear

I was engaged in a casual conversation over dinner with my lovely Belorussian couchsurfing hosts as Yulishka proceeded to fetch another bottle of wine and my eyes came to rest on something inside the fridge that was so abstract looking that my chin quite litterally smashed into my vegetable and chicken pasta.
From where i sat at the table it looked like something so unexpected that something in my stomach contracted slightly.
Yulishka, noticing my shocked/confused look informed me that this was in fact not a big brain but instead a typical Belorussian salad made with herring, beetroot, eggs, onions and mayonaise and that I was having that for dinner tomorrow. Her sweet smile left no room for discussuion. "Great", I thought, "I am having brain for dinner tomorrow"! and this was only my first evening in Belarus. What more would I have to endure during my 36 hours in Minsk?

I can't really complain though. Until this moment I had been having a fantastic time with Alex #2 (my couchsurfing host), Alex #3 his best friend (me being Alex #1) and all the other mates of theirs who had come over to join us for dinner. It was almost a little welcome committee for the couchsurfer from Germany/Amsterdam/Mexico etc...

At some point earlier in the day however I almost fretted I would be allowed into Belarus. Despite having all the right paperwork I was once again singled out at the border for "extra inspections". The border guard tried to ask me a series of questions (all in Russian) to which my only response could possibly be a pissed off stare and me being quite angry at myself for only going to 4 out of 12 Russian intentive course lessons resulting in me only being able to read in slowmotion and saying "Da", "Niet" and "Spasiba" before he placed a couple of phone calls and motioned me to wait on the side. What the hell was wrong again this time? Why was it that everytime I visited a country that had the letters "Rus" in it I would have to be singled out?
Eventually a female soldier marched into the building and barked a couple of orders at me in Russian and after I remained motionless she marched me to another window outside. What seemed to be the problem I eventually understood was that I had no proof of my medical insurance and despite making it very clear that I possessed such and that the Russians who have the same requirement let me in they still indicated Sovietstyle that I must purchase a 2 day coverage or else...

Christ what an ordeal! I almost expected my fellow bus mates to give me a round of applause when I got back on the bus and we were ready to go but no such applause was given. Only undfriendly stares. Yey!

What came then truly was some of the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. Rolling green hills and lush forests accompanied us all the way down the M2 motorway towards the capital Minsk. Everything was so clean and orderly I was left breathless (for choking on a nut) that nobody ever talked about Belarus' natural beauty.
Maybe the last remaining dictatorship in Europe (except for Putin's Russia maybe) didn't want people to see what it has to offer? Who knows. I certainly almost gave up hope of ever getting in.

As we drove into Minsk, one thing I noticed immediately was the huge amount of communist style blocks that formed entire neighbourhoods BUT they were not as dreary as one would have expected. Just as we were pulling into Minsk's Eastern busstation another one of those lovely thunderstorms broke out essentially leaving me there.
A very nice deaf girl who was on my bus had taken the time to try and explain to me how I could get to the train station from where I was meant to walk to News Cafe where Alex #2 would meet me at 6:30/7 to pick me up.

Some people say it takes a lot of balls travelling around the world like this, taking trolleybusses with locals, eating at places where you can't decipher the menus and especially doing this all on your own. I don't agree. Sometimes this is what makes a trip special because you really feel far away from home eventhough home is only 1 1/2 hours flight away.

Eventually I stumbled into News Cafe and felt relieved to be able to sit down and have a latte (no foam please). The view I had from here was the ugliest British embassy I had ever seen and at this moment I was quite glad I'd never have to go there to get consular help haha.

Alex arrived around 7 o'clock and after boarding his car and going for a short drive around the centre I immediately felt comfortable. He was a really friendly chap who was totally excited to have me over. "My girlfriend is cooking dinner right now so we have to be home at 9 but we can hang out a bit before going back", he told me with a smile. We drove around the lake and parked the car near an officebuilding where we waited for Alex #3 to meet us in due course. 3 Alex's in one place in Minsk. What a coincidence I thought until I remembered that Alexander was one of the most common names across Russia and partners.
Together we hung out for a bit, they drove me around the city and showed me some of the brand new (and plentiful) sports buildings and arenas the city had built and we ended up inspecting the last remaining original houses from before WW2 that stood right next to one of Minsk's landmark monuments "The island of tears". As we walked away from the car Alex #2 offered me a Richmond cigarette. I had never heard of these smokes and as it turned out they were cherry flavoured. They tasted like "RICHMOND! HOOKA FOR IN YOUR POCKET". Very strange experience.
On the way home we passed Victory square to buy some wine for the evening and then arrived at Alex's and Yulishka's house, which to my surprise was built in the Stalinist style, which provided large stairs and tall ceilings. Knowing how cruel Stalin was to everyone he hated I was really taken aback by the spaciousness of this young couple's apartment.
Yulishka was a sweet girl who had taken the time to cook cabbage soup and vegetable pasta for us and who went out of her way to make me feel at home.

Now we're back where I stared so let's read on what happened then...

Instead of going out at night we decided to stay in and together with Dima and Fjodor who had arrived later that evening we smoked, chatted and watched hilarious videos of various things, amongst others a video of "Ushi" the travelling Japanese guitarrist who apparently spent 7 months travelling around Lithuania (I really want to know where the hell he went) and had stayed with Alex and Yulishka the night before. Ushi was 39 and virtually got expelled from Europe because he had overstayed his visa by several months.

The next day I awoke to find Alex gone to work (due to victory day the previous weekend this Saturday was a working day in Belarus) and Yulishka offering me coffee and a typical breakfast snack, which consisted of some sort of cream cheese in a dark chocolate coating. Quite a bizarre taste I had to admit.
She arranged for me that I would meet Alex #3 in town at 10:30 to for a wander so after downing my coffee I set off to the nearest metro station and headed into town. I love these old Soviet metros. Like in Kiev and other cities you have those eternally long tunnels that ferry you deep into the underground - it's quite the experience, which also explains why I took the metro instead of walking this one stop.
I continued breakfast with another latte from News cafe followed by getting slightly lost in the center and finally arriving at the Europe Hotel at +/- 10:30 where Alex #3 was already waiting.
We took off past the Palace of the republic, which in my view was a monter of a concrete square that ruined the otherwise pretty neighbourhood we were in. Passing the Palace of Ballet we ventured through the Gorkhi park towards my current home. The park itself, at least here was dotted with plenty of children's attractions and speakers everywhere that accompanied you with ancient Russian marching songs. Oh how I love Soviet kitsch sometimes...



We returned to pick up our bikes and cycle around the city to explore some more. Alex #3 had to return to his house to pick up his bike so I dutifully sat on a bench in the courtyard and played Challenge #40 of Worms for the umpteenth time, once again failing miserably at the last worm. Urgh how this pissed me off!

When he returned we set off towards Victory square where Dima was already waiting however with a puncture in his racing bike and thus unable to join us straight away. The day was beautiful and I was worried we'd get caught up with fixing bikes and shit so Alex #3 decided we should have lunch at Lido and then regroup when everything was in order. Some of the pavements were so high however that I either had to push the bike up, making me look like a tit or violently pulling the handle bar up causing the content of my basket to go flying in all directions.
Lido was the kind of restaurant that served every type of dish you could imagine and yet it was fresh and cheap. After taking a seat outside and me starting to devour pancakes, meatballs, carrot salad, potatos and a dumpling Fjodor joined us for some afternoon fun, which would involved us playing frisbee in Gorkhi park (once again reunited with Dima)... I could barely walk as we left Lido, I fet as fat as a pregnant cow!

In Gorkhi park we picked a nice spot near the water and started a casual game of frisbee, which in 2 instances resulted in us hitting the water and desperately trying to convince passers by on their paddle boats to come to our poor frisbee's rescue. 2 attempts failed, 2 were successful. A universal vote then decided we should continue the fun in front of the Palace of ballet where frisbee in water was less likely to put a stop to our fun afternoon.
Shorly after Alex #3 and Fjordor left us Dima and I cycled back towards town when an enormous thunderstorm approached forcing us to seek refuge in Mixx bar. The rain was so heavy it turned avenues into Rivers yet we were the only guests in here except for a fat dude on our left ferociously tucking into some ribs.

Eventually we convinced Alex #2 to join us for a drink after work and once it had stopped raining we set of on a last adventure namely finding me a postcard and some stamps. Would you believe that the only place where we found some decent postcards was at the post office in the main trainstation? It's an outrage! I have found postcards even in villages of 500 souls but no not here in Minsk! Postcards are for douches like me haha.

Later we returned to Alex #2's appartment where Yulishka, her recently arrived mum and her friend Maria were already waiting for us to enjoy some brain. I couldn't help but feel awkward at the thought of eating "salad" that looked like what's inside my head. Yulishka really enjoyed the moment when she placed a slice of brain on my plate and told me to mush it up. Ooooookeeeeeyyy...
It didn't taste that bad afterall but I am sure you know those feelings of hesitation when something looks so weird that even if it's nice you struggle to finish it.
It was nice to hear too that her mum apparently really liked me despite our inability to communicate (me no Russian, she no English). I love being liked by mums haha...

To round off my short time in Minsk the guys took me out to a surpringly awesome bar nearby, which was hidden in a backyard and apart from being a bar it was also a modern art gallery, a shop and a bookstore. Its name was "Moloko" (Russian for milk), which was also funny because it was one of the first Russian words I learned in my "money well spent" Russian course. Now I knew it wasn't just a band name!
Inside it was fully with an arty, young and funky crowd dancing to some classic tunes and really enjoying themselves. We lounged on one fo the sofas and I was bemused to see Alex #2 say "Hi, hello, what's up" to virtually every person in the club. I clearly had found myself the party king of Minsk!
At 10:30 the party was over (due to noise bla bla) and we left to return to Alex #2's house since I had a flight to Baku in a couple of hours. On the way we got stopped by a young girl taking pictures for her street style blog and I was given an opportunity to feel like a hot model when she asked to photograph me.
Could this whole experience have been any better?

Alex #2 decided to accompany me to the airport and as we said our goodbyes I was actually quite sad to leave at this moment. Belarus might be as far away as Mongolia in our minds at least but I can promise you that couchsurfing with the right crowd made this one of the best experiences I've had on this trip!

Of course I wouldn't leave without one more worthwhile experience to share with you...
Before it was my turn at the check-in I watched how a fat Azeri man gave the check-in lady a bribe in order to let him off with his 4 enormous suitcases (that were blatantly above the limit). Since she say me give her a disapproving look from wher I stood it didn't take much for her to give me the best seat on the plane... Window and massive legroom. Thanks lady, see you next time!