Minsk, Belarus

February 2020

First long weekend trip of the year. 

Minsk was a lovely surprise. It's soviet, yet friendly and welcoming. People are nice. The central areas of Minsk are pretty western yet still quirky enough and with character. I would love to go back in summer. Especially great would be to drive there, as it is not that long of a drive, and explore the rest of Belarus by car as well. It is visa free for Estonians and rest of EU to visit Belarus for a short period of time, if enter and leave by Minsk airport. If they would extend it to land border as well, that would be lovely!

Minsk, the capital or Belarus is home to around 2 million people. They use Belarussian rubles and mainly speak Russian. Only street names and Metro stations are in Belarussian. Belarusian language listed in the UNESCO list of endangered and vulnerable languages as around 80% of Belarus speaks Russian as their first language and no more than 10% of Belarusians say they communicate in Belarusian in their day-to-day lives.

We were super hungry and slightly shaken when landed in Minsk on Friday early afternoon. The flight was short but not so sweet as it was probably one of the most turbulent landings I have been on.  Even the pilot warned that this will be on the rougher side. Trying to fill the security form through all the bumps was useful as it was distracting. Took a city bus (marsruthka) from airport to the city, hopped out on Victory Square and picked a restaurant right there: Biarozka. It was probably on the more expensive side, but even that was quite cheap and foos was tasty. Service culture in Minsk was very polite everywhere (except one popular live music bar we actually booked a table before, they had forgotten it and instead of admitting that insisted that we are tourists and probably are in a wrong place and have no idea where we came to. When we showed them their confirming e-mail, they quickly found a table.)

We were living in the Trinity Hill district of Minsk. The Trinity Hill is the oldest surviving district of Minsk, in the past it was not part of the downtown, rather a suburb. Nowadays it's just across the bridge from the start of downtown. All the bars, cafes and walking streets were just a kilometre away. The hostel was actually our second choice. One was right downtown, on top of a lovely bar. We tried to book it but we'd have to pay in advance through a system that I guess Estonian security did not trust as the page did not load. When we asked the hostel several times through booking if we could pay on spot or by any other means and explained the problem, they did not care too much, said for them the link works and they do not see the problem. Oh well, we found another hostel. It was quite basic and random, an old apartment inside a huge block house, but I mean it was 5 EUR per night, so it was absolutely fine! 

The National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre. 

Opened in 1939, it was designed by the Belarus architect from Leningrad, Iosif Langbard.

We so wanted to get tickets to the theatre but were too late. The ballet: The Sleeping Beauty was premiering on Friday night so it was sold out. Next time! 

Kew London bar

Minsk City Hall

Minsk acquired the Magdeburg rights in 1499 Thereby a first wooden city hall was built. A stone building of the city hall was built in 1582. In the old days, a City Hall housed a court, a magistrate, an archive, a guardhouse, the standards of weights and the special symbols of the city. were stored and in the basement, there were prison cells. Public events were held inside or around the City Hall. It was the center for the cultural life and a symbol of Minsk.

On Saturday we woke up to snow, quite a lot of it. Last night's pleasant weather had turned to proper winter. As had not seen too much winter back home this year so didn't even really mind and went exploring. Minsk central areas are very walkable, further places are easily accessible by metro, which is also very cheap. 

The Cathedral of the Holy Spirit

One of the most recognisable symbols of Minsk is a two-towered Orthodox cathedral in the heart of the city. It was completed in 1642 to serve Bernadine nuns. In 1741 original structure was damaged by fire but later reconstructed. The convent was closed in 1852 and the building given to the Russian Orthodox Church for use as a monastery before being closed by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. Today the church has been restored to its former glory.

Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War

The museum was founded in September 1943 and opened for visitors in October 1944 . It mainly portrays the suffering of the Belarusians and the sacrifices made by the Red Army to liberate the territory from the Nazi occupation. 

Where are we again? 

Palace of the Republic

KFC with decor. 

Eating draniki in the restaurant named Draniki. So yum! Fun fact: the restaurant's playlist only consisted of 3 upbeat songs and these were playing on repeat.. We walked past the place the next day, same song was playing. 

Fashionably wearing a plastic bag.

Road to the future monument inside the Victory park. 

Honky Donk Piano bar. Good food and cocktails and fun live music. Worth reserving a table as it gets crowded. 

Polugar bar. So much fun. There was a cover band playing old rock songs + russian karaoke. They mainly serve polugar shots (with different flavours and free snacks to go with it). Polugar—also known as bread wine, which actually is historic vodka. 38.5 vol, I mean, it is not wine. 

I cannot remember if it was inside "Beerhol'd" or "Drink'n'Roll" but both of these small rock bars are worth a visit. 

On Sunday we took an alternative free walking tour to the new hip district of Minsk aka Liachaŭka, an old industrial suburb hidden on the peninsula of the river Svislač. The tour introduces mainly: the history of Minsk street art & graffiti scene, the Belarusian youth lifestyle, why Minsk is named next world rave destination. Our guide was great and the tour was quite private, as it was just us two and another lady who was from Minsk but has been living in the Netherlands for past 15 years. 

Street art in unexpected places.

A lovely healthy lunch spot inside the area. 

Our flight back was early Monday morning by Belarusian airline Belavia straight to Tallinn in 55 (bumpy) minutes. Taxi (by Yandex app) to the airport was less than 12 EUR for 50 kilometres, so we weren't too bothered to go searching for the bus at 6 am. In the airport decided to buy coffee and a bacon burger from Burger King. When got our food, noticed there does not seem to be bacon inside the burger, as that was the main ingredient we were craving for, went, extra politely to ask if they maybe gave us a wrong order. The guy in the cashier looked at us scornfully and snorted "the bacon doesn't have to jump at you when you start eating, what do you think you get the perfect burger you see on the pamphlets?" I guess that was the other time the service was not the politest. Pure old soviet treatment :D To his defence, yes, we did find some tiny pieces of bacon inside the burger later.