Belarus & Lithuania
The trip from Moscow to Minsk (capital of Belarus) was LONG. It was our longest day trip in the coach and Alex helped punctuate the long trip with frequent flourishes - chocolates (all goodish) and local brew - some of which were even drinkable!
There were some funny moments along the way that helped break up the day. At one stage, our coach got pulled over by some over-zealous Road and Traffic inspectors. Werner had to get out with all his papers and log books and sit in a VW Kombi with the inspectors for about 15 minutes while they went thru his record with a fine tooth comb. Alex didn't go over to assist with the Russian speaking inspectors until it became clear that Werner wan't making any headway with the bureaucrats. Finally we were cleared to continue on our way but not before Don (who drives trucks for a crust) tried out the coach driver's seat just in case Werner was arrested!
Alex constantly amused us with his stories and anecdotes about growing up in Siberia and experiencing the Soviet way of life as a kid and young man. His recounting of buying his first pair of Levi jeans on the black market in order to improve his image (his packaging as he called it - the improve his chances with the ladies) was hilarious. His dry sense of humour together with his practiced, but to our ears, fresh one-liners made the long trip that much more enjoyable. Lunch with flourishes of local Vodka also warmed peoples throats as well as their hearts!
Late in the afternoon (about 6.30pm) we finally trundled into Minsk after another interesting border crossing earlier in the day. Our hotel was the Renaissance - and it is the first time that Insight has used this place. Very swanky and we get dinner at the hotel to boot. We sit with Denise and Lisa - our friends from Melbourne and have the complimentary glass of bubbly to wash down a lovely dinner. Little did we know that anything to drink after that was chargeable - 4 small glasses of wine - $65 AUD - thank you very much! Ouch...
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| The Minsk Cathedral |
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| The Hiroshima Monument - a present from the Japanese city to Minsk after the Chernobyl disaster |
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| The Cathedral across the main square |
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| The Memorial to soldiers lost in recent conflicts |
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| The little angel |
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| Anne outside the gates to the Monument |
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| Sheep in a shop front |
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| The Knight of Vilnius |
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| The main Vilnius Cathedral |
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| The old fort above the Cathedral and city |
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| Easter Island-like statues |
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| The old King with kids sliding on the plinth |
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| The secondary keep |
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| The tower |
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A map of Lithuania with the line thru Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia
showing where the people joined hands in a continuous human line to protest their independence |
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| The River and city beyond |
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| The cathedral and associated complex below the fortress |
We are staying in a great hotel for the next few nights and dinner is called a 'Dine-Around' dinner. Groups of us go off to 3 different local restaurants and we compare food offerings at breakfast the next morning. Our restaurant served absolutely fantastic food - extremely well presented and very different to much of the stodge in other places we'd been to on tour.
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| Anne in the main street of Vilnius |
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| Dinner on the Dine-Around night |
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| Yum! |
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| Pork anyone? |
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| Street buskers (they were very good) |
Next day it's a city tour (...again) by coach and some relaxing group walking and then a trip to the village of Trakai outside of the city - it's an old fortress/castle on an island in one of the many lakes that abound near the city and we have lunch there before heading back into the city for a tour of the old Gestapo, then later, the KGB headquarters. This is very moving and our local guide is quite emotional explaining all the terrors that went on in this gruesome building.
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| KGB Headquarters in Vilnius |
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| Previous Commandants |
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| CA cell in the headquarters building basement |
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| Vilnius old town |
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| Gateway to the old city |
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| Chooks outside a shop |
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| Parliament building and Presidential Palace |
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| Trakai Castle on its island |
That evening about half the group go to a local folk restaurant for a night of singing, oomp-pa-pa music, dancing and local food. The musicians were loud but entertaining and when an Aussie named Garry from Sydney made an impromptu appearance (he sings in the Lithuanian choir in Sydney with his Lithuanian wife) with the band, things got really rollicking.
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| The memorial stone of Vilnius |
Next stop - Poland and its capital, Warsaw
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