New Year in Minsk - travel 20 years back in time...

Hello my dear people... :) First of all - happy New Year for you. Well, me finally I found some time to write about my crazy trip to Belarussia to celebrate New Year. But it was maybe one of the last chances to visit this country. I'm not sure if you know that, but quite soon there should be a coalition between Russia and Belarussia, so the last one will just disappear from map. And also from 2008 we have visas there for 60 euros and for us it was still 5 euros)... :))

So does it really looks like 20 years ago? I can answer yes and no. For me - it was like visiting my childhood - the same toys, the same Santa ("Ded Maroz" in Russian), the same candies and painted posters. But on the other hand city is soooo clean, so pretty, all houses are painted new, new buses, even blocks are lighted with all kinds of lamps, so it looks very beautiful. And there is police every 2 steps (I'm not joking), so it is also very safe. What I found cool - that all people are very friendly. They helped me to do the shopping, told which stuff to buy and which is not so good. It was nice.

We also visited a lot of Lithuanian castles, because once this territory belonged to Great Duchy of Lithuania. It's funny to see places about which you were learning at school. And there is a lot of streets in Minsk name with Lithuanian surnames. By the way - one very interesting fact - Belarussians still believe that they live in Soviet Union. Really, it's true!! They did not accept the fact that this union disappeared. In all cities there are still statues for Red Army, Stalin, streets of Lenin. Very funny and strange to see.

What was very annoying to me - money. They count everything in 1000 and 10 000 so I get really lost in money. One of my friends had to save me from that and finally took all my money away and always paid for me. I really get lost in that! Just think - me omlet cost 12 000 rubles!!! :)))

As you know - Belarussians and Russians are the most known for drinking vodka. Well, because we were there and because some guys started to drink champagne just after when bus moved from Vilnius - we did the same. So it means - we were drinking from 31 December, 7 in the morning till 1 January 7 in the morning... Just then I went to sleep, so believe me - the party was really good... :)))

Well, I'm afraid to write more, because you will be too lazy to read that... :)) But if you are interested - just ask and I will tell you more... :)) But normally - I had amazing New Year, with amazing people, so it was really nice... :))