Two months ago I visited Misk. The capital city of Belarus. Although I travel a lot for work and sports, I had never been in Belarus before. Based upon our Western European view it's easy to think of a former east block city full of gray concrete and decaying buildings of a once glorious past. At the airport it started like a old 80's movie with stern looking gards and equally strict border control agents complete with big flat caps.
At first I was not allowed entry due to a Health insurance statement that did not specifically mention that I was ensured for this country. Although my companion travelers could simply walk by with the same letter I had to go to a counter and buy me the addition instead. Funny that the woman selling me this asked me if the agent could not read, clearly she found my letter good enough. I decided not to responded to the question and just pay the 6 euro instead.
The travel trough the country was ok but you could see the poor villiges on the countryside. However as soon as arriving in Minsk the view completely changed. High buildings, a lot of flats and big open spaces and 6lane roads. (3 each way). Impressive big strong architecture, clean roads and a lot of parks. A city of 1,8 miljon inhabitants but surly not crowded. We learned that the reason for this style is rather sad. It originates from ww2 when there was heavy fighting and tank battles destroying most of the town. But it also enables the opportunity to start from scratch.
We stayed in a typical Russian hotel. A loot of wood and brown glass doors. Clean but old (70-80style) it felt we were like time travelers every time we went back into that place. The town itself as a mix of this typical Russian style and modern western style shopping malls. Prices where close to European standards but the income of the locals are mostly not as we understood. I found it quit interesting to see the styles mixed. In one building this showed best. A mac Donald's and a Russian burger bar next to each other. The contrast could. It have been bigger.
Opposite of the hotel is a big park and a enormous lake. At the north end of the lake there is a area that looks like a old villige here there are some good places to eat and at night we spend some good times in the local bars and clubs. A part of this area is still under constitutional but I think it will be great once finished.
Unfortunately we had not much time to see the musuems and other interesting places since we had to sport as well, but that's a different story.
On the way back we had a very friendly taxi driver playing our songs via YouTube. In all a good stay in a town that supprissed me in a positive way. 