Travel Memories #5. Belarus (eng)

freshkarma (48)in #travel • 6 years ago

Like all real travelers, I went on my first trip before I was born! I traveled all the former republics of the USSR in 1987, being with my mother in the womb. These are independent states now: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan ...
Relatives of my father live in Latvia, and my mother's roots partly go to Belarus. And although I still have not been able to visit everyone, a few of my European trips passed through Belarus. The way Moscow-Brest by rail became traditional.
The train departed around 3pm from the Belorussky railway station and went through Russian forests and fields, which imperceptibly turned into Belarusian ones. Nature was completely analogous to ours, and I always secretly dreamed of seeing the legendary Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Białowieża Forest). This National Park looks too fabulous in the photos!

The train arrived in Brest early in the morning, and most of the tourists took cars, buses and other trains to cross the border with Poland.
Brest is an ancient city, founded in the 10th century. These lands were a strategic, trade and craft center at the intersection of the Lithuanian Principality and the Polish Kingdom. The city survived many wars in modern times, and all the preserved historical architecture belongs to the XIX century, not earlier.

The old city was destroyed because of the construction of the Brest-Litovsk fortress in 1835. And in 1941 the fortress suffered at the hands of Hitler. The remaining fortress walls were dismantled by local residents to strengthen their homes. Tourists hurry to capture the remains of history, until they were destroyed by a new wave of ignorance - restorers.

I walked in the center of the city for only a few hours, but I was pleased to note the cleanliness and well-groomed streets. This city seems to have stopped in time, the transition to the 21st century is very slow, and the atmosphere of the Soviet period is felt everywhere. This causes mild nostalgia for my parents, and I was too small to get used to the past of our country.

PS:
In the autumn of 2013, my way passed from Spain to Russia through the airport of Minsk. I was again struck by the atmosphere of Perestroika, even inside the airport building. But the main event was a visit to the cafe. I was shocked when SMS came from the bank: I spent more than 50 thousand rubles for a cup of coffee and a sandwich !! It turned out that the Belarusian currency is also a ruble, only Belarusian. And I thought that it was "rabbits" and "squirrels"! Excuse me, this is all a relic of the Soviet past ...
That's the way the cookie crumbles!