Bielarussia

Welcome everybody! I just came back from the trip to Grodno in Bielarussia, where I went with my company co-workers for the entertainment weekend. It was my first visit there, though Bielarussia is just behind our east border, with Grodno not as far as 80 km from the city I live in.

Bielarussia is specific country. After seven decades as a constituent republic of the USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other former Soviet republics. Belarus and Russia signed a treaty on a two-state union on 8 December 1999 envisioning greater political and economic integration. Although Belarus agreed to a framework to carry out the accord, serious implementation has yet to take place. Since his election in July 1994 as the country's first president, Aleksander Lukashenko has steadily consolidated his power through authoritarian means. Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion continue.

But the country, at least Grodno, seems to be a normal city. We stayed at Semashko Hotel- the only private hotel in Grodno, which, apart from it's totally original interior design, can be recommended to everybody wanting to visit the city.

We were amazed by the condition of roads there (in Poland it still is an urging problem), as well as with the tidiness everywhere from the city centre to the small villages outside the town, where we went to see maybe something more of what is called "the last in Europe museum of communism". In one of the villages we went to a shop, which looked I quess similar to Polish shops in deep communism era.
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The lady behind the counter was a really nice woman- told us about the village, its history and quided us to the river.
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Grodno is situated by the river- Niemen.

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To see this beautiful river in more natural conditions, we went outside the city.

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Grodno is constantly developing. When entering the city, the look of massive building grounds welcomes tourists.

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The worst thing was the language limitation of mine- my friends speak russian quite well, but with my english only I couldn't communicate with almost no one- including shoppers and bartenders- but this last one wasn't a problem at all :). In fact Polish and Russian languages are more than a bit similar, but having no particular contact with native speakers it's hard to figure out what they talk about. What's more, some of them speak Russian, some Bielarussian- which differs from the first one, some mix those two making it sound strange. By the way- Lukashenko made Russian, not Bielarussian native language. What's more, at schools children can't learn the latter. Strange, isn't it?

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Another astounding thing were some customs we encountered. In the evening young people use to meet in the beautifully tended square parks, and sitting there on benches they chat while drinking wine and beer. In Poland it wouldn't be possible as drinking in public places is restricted. But well, if You want to get to know, locals You have to act like them. So before going to discos, which start not sooner than 12 a.m., we sat in the centre of the old city, boozing and getting to know the natives, who as the matter of fact, are very open and kind people. We didn't meet any restrictions, though people we met there weren't willing to discuss any political issues including Lukasheko himself.

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It's the "drinking park" where we spent two evenings before going to have fun on the disco.

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The sign on the building say "Ja ljublu tiebia Białoruś" meaning "I love You Belarussia". A local patriotism I quess.

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Generally speaking,the trip was a hell of a fun and we'll surely come back to Bielarussia, maybe to Minsk this time.