I visited Belarus in 2013. It was a motorbike trip on my Suzuki Intruder C800 bike. That was already my third longer motorbike trip (Andorra and RdGA). To visit Belarus you need visa permission, what is an exhausting enterprise. Luckily a family friend help me out in this matter. During my first day I travelled from Prague to Setechov where I spend the first night (383 km). On the next day I left after lunch and the goal was Warsaw (471 km). During me third day I arrived to the Polish – Belarus border. A short comment on Poland. I expected very bad roads, but all the highways were either new or under reconstruction. But very funny was a phenomenon known from the 90-ties. Almost on every gas station were prostitutes waiting for truck drivers J.
I arrived at the Belarus border at noon. It took me one and a half hour to cross it. I had to buy a local health insurance and I had to wait for the necessary documents to bring into the country my motorbike. The difference in the landscape between Poland and Belarus is obvious at first sight. Just after the border is the city Brest, where I spend two nights at a CS (Couch Surfing) member. Many thanks Veronika! Suddenly there is a panorama of block houses. As was typical for the 70-ties, in Belarus block house projects are still build in present Belarus. Brest as a city is very nice. My host showed me the city and the castle walls during the day and in the evening I had a “loket” of vodka. Loket of vodka is a piece of wood long as an elbow (loket in Russian is elbow) with five kind of vodka, the most interesting was horseradish vodka.
One of the things that catches your attention are the gas prices (they even have the Pb92 gas). One litter costs 17 CZK. Another thing is the absolute absence of western shopping brands and the typical for post-soviet countries respect to the fallen of the world war two. Also the large number of beautiful women and not so many handsome men – such a unfairness J. From Brest to Minsk I took the M1 highway. I would describe the way with just two worlds: infinite straight and clean. On my way to Minsk I made a stop at two UNESCO sides, Mir and Njasvisz. Minsk was amazing, broad boulevards, clean, and the majesty of soviet architecture – so typical for a dictator ship. The city is full of theatres and parks, so the large population of Minsk has lot of places to meet and relax. The Belarussian are not use to our coffee culture, when you sit outside on a terrace and drink beer, well the consumption of alcohol on public places is forbidden. Also very funny is, that almost every pub offers Zlatý Bažant. On first sight, the city looks very satisfied and organized, but underneath boil an unrest because of the 20% inflation and the political war between the red-green (government) and the red-white (opposition). The population is divided into the Belarussian side, which convicts the Belarusians which don´t speak Belarussian and it is a paradox that they call a racist everyone who thinks that Russian things are good. In most cases the people who govern after a dictator ship are worse – I hope that will not be the case of Belarus.
As in other post-soviet countries also here is a majority of women which abuse their beauty to cell their self to the richer population class. One of the proofs is also the large number of web pages offering marriages. The local women are not use to work – their job is to care about the family and the household. As I talked to the local women, to be a house slave for a local poor guy or a rich German, rather the later one. For a better overview attached is also my budget and two articles which were published in the bike journal "Svet Motocyklov" and "Motoroute".
