Belarus: why go there?

It so happened that from a trip to Belarus I had very vague and inarticulate expectations. In the head was drawn the native Nizhny Novgorod region, the same hills, fields and forests. Only Belarus. No exotic, such as in Armenia or Georgia, where you want to literally jump out of the car with a camera at every turn. There is no sea. No mountains either. What is there to watch?

Plus, this country was forcibly on the first line of the destructive wars of the twentieth century, which, unfortunately, greatly affects tourist attractiveness.

However, I’m not much mistaken if I say that I have at least a quarter of Belarusian blood. And never to visit Belarus is somehow wrong. And when I found out that my great-grandmother’s wife had a maiden name Radziwill, then all doubts disappeared altogether. It was urgent to go to evaluate the family lands and castles, to look at these beauties.

And you know, yes - the same hills, fields and forests. Yes, Minsk at the time of the end of World War II was completely destroyed, only about 70 buildings remained intact. I did not find the sea and mountains either. But how cool it turned out. Now I’ll tell you why it’s worth going to Belarus.

On the way you can call in Smolensk. And you can not call in. Smolensk was thought of as an ancient, beautiful city, similar to Suzdal or Vladimir, but ... turned out to be one of the few disappointments of this trip. I was impressed by a very neglected city, where burdocks literally grow on the main streets. Although the Assumption Cathedral is very good, of course:

But the memorial complex near Katyn is worth a visit. Once again, remind yourself of the brutal upheavals of the last century. Remind me how fragile the world is and how quickly everything around can change:

Whoo! And teleport to the spa Braslav:

Get up with a tent in a campsite in a pine forest. Swim in the Braslav lakes, breathe the air of the coniferous forest and sit in the dark near a small fire:

Get up at five in the morning, watch how the son of Cheburd’s head forwards from the walkways, trying to wash a mug of tea, and move to BelAZ.

This thing with a load capacity of 450 tons, just a minute. 4600 horsepower, 5600 liters of fuel on board and 538 liters of engine oil. And the turning radius of this monster is 19.8 meters with a total length of just over 20 meters!

Well, in order to answer the questions “how rushing and how much is eating”, it is worth mentioning the maximum speed of 67 km / h and the consumption of 1300 liters per 100 kilometers (if you do not turn on the air conditioning, I think that you can save a couple of liters per hundred) .

To get to Minsk, which seemed surprisingly comfortable for life, a city with wide sidewalks, a developed bicycle infrastructure and the absence of traffic jams:

In half an hour, move from Minsk to a real Belarusian village. Well, not really real, of course, but nonetheless:

The aunts here on the grips were jumping quite real:

Another man drove us on a cart. The horse farted while moving. And not only…

I never understood all this horse romance. Do you know how a horse farts? That's it ... I was just assuming, but the reality was somewhat tougher:

Then you definitely need to figure out how much money the Radziwills once had. Mir Castle, for example:

Or here is the palace and park ensemble in Nesvizh. At the shooting site, the ground was trampled by photographers to the state of stone, so I think that you have already seen similar pictures:

Whoo! And move to the Belarusian Maldives. The number of prohibition signs on the way to these careers exceeds all conceivable and unimaginable limits. He felt like a terrorist. Terrorist win! The goal is achieved.

Breathing in these places is a nightmare as hard as people swimming there - I can’t imagine. But beautiful, yes.

And then Grodno. Grodno is gorgeous, you can’t say anything. The city is very suitable for hiking. Were on a weekday evening - people walk, ride great and drink coffee on the lawns. Beauty!

And again the chalk quarry. And why did everyone come up against exactly the previous careers that are Maldives? Here you are, the road directly to the beach, the water is the same turquoise and no prohibition signs:

Bialowieza Forest. Be sure to rent a bike! Great are quite good for themselves, and give with a child seat included:

Brest Fortress. It is also a must visit, as is the museum of its defense.

But Brest itself was not impressed, unfortunately. The second disappointment after Smolensk. Neither the pedestrian street, nor even the lamp-lamp, lighting its lanterns every evening could outweigh the negativity of the park with croaking crow, gopniks, pivas and seeds.

They say that in terms of the number of old buildings Pinsk even surpassed Grodno. Well, maybe they didn’t consider:

The church in Pinsk is very good. On occasion, it’s worth a peek:

Gomel is the second largest city in Belarus. There was very little time left for him, unfortunately, but they looked at the park, climbed into the tower and saw the Rumyantsev-Paskevich palace:

Beautiful country, just beautiful. The case when reality exceeded expectations. Come to Belarus, there really is something to see, despite the fact that the landscapes resemble my beloved Amachkino, in the Nizhny Novgorod region. And maybe that's why.