Coffee shop...

You remember, i was complaining that there were no any coffee shops in Minsk? So many times in the US i was telling how pity it was not to have any good coffee service... but when i returned i figured out that there are some new places appeared. One of them is just in front of you. I didn't go there yet but i already know that they have wi-fi from 9am till 6 pm (sic!), little china cups (not paper ones) for Americano and very slow service. Hm... Should we go there once? :)

This is where i live

I guess, it is time to show you the place where i live. I mean my parents' place where i have been living for quite a while since 1985. The day when we moved there i was so excited! In comparison to our rented one room appartment in the old one floor house the new one looked so huge and modern and so much space inside! Uh! I still have some impressions from the first days there! :)

On the left you can see some summer cafe beside the food store. The cafe is not so nice. But as in many other parts of the USSR they sell bread kvass during summer time there! Mmm, tasty non-alcohol drink, i can say, genuine substitute for beer. We should try it! Some how i didn't see that in Vladikavkaz...
Them just in front of the building two power transformation stations. White-brick bigger one in the center and smaller brown one to the left. That what i was referring to when discussing influence of electricity for the people's health.

And here it is: entrance #5, 4th floor... The apartment itself. I occupy the central room. So, it is likely when you are reading these words i am still sleeping over there. :))

Extra views of Minsk for today :)

Not mine though :) If i was a Minister of Tourism, i would use that video.




TimeLaps from zweizwei on Vimeo.

PS. Did you recognize some objects? :)

Monuments: Yakub Kolas

This is one of keystones of nation. Yakub Kolas.  The poet that took part in creation of Belarusians as a nation, who promoted (revolutionary) democratism here. He lived lived and created in the first half of the XX cent. There many streets in honor of him all over the country. This monument is situated in one more square in Minsk: Yakub Kolas Square. Big enough, not the downtown, but the center of the greater city.

There are also his characters, the most famous of them. Symon -the Musician. The poor lonely teenager who was gifted with a violin and exposed a great talent to music. The very dramatic and sad story of him, and people around him. As for me, very gloomy story. I didn't like it at all while in school. May be today it could look very different for me.

Another famous and mythologized character (actually, a true figure!): Grandpa Talash. The old man who organized a partizan squad to fight against the Poles in Polish-Russian war of 1919-1920. The old man was pretty old at the day when he joined the Red Army and took his men into the forests: he was already 75 years old! Later, during the WWII grandpa Talash joined another partizan movement and served there at the age of 99! he went though another war and lived for 103 years. I can't say much about the novel itself (The Bog), but i guess it was much more optimistic and encouraging than the previous text. Most probably, a kind of propaganda text. :)

Sight number NEXT: Island of Tears (part 2)

Another picture (not mine) to just give a perspective on the Island.  :)
So, as you see, its not big, but good enough to walk in while walking along the river. :))

Sight number NEXT: Island of Tears

In the uppertown, close to all cathedrals i already posted, at a river stands Island of Tears. Also known as Island of Courage and Grief. Small piece of land accidentally preserved at the urbanized river. When war in Afghanistan was about to end for the Soviets we decided to commemorate somehow all those loses of Belarusian soldiers died abroad. So, in 1988 the first stone was laid down. But just in 1996 the monument was finally open. Monument to all Children of Fatherland Who Died Abroad. Btw, Belarus lost nearly 800 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. If to compare to total Soviet loses (15051 killed), then we took 5% share of it. (What is mathematically is almost ideally proportional to ration of population of Belarus and USSR as a whole. Regular business.)

Sight number 7

This is Hotel D'Europe. It was the most prestigious hotel in Minsk in the first half of XX century. As such, it attracted many different characters to stay in: spies, officials, diplomats etc. Now it is a 4-* (?) hotel where i have never been: no one from my partners stayed there, neither any conference was attended by me there.I have to wait for a chance to get there. :)