Minsk

After two days in Kiev, trying to rest up whilst finishing my report, I take the well worn trip to Borispil airport for the one hour flight to Minsk. Belarus is the only country I visit that you cannot make your visa arrangements at the airport. Ukraine and Georgia, they let you in with a smile; Armenia and Azerbaijan, it takes a bit of money but, hey, you’re in. Moldova, I don’t yet know about, but I haven’t been told it’s a problem and somebody’s bought my flights. But Belarus, it’s a trip to the embassy in Kiev, answer a 34 item questionnaire, provide a photo plus the not insignificant sum of $115 (for two days!) and they put a visa in your rapidly filling passport.

But everything is easy in the terminal and here we are, in this magical world where the communist ideal never dies. And I must say, I find it difficult to decide how I really feel about Belarus. Your first impression is that nothing is out of place. The fields are neat and cultivated, not always the case elsewhere. The villages look tidy. And when you come into Minsk it’s really striking that nothing is out of place, no litter, everything ordered, nothing broken.

Things start going wrong at the Hotel. 10 minute wait at the reception desk where everything is painfully slow. Then they want you to pay before you stay. But you can’t just pay the receptionist. Oh no. She directs you to the cashier. And she, like all cashiers I have met in Belarus, has not yet gone on the customer relations course. Hatchet faced, barking out instructions, slams receipt on counter, no word of thanks. This is more like it!

These are the contradictions that you get in Belarus. Constantly. And it’s not easy to deal with, because you’re never quite sure when you are going to get the smile and the friendliness and when you are going to get the surly face. Except for the cashiers; you know where you are with them.

I am in the Hotel Belarus, a 22-storey place in the middle of a big riverside park right in the centre of the city, I have stayed here before, 7 years ago on my first trip to Belarus, and wasn’t impressed. But now at least the rooms have been refurbished and the place is quite comfortable, so my two days stay won’t be a problem at all. Except for the weather. On midsummer’s day the skies are leaden and I’m seeing the first rain of my mission. So I’m watching the Silverstone Grand Prix instead of having a beer in the park.