Minsk

Minsk, capital of Belarus, was somewhere we knew very little about. As visas ae expeseive and confusing we only had a transit visa which allowed us just 24 hours from the moment we crossed te Poland-Belaus border to the moment we left into Russia. When our train pulled up in Minsk station we encountered a problem that would plague us regularly- people often don't believe in signs.So as we stepped onto the platform we were only 90% sure we were in the right place. Mins was our 1st experience of not understanding a word anyone was saying. It didn't help that road signs were in cyrillic but our maps were in roman script. We spent a lot of time lost.
The city was destroyed in WWII and its population halved, but much has been rebuilt iin its original style. The imposing city gates which baoque style architecture set the scene for the city. You wouldn't know that teh buildings were modern replicas unless you look round the back- where they are plain brick with tatty windows and balconies. Our time in Minsk was wet but we couldn't help feeling that it was a more attractive city than Warsaw. The 'old' buildings were more widespread and, although accomodation was still in modern tower blocks, they generally weren't as grey. There was plenty of open space including some squares. Under one of there we found a shopping centre visible from the square only as a seriesof glass domes, some with statues on top. Subways, often with shops in, are the way to cross the road and are light and clean.
The problem of not understaning menus was mitigated to some extent as we found a canteen so cold point to food. Potato, stews and cheese sauces all suited us well. I also had hat seemed to be a deep fried burger...
Thankfully the metro was very easy to navigate as it has only 2 lines. However we were dripping wet by the time we reached our 'hostel'. The online reviews had left us slighty confused and we didn't know what to expect. As instructed we rang a bell outside a tower block in a continuous maze of tower blocks. The door as opened and we walked up to the second floor and along a dark and ominous-looking corridor. Tania let us in and the 'tired' look continued inside. We entered with trepidation. It was everyting we'd imagined the inside of the flats to be, with very dated decor including fake-tapestry wall paper.The sockets looked rather supect and wires dangled. We sat on the sofas that would become our beds while Tania told us about her trip to Thailand. We didn't really work out what was going on until she left and we realised that the whole flat was ours. We didn't dare leave because the system of keys she showed us was rather complicated and it was raining anyway. So we ate jaffa cakes and had a much needed early night.