Thinking about the past year leaves me with very mixed emotions. After being back in the United States for over three months now, it sometimes feels like the nine months before that didn’t even happen. Not being settled in a single place and spending all my time job hunting and doing freelance work means I …
Staying in the holiday spirit for one more weekend, here’s a shot of a giant Christmas tree in Minsk, Belarus. Even though I spent all of December in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, I encountered some of the most festive decorations when I got to Belarus for the Orthodox Christmas and New Year in January.
As 2012 winds down, I thought I would take a look back at some of the most memorable places I visited over the last year. From ancient castles and ruined churches to mountain villages and charming cities, my favorite destinations had a little of everything – and were each unique in their own way. Some …
I didn’t arrive in Grodno, Belarus until mid-January, but a festive, holiday atmosphere was still apparent. Since most Belarussians celebrate the Orthodox Christmas and New Year, celebrations had just ended days before my visit and lights and decorations still adorned the main square.
If all goes well, you will actually be reading this on or around my 10 month anniversary of traveling. I say that because I am writing it from the village of Shing, which is located in the Zerafshan Valley in western Tajikistan. While I have a so-called 3G mini-modem here, the coverage has been anything …
As I mentioned in my post about arriving in Minsk, I was kind of dreading Belarus. It’s not that I wasn’t looking forward to exploring and learning more about a country completely unfamiliar to me. On the contrary, I was excited and intrigued to visit a place that most Westerners don’t even have on their …
Minsk surprised me. Brest disappointed me. Grodno really won me over. It started with my hotel – the Hotel Slavia, just blocks from the main square and a short walk from the bus station. Unlike the monstrous Soviet-era hotels I called home in Minsk and Brest, the Hotel Slavia felt more like a …
I have never visited a place so inaccurately described in guidebooks as Brest. Everything I read indicated that Brest would be the most Western feeling of the cities I would visit in Belarus: It is is very much the case…that Western influences predominate here. (Bradt) There is a calm and relaxed side that …
When we arrived at Khatyn, just outside of Minsk, I pulled out my Kindle and started to read to Yuliya and Andrei from my Bradt guidebook: Khatyn was once a small but thriving community in a picturesque wooded area, but this hamlet no longer appears on even the most detailed map today, other than as …
I have a confession: I was kind of dreading Belarus. As much as I wanted to go and experience it for myself, I was afraid Belarus would be difficult. Throughout the month of December, I got used to the relative comforts and “Western-ness” of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and I wasn’t entirely looking forward to …