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Warsaw, Poland
This morning we got onto the bus and had to say good-bye to Minsk. I'm sure that I'll never make it back to Belarus again, as there are too many places in the world I want to see, but I really enjoyed my brief visit to this picturesque country. As we were driving towards the Polish border, Rhian was not feeling very well, and at our first break of the day he made a mad dash to the bathroom. We had about 20 minutes at the rest stop and some people tried to use of the last of their Belarussian rubbles. David and Rhian had taken out about 50 Euro... and had thousands of rubbles left over. At the rest stop they looked, and they could have purchased a tire if they wanted! For myself, I took out 15 Euro worth of rubbles, and still had a little left over, after buying snack food for the day, about 4 drinks the night before, a metro ticket, and McDonalds!
Our first sightseeing stop this morning was at the Brest Fortress, which was absolutely beautiful. The Brest Fortress is one of the most important Soviet World War II war monuments, commemorating Soviet resistance against the German invasion on June 22, 1941. Approximately 7,000 Soviet military personnel gave their lives over the course of several weeks defending the Fortress, where the resistance "ceased to exist with the building itself". Because of the valiant efforts of the people who gave their lives, the Brest Fortress has been given the status of Hero Fortress, which has only been awarded to a total of twelve Soviet cities. Jenn and I decided to go to the souvenir shop before looking at the Fortress so we could spend the last of our last rubbles. Jenn also needed to buy a bottle of Brest Vodka for her brother-in- law who was originally from Brest. I had 2,500 rubbles left, which is about $1.25, and couldn't figure out what to spend it on. I though perhaps I could buy a bottle or two of beer, and when I wandered to the alcohol counter I saw a bottle of white wine for only 2,400 rubbles... sold! As I was trying to point to the bottle I wanted the lady kept grabbing at the bottles around the one I wanted. Finally when she got my bottle I nodded, and she gave me a look that seemed to be disgust coupled with "how stupid are you?!?" Once back in Canada when I drank the wine I understood the look. The wine tasted like a combination of bad port mixed with rubbing alcohol! After we had our booze, and were out of rubbles, we ran into Tom and walked to the Fortress. We only had about half an hour here, and could have used a lot more time! The memorial is large, and there's a lot to see inside it.
After our short visit we were on our way to the Polish border! Che warned us that this was the worst border crossing of the entire trip, and we had to be prepared for a long wait. The longest he had heard to take crossing the border was 16 hours, and the shortest was 3.5 hours. In Moscow, Galina had arranged for us to meet a Belarussian fellow who was going to help us bribe the right people and get through faster, but it was still anybody's guess at how long it would take. As we were waiting on the bus, Reky decided to start a pool on how long it would take. We had to pay in 50 Euro cent, could choose a ten-minute block. If we crossed the border during that time we won the pot! Pretty much everyone got in on the pool and it helped the time go by. At the border we all had lunch (from the store the day before), and sat outside and chatted. Rhian still wasn't feeling very good... and it was probably a good thing that we had a long border crossing, as he was able to spend a lot of time in the bathrooms! After about 3 hours at the crossing we were all told to get back on the bus, and it looked like we were going to get into Poland in no time at all. Laura V had 3 hours to 3 hours and 10 minutes, and it looked like she was going to win, until we had to turn back to get a road pass. Her time slipped by and Troy was up next. We slowly inched forward, and around 3 hours and 15 minutes we passed into Poland and Troy won the pool! As for myself, I was hoping we would take another hour... but sadly we went through too quickly!
We arrived at Warsaw and checked into our hotel around supper. The hotel in Warsaw was beautiful and I was really impressed! We had an amazing supper that night, and then a group of us went across the street to grab some money from the ATM. When we got back, I wanted to use the Internet quickly, and Jenn showed me to the hotel next door that had a computer. You had to pay for the Internet, but the guy at the front desk didn't have any change, so he let us go on for free! I checked e-mail quickly, and wrote mom a quick message, then Jenn did the same and we headed back to the hotel to wash up before meeting with everyone.
A bunch of us met in the lobby, and headed out to see what there was around the hotel. We walked past the central train station and saw a live band that we listened to for a song or two. Then we headed over to an outdoor bar that had swinging benches and we had a drink there. After the bar some people were heading to "Lemons", but I was in the mood for an 'early' night, and Reky was heading back, so we walked with everyone to the bar, then headed back the long way to the hotel. (I say 'early' because I think it was midnight at that point.) Reky and I chatted the whole way back, and somehow ended up talking about our flaws (I'm too cheerful... he's too protective), and relationships (both have commitment issues), and a bunch of other random topics! Our walk probably took about 45 minutes, but it was a nice relaxing time. Reky is a great guy, and I'd enjoyed getting to know him along the tour.
