In this latest series, I will be going through all the countries I’ve travelled to on my mission to visit every single country in the world. In this article, we will be covering country #73: Belarus. If you haven’t gotten a chance already, read this story first to find out why I’m trying to visit all 193 UN-recognized countries.
VIDEO – Country #73: Belarus
Blog post on Belarus
- My Complete Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, and Ukraine Spending Breakdown
- My Experience Entering Belarus Through the 5 Day VISA-Free Regime
Flying on Belavia
To reach Minsk, I flew on Belavia Airlines. I was surprised to see that this airline is actually better than most European carriers.
They even served us food on a 1-hour flight which is quite impressive.
Arriving in Minsk
Going through immigration was a breeze. Once I was out of the gate, I used the airport wifi to get an Uber driver to take me to my hostel.
Unfortunately, when I arrived, I got lost and couldn’t find my accommodation. I approached a few local Belarusians but the older folks didn’t speak English. It wasn’t until I came across some University students who spoke good English and directed me to my hostel.
The hostel I stayed at was pretty cool. It was the former home of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated John F. Kennedy.
City walking tour
After getting settled in my hostel, I dropped off my stuff and went for a walk to check out the city centre.
Minsk is eerily clean. I wonder if everything in this city is for show. And I also wondered what the actual country side looked like.
Befriending a local Belarusian guy
The next day, I went to a local food court, and to my delight, I saw a Chinese restaurant called Jacky Chan.
It wasn’t open but it reminded me of my time in Colombia when locals would call me Jacky Chan.
After grabbing a bite to eat, I headed back to my hostel to relax when I came across a brooding Belarusian guy. We struck up a conversation and I learned how miserable his life is in Belarus. He told me that he works as a psychologist and has 40-80 patients a day. Each patient only gets 10 minutes of therapy time. When he said that, I started wondering how he can help someone with their mental health if they only get 10 minutes each.
After a lengthy conversation, he realized he had hope for a better life and future if he leaves Belarus and immigrates to another European country.
Flying to Lithuania
That same day, I would be flying out of Minsk and heading to Lithuania next. An American traveller and I hailed an Uber and made our way to the airport.
After going through immigration, we saw a small slice of capitalism when we came across a burger king by the gates.
We boarded another Belavia Airlines flight. Once again, I enjoyed flying with Belavia Airlines that is going to Vilnius.
Conclusion
My travelling experience to Belarus was interesting as I tried to squeeze in a few more last-minute countries before flying back home to complete my one year trip around the world. I do think I will come back here again one day for one big reason. One of my dreams is to take the longest train journey in the world starting from Vietnam going all the way to Portugal. And to complete that mega journey requires transiting through Belarus.
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2 thoughts on “Belarus – Country #73 In My Mission to Visit All the Countries in the World”
Can’t wait to see these countries. Thanks for the info.
It’s probably not safe to go to Belarus right now with the rigged election protest happening. I think several people got hurt and 3 people died.