Saturday already and we fancied a night out. Viciebsk sounded like an ideal place to go and it would be our last city before crossing the border into Russia. We saw less villages along the route as we drove there and it seemed more rural. There were women milking cows in the fields and horses and carts. I spotted a coach parking sign just off the main road into town. It looked like an ideal spot, conveniently located for a cycle into town and another pizza restaurant. The railway line looked a bit close to the car park but we just shelved the thought and went out to explore the town. On the outskirts there were the familiar grey concrete tower blocks of an eastern bloc country and we thought we were in for another depressing metropolis like Minsk. As we got to the centre we saw a large square and a war memorial. There was a small semi permanent fairground with a few rides, mainly for children. Bizarrely that was in the middle of a military display with tanks, heavy artillery and even a helicopter. There was a very nice prom front along the river which would have made an ideal Stellplatz and lots of different churches. There was a huge white church on the hill above the river and as it was Saturday it was wedding day again. The bells rang constantly and about once every 15 minutes another wedding group would emerge down the steps from the church. The people here look more prosperous as the wedding outfits look smarter and of a higher quality. One of the brides had a beautiful dress with crystals sewn into the front and more attention had been paid to hair do's and accessories.
There was a nice pedestrianised section of streets behind this main church and we found a bar for a drink. Jon, Linda and I shared the now familiar 'champagne' but there was no alcohol free for Mike. Our next bar did have alcohol free and Jon used a translating app on his phone to communicate with the barman. They only had mushroom or crab flavoured crisps. We've had the mushroom ones before. Linda and I had though they were quite nice but as the boys didn't like them we declined. A few minutes later the waiter came back with a phone and showed us the screen. 'Firm salty crackers' was dispayed. Having no idea what this could be, but having established that we wanted to remain vegetarian we decided to give it a go. 10 minutes later a dish of strips of bread fried in garlic butter and sprinkled with fresh dill and parsley was served with a side dish of sour cream. Perfect. A 17 year old busker approached playing his violin. He could speak a little bit of English and played us a classical piece of music he had composed himself.
From there we cycled back towards the housing estate opposite the coach park and started our search for the pizza restaurant. Jon performed his praying manoevre for a pedestrian and pleaded for pizza. She understood and pointed down the street we needed. The restaurant was at the base of a tower block and there wasn't a word of english printed anywhere and the staff couldn't speak any either. One of the lads behind the counter banged hard on the wall with his fist. Like a genie from the lamp the duty manager emerged from the other side and she spoke english. She meticulously wrote down our order but of course when it came to mine I hadn't decided what I wanted. I asked what their most popular pizza had on it. I ordered this but asked to go without the chicken. It was delicious. Bacon, sweetcorn, mushrooms and sliced tomato on a base of sour cream and sprinkled with fresh dill and parsley.
An excellent night out had formed a great send off for our last night in Belarus.
Remember I mentioned that we were parked close to the railway line? The trains rumbled past all night, some of them made the whole van vibrate. I got up the next morning to take a picture of one of these monsters. The engines and rolling stock looked ancient and it would be good to have a visual record of how close they were. Not one train went past before we left. Sunday engineering works?
There was a nice pedestrianised section of streets behind this main church and we found a bar for a drink. Jon, Linda and I shared the now familiar 'champagne' but there was no alcohol free for Mike. Our next bar did have alcohol free and Jon used a translating app on his phone to communicate with the barman. They only had mushroom or crab flavoured crisps. We've had the mushroom ones before. Linda and I had though they were quite nice but as the boys didn't like them we declined. A few minutes later the waiter came back with a phone and showed us the screen. 'Firm salty crackers' was dispayed. Having no idea what this could be, but having established that we wanted to remain vegetarian we decided to give it a go. 10 minutes later a dish of strips of bread fried in garlic butter and sprinkled with fresh dill and parsley was served with a side dish of sour cream. Perfect. A 17 year old busker approached playing his violin. He could speak a little bit of English and played us a classical piece of music he had composed himself.
From there we cycled back towards the housing estate opposite the coach park and started our search for the pizza restaurant. Jon performed his praying manoevre for a pedestrian and pleaded for pizza. She understood and pointed down the street we needed. The restaurant was at the base of a tower block and there wasn't a word of english printed anywhere and the staff couldn't speak any either. One of the lads behind the counter banged hard on the wall with his fist. Like a genie from the lamp the duty manager emerged from the other side and she spoke english. She meticulously wrote down our order but of course when it came to mine I hadn't decided what I wanted. I asked what their most popular pizza had on it. I ordered this but asked to go without the chicken. It was delicious. Bacon, sweetcorn, mushrooms and sliced tomato on a base of sour cream and sprinkled with fresh dill and parsley.
An excellent night out had formed a great send off for our last night in Belarus.
Remember I mentioned that we were parked close to the railway line? The trains rumbled past all night, some of them made the whole van vibrate. I got up the next morning to take a picture of one of these monsters. The engines and rolling stock looked ancient and it would be good to have a visual record of how close they were. Not one train went past before we left. Sunday engineering works?
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