Eastern Europe

Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Belarus

Kaliningrad

Posted by on 18, Sep 2012 in 2012 - The Last Dictator Tour (Belarus & Russia), Russia | 1 comment

Kaliningrad

Another swift border crossing into Russia, briefly threatened by a surly border guard shouting at us as her colleague had forgotten to give us a piece of paper with a stamp on for her, saw us arriving at Kaliningrad in early afternoon. The roads were brand new from the spit to the Moscow road, absolutely nothing to do with Putin having a villa built in the spit, and the hotel actually had a camping area with hookups by a lake! We were so on a high we decided to go into the city that evening for a wander around and perhaps a meal. The taxi ride was, as is the custom in Russia, terrifying and...

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Back to the Future

Posted by on 18, Sep 2012 in 2012 - The Last Dictator Tour (Belarus & Russia), Baltic States, Russia | 0 comments

Back to the Future

After an overnight en route from St Petersburg to the border with Estonia we arrived expecting the usual Russian bedlam of border controls, but to our pleasant surprise a very well organised and efficient border crossing actually saw us leave Russia in under an hour. Almost immediately you seem to go forward in time as the fields suddenly became more organised and the villages more welcoming and homely. Houses were more well kept and gardens better tended. It is amazing the change you get in such a short space. Russia seems like a country where everyone has to look out for themselves, public...

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St Petersburg!

Posted by on 15, Sep 2012 in 2012 - The Last Dictator Tour (Belarus & Russia), Russia | 0 comments

St Petersburg!

Church of the Spilled Blood St Saviours Yusopov Palace Theatre Hermitage Church of the Spilled Blood Hermitage St Saviours Peterhof Peterhof Memorial to the siege of Leningrad There is a saying here that in communist times a man was asked where he was born, St Petersburg he replied, where did you go to school? Petrograd he answers. Where do you live now? Leningrad he continues and where would you like to live? St Petersburg. Of course they are all the same place but this city in its short 300 year history has seen enormous changes from Majesterial Capital of Russia, the birth of the...

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Welcome to Russia, now get off the road…

Posted by on 7, Sep 2012 in 2012 - The Last Dictator Tour (Belarus & Russia), Russia | 0 comments

Welcome to Russia, now get off the road…

Good old Joe Nudist Washing Looks lovely… but cold The A140 Novgorod Novgorod Kremlin Last time we entered Russia it took us 19 hours to get in, this time it took about 1.9 seconds as the border between Belarus and Russia is now like an EU crossing. I’m afraid though that’s where the similarities end. When we left Russia we passed a town called Ugly, given some of the towns we’ve driven through we’d hate to visit it because most of the towns and cities here are seriously unattractive. Communism seems to have taken Ugly its sister town of Decrepit and joined them together as the state...

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Minsk!

Posted by on 31, Aug 2012 in 2012 - The Last Dictator Tour (Belarus & Russia), Belarus | 0 comments

Minsk!

Katyn There’s no queue jumping at this fun fair! Honest! Are you sure this is the right way? Nope! Minsk, even the name sounds exotic faraway and Russian, as though it needs a journey full of adventure just to arrive at its gates… Sadly the roads in Belarus are so good the only adventure you’re likely to have getting to Minsk is trying to read the signposts, well that’s what we thought…. We decided to take the back roads from Mir to Minsk and as our map lists all the tarmac roads we chose a tarmac B road that went through the beautiful countryside. The road was virtually deserted and wound...

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Nyet!

Posted by on 27, Aug 2012 in 2012 - The Last Dictator Tour (Belarus & Russia), Belarus | 0 comments

Nyet!

Mir Nesvizh Complex “Nyet” was the stern answer from the manager at the Pizza restauarnt in Grodno when we asked for a table for 4. But there is a table there for 3 free there, we could bring another chair over said Mike, “1,2,3″ counted the manager pointing at the chairs and “1,2,3,4″ he counted pointing at us, “Nyet”. As the others turned around to leave what looked like the best restaurant in the town Jon threw dignity to the wind clamped his hands together in a passing resemblance of praying and said as his nose rapidly grew an inch or two “but we have come all the way from England to...

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