eeadventures

[eeadventures]

Adventures in Belarus

My first day in Belarus was highlighted by the post before this.

So, I finally get ahold of D and she was worried sick I had been arrested, as it is strange for a Canadian man to fly across the world for a covid shot (I was but that comes later)

I reach out to a man who's number she sent me, and ask him the fare to be taken to the border, and where and what time to meet him.

1500 Belarussian Ruble's for the trip, okay that's a lot more than I expected but I had the money. I go to a local hospital for the Covid vaccine, get the jab and wander around a beautiful park for a few hours. I wish Canada had things like this, amusement rides, food vendors (I had a delicious shwarma) and wander my way through Minsk to meet up with this mysterious man.

We meet, queue half payment and we drive for many hours to a town called Liozna. As we pull up about a kilometre away from the crossing, he takes a turn through a field and we drive for about 15 minutes. He stops us, points at a forest and says ''You run, fast''

So I ran, for about 10 minutes, through swamp, forest paths and a drain ditch.

Finally, my fatass at its breaking point, I get to a clearing and see a black SUV. My heart drops, thinking I've been caught and this entire trip has been ruined.

Then out of the vehicle steps D, who gives me a hug and hands me the glasses she ordered me (I have very bad eyesight and my glasses broke a few weeks before the trip.

[eeadventures]

I've been told by friends to start one of these

A good friend of mine has suggested for years that I start a blog regarding my life, travels and less than legal adventures. I am bored so I figured why not today? To start, I guess I'll tell people about my trip to Russia in 2021, a tale full of adventure, hiding from the police, and great food.

For some context, I have two very good friends who live in Moscow, D and M. D has been madly in love with M since she was a teenager, and after years they were finally going to get married. I had to be there, but due to covid I could not get a visa.

In 2021 I worked as an alarm station attendant, I made okay money and booked two weeks off to make my way to Russia. The plan was to get the covid vaccine in Belarus, then somehow get to Moscow.

I land in Minsk at 8am, after 38 hours of travel and make my way through the customs, which was basically just walking out with my backpack.

I hire a taxi, and he tries to rip me off with a 50$ fair to downtown Minsk. That is where the first problem started, my phone stopped working the moment we got into Minsk. No data or cellular. Queue an uneasiness that doesn't go away until I reach Moscow, the first thing I did was try to find an MTC store, I walk in, ask for a SIM card and they have me fill out a lot of forms, including passport information, where I am staying, etc.

I pop in the sim, and lo and behold D has been frantically trying to reach me on Telegram, Whatsapp and email for the last two hours.

That's all I feel like writing right now, but more to come, maybe.