Last Days in Minsk

On our way back to Minsk with Igor's great Aunt (Zena) and Vasil (her husband) we stopped at a WWII memorial to the town of Khatyn, which was burnt down by the Germans who locked the people of the town in a shed and burnt them alive. You can read about this and the supposed 243 other villages that the Germans burnt down in Belarus HERE. It is a beautiful but sad place. They have put small towers with bells that ring sombrely to represent each house that was burnt in the village.

bell tower

Each of these graves has the name of a village that was burnt

leading up to the Memorial

On our last couple of days in Minsk we decided to do some sort of different stuff. On Sunday we met up with Igor's friend Anton again. We found a gym that had a swimming pool attached and spent a couple hours avoiding the heat in there. It should be noted that there was only one day during our whole trip that it was less than 86 degrees outside and that was the one day in Narich where it rained.

We had a fun time working out and swimming, although I did get lost in the gym. I thought that the boys were going to meet me in the lobby and then go out to the swim floor, they thought that I was just going to meet the out on the gym floor. So after 20 minutes of me standing in the lobby in my swimsuit waiting for them, a very nice young lady came in and asked me if I was looking for the swimming area and to follow her, where I found the boys already wet as they had been swimming in the pool. Anyways, communication is key and when you don't speak the language you can find yourself waiting half naked in a pool lobby. lol

After our fun exercise work Anton had to go so Igor and I decided to walk around Minsk. We went into the biggest shopping store in Minsk to see if we could find any fun souvenirs for you lovely folks back home. We did have some luck but not a lot.

A little later we met Igor's friend Serge and his wife Nastia (short of Anastasia) had a little dinner and then went for a lovely walk around the oldest part of Minsk. Apparently there is an archaeology museum in Minsk, so I made Igor promise that on our next trip to Minsk he would take me there lol. While walking in this section we saw a folk band play outside one of the churches so we stopped to listen and watch some spectators dance. We also visited a park that is called the Island of Tears, which has a memorial to the Mothers and Soldiers who died in the Afghan War (Soviet War in 1989.)  Apparently it is tradition for newly weds on their wedding day to walk over the bridge to the Island of Tears and for the Brides to touch this statues little winky so that they will have many healthy children.

Serge and Nastia said they didn't do this. Overall it was a very lovely day.

Goodnight Minsk

On Monday Zena and Vasil, were kind enough to drive us to the castle Mir (pronounced Mear). It was a lot further away and not what I had expected but I still thought it was nice because of all the history. You can red up on it if you want HERE.

Katie at the tippy top of the tower

"lovely plumage"

Once back from Mir, Igor and I went back into Minsk and spent the day walking to a couple of the places that he had lived while in University and we broke my mom's rule of never eating at American restaurants and ate at McDonalds for lunch!! Then later in the afternoon we met up with one of his friends Anya (pronounced An-yah) and her son and just set and chatted in a park.

We returned to Zena's where we were staying, at about 9:30pm had some dinner packed and tried to get some sleep as we needed to get up at 3:45 AM to make it to the airport in time for our flight home on Tuesday.