Paratroopers at Vitebsck

Butterfly finger!!

Ooo me too. me too!

On Friday, after Anton's car got all fixed, we got up went to the lake again did some pull ups (because these two boys are all about feats of strength) went swimming had a pretty relaxing day, with a BBQ for lunch and then about 4:30 PM set off on a long distant drive to Zaslonava, which was our half way point on the trek to Vitebsck. I will try and remember to put a map together when I get home of our travels throughout Belarus.

Anton, similar to my high school buddy Mike, was a special forces paratrooper. Each year on August the 2nd they have a celebration and display for the public to come and see on their Army base of all the things that they had learned during their time at training. This was the event that we were heading too.

We stopped for the evening had a great dinner with Igor's father, as Igor's mom Iryna had to work a night shift (she's a nurse). It was very, very hot with little to no breeze and after the refreshing cool that we had in Narich it seemed even hotter. We got up quite early the next morning to make sure that we made it all the way to Vitebsck by 9AM when the festivities started.

We had fun watching all the different displays of fly overs with paratroopers jumping out of planes and landing just in front of us, military combat training with live firing (all be it with blanks, obviously not real live fire), judo or whatever form of martial arts they teach here, not sure and since Anton and Alyssa were very hesitant to speak in English, I forgot to ask.

Anton in front of some memorial

Igor breaking the rules and playing on one of the paratrooper training devices - nearly broke something

At the end of the day we left for an 1.5 hour drive to Orsha, where Anton and Alyssa were kind enough to drop us off at on their way back to Minsk, so that we could spent time with Igor's aunt and other grandmother (his mothers mother).

Lake Narich, Belarusian Sea

Due to it's large size, Lake Narich is coined the Belarusian sea...or at least that is what the Belrusians tell me. We arrived quite late to Anton's mother's house and she greeted us with a very warm welcome food and a trip to the lake, since the sun doesn't go down here until about 11 PM, we had plenty of time.

Unlike Zaslonava or Zamosa where Igor and I were getting eaten alive by all the mosquitoes and horse flies, Narich gave us a wonderful reprieve, at least at the dock where we swam off of, most of the time.

The next morning Anton, Alyssa, Igor and I took a lovely hike to the "Blue lakes." Narich is the lake district in Belarus full of different lakes of all sizes. We had a wonderful time on the easy hike which took us to a great swimming spot where we had a bit of fun on the jumping bridge and in the just deep enough water.

On our way back we stopped at a Russian spa, different than the Sauna experience of Zamosa. This place had Russian, Finish, and Swedish Saunas. i had no idea that they were all so different. i thought Sauna is a sauna, no? No. Russian suana is the kind that you are allow to pour water on the rocks to create steam; Finish is the dry kind where there is no water allowed, just a dry sauna and then swedish is a what we think of as a steamroom. They also had an ice room, 4 swimming pools and a cold pool, for taking a dip in after getting out of the hot suana. The boys of course wanted to try and melt all their skin off in the Russian sauna so Alyssa and I contented ourselves with the swimming pool, where i was trying to help her improve her swimming. She did quite well only that she seemed afraid of putting her mouth under the water.

After the Spa we stopped at Anton's brothers house, where the power steering in Anton's car conveniently broke as we were turning into a parking spot. Which ended up meaning a change of plans for the next day.

Igor and I stayed on at Anton's mothers house and went swimming in a bunch of different spots we discovered on various walks. We got caught in a thunderstorm while walking to the lake and just all around had a wonderful day. i wish i had more pictures of all this but alas, I do not.

Minsk-in'

On Monday or Tuesday, can't remember which, whatever. Igor and I hopped on a taxi bus service to Minsk, where we were met by his very good friend, probably almost like a brother, name Anton, as I have mentioned him before I think.

We spent the morning with Anton, going to Igor's old university, up to his old dormroom (which looks almost exactly like mine did when I was in college, with the exception that they had their own shower, bathroom and kitchen, which I definitely did not. We went to their old gym and some other places. Anton, who was supposed to be at work, decided that he had rather spent time with us and we toured around until about noon with him, when he finally did go back to work.

We then walked the city for a little while, Igor showed me all the place where he used to hang out and walk to. About 2 Pm we met Igor's friend from one of his old places of work, named Serge.

Serge took us to his new flat, about 7 minutes walk from work. A beautiful flat, I am sorry I didn't take any pictures of it now. it's on the 3rd floor of a brand new building he moved in 4 months ago and until last week they only had use of the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, which is really all you need.  Like so many other places in Europe, at least that I am aware of the flats come with nothing in them. no floors, no cabinets, no kitchen equipment, nothing. So Serge and his wife, who was travelling that day so we didn't get to meet her, have done a lot of work in the last 4 months.

Anyway, we had lunch with Serge and then roamed the city for awhile longer waiting for Anton to get off work. Igor told me a long time ago that there were pull up bars everywhere in Belarus, but I didn't really understand the extent of it. He's right, they are everywhere. We played on them basically ever place we have gone, even in the middle of downtown Minsk.

Igor asked me what I thought of Minsk, and honestly it looks just like almost any other major city I have ever been in, in Europe. The one thing that I will say is that the "old" buildings don't look as old as the ones in Rome or Paris and there is more new buildings go up than any other city I have seen. 

That is pretty much all from our Minsk adventure. When Anton got off work we met back up with him and his wife Alyssa (which is really pronounced more like Alicia or alle-ca) and they drove us to Narich.

I was hot so we found a fountain to cool off in

Mushroom Huntin'

The next moring Igor, his father, and I woke up rather early, got dressed, which included me having to borrow some clothes to be entirely covered, as we were heading into the forest to pick some mushrooms.

Igor, in the Goolog prisoner outfit

Igor's father grew up in Zamosa, and has spent his whole life roaming the forests near by so we were in very good hands. He knows the paths, he can find his way around even when there doesn't seem to be any semblance of directions. As Igor said, "It's no wonder the Germans lost in Russian. you get into the forest and you have people like my father who know the forest like the back of their hand. If you are German, you just get lost." Too true.

Zamosa forest

The forests here are fairly dense and they are everywhere, you have tons of different types of mushrooms, ferns, what look like birch trees, pine trees, redwood trees (of some sort), clover, thistle, stinging nettle, little rivers, and lakes. It reminds me much of what I would think the whole of Europe once looked like. Forests, fields, rivers and lake spotted with little villages that spring up out of no where.

We spent about 4 hours walking in our "Whellies" which were too large for both Igor and myself, but we found and harvested, according to Igor's dad, more mushrooms than he had ever found. My archaeologist training of looking at the ground came in handy as I found probably half the mushrooms on my own. :)

Igor's dad and Bykal (the dog) - this is my favourite picture

We returned triumphant and Igor's mom made us some wonderful meals of the mushrooms that we had found.

Our mushroom harvest

The mushroom pickers

Sauna...Russian Style

Continuing our Sunday experience at the family BBQ, once we had returned and everyone had had a good laugh at the pictures of me trying to drive the motorcycle and the story that Igor told of how I couldn't turn. It was time for the Sauna, because what Russian BBQ wouldn't be complete without homemade sauna experience. And yes, when I say homemade, I mean homemade. Igor's father and grandfather (since passed) built the sauna and the whole farm for that matter, you have seen in other photos with their own hands.

From inside the sauna

who knew butterflies like saunas

The men went in first and made it very very hot, or at least that is what Igor told me. Then it was the ladies turn. Since it was already quite hot outside I wasn't really inclined to participate in the sauna portion of the exercise. On the promoting of Igor, however I was persuaded to go in a "have a wash" at least.

With Igor's grandmother and great aunt (grandmothers sister) in toe I went into the sauna, anticipating to just have a quick wash before dinner. Since I speak no Russian and/or Belarusian, when people ask you if you want things it is not always clear what you are agreeing to. In this case, great aunt "Zena" asked me if I needed any help washing....when I didn't reply, much to my surprise, she took over. After being thoroughly washed, I was directed to stand and had large bowls (hard to explain, not really buckets not really bowls...anyway) of water poured all over me, then moved to the other side of the sauna for, what Igor later told me, is called "a light steam." The only way to explain this is that there is a spot that when you put water into it funnels out hot steam on to you which is then simultaneously acted out with being hit with a bunch of tree leaves (see video below scroll to about 35 seconds in for as close a representation as i can find). I have no pictures of my own from the sauna, as it was dark and I felt would be rather inappropriate to take pictures in there.

Ok, so they didn't "beat" me with leaves, though they were used. Still when you aren't expecting any of this you are surprised regardless of what happens. Anyways, the only other thing left to say about this experience was that we had a lovely time, had lots of good food. I tried some home brew Vodka, which is wayyyy stronger than anything I have ever had in a bar, so much so I had to have Igor drink the rest of mine. Let's just say for someone who never drinks he handled the Vodka really well.

Family BBQ

From left to Right: Iryna (Igor's mom), Zena, Vasily (Zena's husband), Vasily (Igor's dad), and Igor

Bike Bum-ble

Well as I said the bicycle adventure continued. After stopping awhile at Igor's grandmother's village/ farm. We got back on our...i guess I have to call them bicycles, though I feel that is unfair to most the other bicycles out there. Igor wanted to take me to a WWII war memorial and then to a lake that he used to swim in.

In about 90 degree weather with a good 70+ percent humidity we got back on the bikes and found the lake (no pictures of that one sorry). And after a quick dip we were on our way back to Zaslonava. the only problem with so much change is that where there were once roads, none now exist or if they do they are just a very faint grassy remnant. So on we went cross country on our 1970's soviet era bicycles. When we did finally make it home my bum was soo sore that sitting down even on the most comfortable couch was a bit unpleasant.

The next day was Sunday and it was time for the family BBQ. We all made our way back to Zamosa: Igor ran, Igor's mother rode her bike, and Igor's dad took me on the back of his motorcycle (mostly because I was still having trouble sitting down, thank you Blue Bruiser).

Igor and I decided to go fishin' Belarus style, which to be honest is more what I think about when I think about fishing than our new found fun style o "trollin'" with Jo :) . The poles that we had were not like any I have ever seen. They were about 10ft long and they telescoped into themselves for easy transport. Very convenient when you are walking or riding somewhere with your fishing gear in tow.

Even though everyone told us we wouldn't catch anything, or rather they told Igor who then translated the message to me, we had a very successful fishing trip. The cat at igor's grandmother's house reaped the benefits of our labour as well. And while we were playing outside Igor taught me, sort of... how to drive a motorcycle. Which went well until I had to make a turn, and then.....not so much.

Let's Do This Thing!

Ok so, long story short and since my resources are somewhat limited, we have, in the last week, travel on the below schedule:
Monday: Minsk (no internet)
Tuesday - Thursday: Narich (limited internet)
Friday: in transit Narich to Zaslonava (no internet)
Saturday: Zaslonava to Vitebsck to Orsha (nor Orich, sorry about the typo before) (no internet)
Sunday: Orsha (no internet)
Monday: Orsha to Zaslonava.

As you can see we have been rather busy travelling around the northern parts of Belarus.

Now that we are back in a somewhat more stationary portion of our adventures it is time to update you with some much requested pictures.

So last week before the travelling commenced Igor took me on what can only be termed an off-roading bicycle adventure. Since it had only been a mere 7 or so years since I had ridden a bicycle for longer than 3 minutes it was only fitting that it would be on this bike delivered from 1970.

"the blue bruiser"

We road a wonderful 6 mile ride a long...."good road," which at the time I thought was not really the truth but now I know is, with the exception of certain highways and heavily travelled road, to his grandmothers house (fathers mother). This bike got the name "The Blue Bruiser" a little later when my rather cushioned rear end feel as though it was being abused by the not so nice seat it was being accosted by.

This village, which according to Igor used to have about 60 + people, now has probably some where closer to 20, no running water or flushing toilets. But for all this that would deter most people it has its own kind of peaceful serenity. And the water and toilet situation, I have come to find are not really uncommon here.

In a way the village it a testament to the changes that are taking place all over. The families that once were born and grew old together in one place are now spread out. Children have left the village for the cities. The houses of the grandmothers and grandfathers get abandoned to time and nature left to take them back into her arms.

According to Igor he hardly even recognizes the places were he used to play and were he has so many fond, and some not so wonderful memories. Though  I cannot relate to this completely I can image that if I were to return to Benicia and see all the areas where we used to swim, play and grow covered by trees, brush, thistle, and nettle so thick that you can't walk through it, I would feel the same sort of sadness.

As has been famously stated more times that I can count: "You can never really go home again" for everything is always changing. the world doesn't stop when we leave it, it just keeps moving on.

The Farm that used to be the lively hood of Zamosa village

View from the back of Igor's Grandmothers

Igor and his Babushka (grandmother)

The water well

Babushka's farm

Babushka's "Dome" (home)

Igor under his favourite apple tree

This used to be the village store

neighbouring Farm

Stay tuned the bike adventure continues...