When me and Chris first started talking about visiting Belarus, the idea of seeing my parents and friends again was exciting and thrilling at the same time. Over months it has become only thrilling. All the comments and reports are diligently attached below, so you’ll be the judge of it yourself.
But first things first: calling Belarus my motherland would be wrong. On every possible occasion. My father, a Russian military man, was sent to Odessa to serve in one of the departments there. That’s where he met my mother, a quiet, sweet, Ukrainian home plant of a girl, and embarrassingly fell for her for a lifetime. And right there the story begins or rather sets its path. Eight months later they got married and lived happily ever after. Not there though. There were places and places in between, countries and cities flew by as if they were on a speed date mode.
Nevertheless, seven years later, with one boy in their possession already, they brought me to life, on a Chinese border. Exciting place to be born? Errr. Terrifying? Positive. Not going to tire you all with the story of my life and simply going to say that we ended up in a tinniest town of all in Vitebsk region, where I graduated high school and nourished my dream of travelling the world.
Nineteen years later I’m living in Dubai and still nourish the same dream but lately it’s been a bit more frequent to make this dream come true every now and then. Naturally, the decision of coming to Belarus was only a matter of time. And we jumped right on to this wagon. Timing was chosen perfectly (as we believed then): end of May-beginning of June promised to be warm and refreshing. To say Belarus greeted us with a stone-cold wind and a temperature dropping unacceptably low for May would absolutely say nothing at all.
That very night we were safely delivered to my parents’ house. Not necessarily the case every time since all the roads in Belarus (just like everywhere in Europe) literally go through vast forests and deer tend to jump up on the road without any verbal warning. To complete this part, I will simply say that we were put in bed avoiding any further destruction.
Couple of days later, we were on our first journey to explore a new territory: Chris was excited, my parents were extatically happy and thrilled, I was mostly terrified. The road to a little country resort with the access to the boats, catamarans, fishing, swimming and a real Russian banya, was fun and pretty uneventful until we took the wrong turn and happened to be on the off-road path. I never knew my dad like that: red, sweaty, extremely agitated. OK, ok, I exaggerated a bit: not like never ever, maybe just “sometimes” …
At the end, we made it to the resort. The place looked like a little fairy tale place: lush greens around, the lake (presumably full of fish), couple of houses not too far from one another, the very Russian banya. It all looked exactly how it was on the pictures and better. The food was fresh, the air crisp, the sun was happily nurturing us all. That evening four of us spent over playing card games and drinking wine on the terrace. The perfect ending to a great day.
The plan for the next day was simple and yet full of joy: banya for me and Chris (no chance to skip it, meaning while in Rome), and a long-waited barbeque in the evening for us and my parents. Let me wrap it up and say: that banya experience was unforgettable. I mean, I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time watching my boyfriend freezing his buttocks off under the waterfall of ice-cold water.
The barbeque was amazing: juicy, fatty, smokey pieces of meat accompanied with fresh vegetables disappeared from the plates in no time.
Overall absolutely beautiful way of spending time with you loved ones in ZOLOVO. Try to book in advance as this place tends to be super busy especially during summertime. However, if you are enjoying winter festivities, they have plenty of things to do there over Christmas time as well. To conclude it all, I’ll say – go see for yourself.
But back to our trip: that afternoon we made it to my parents’ place and several hours later off to visit my brother’s family in Minsk. We were warmly welcomed at their place and later on the entire group of five (my brother with his wife and a 3-years-old boy, and of course me and Christian) were off to a dinner. Umami, the neo bistro we booked that night didn’t disappoint at all. The choice of proper Japanese meals, the selection of wines was impressive. We enjoyed every bite of every chosen meal, every sip of wine and of course the service was great. The night was delightful at every point.
The next morning, as my brother’s family was on a mission impressing both of us with the miracles of Belarusian history, all five of us were packed in the car and headed to discover our historical heritage in Mir and Nesvizh castles. An hour later, while my brother and his wife were watching my nephew’s sleep, as true explorers that we are, Chris and I made our way to the first destination – Nesvizh castle. The residence of Radziwill family for centuries, now it’s a national museum presenting the inheritance captured over years for today’s generation. The amount of pictured gathered that time was reaching a scary number, but today looking at that experience, I have to admit it was needful and of course admirable.
To cut this story short, I’ll mention that we also got to see Mir castle, that used to be more of a fortress at times. But the beauty and greatness of it never faded anyway.
A week comes by and we are on our way to a new location. I planned it as a little couple getaway. Shishki is a suburban complex away from the capital in the middle of the raw nature but with the access to all the possible activities and of course, most needed, another Russian banya. We booked a little so called boat house, that was a bit away from the rest of the houses with an amazing view to the lake, a fireplace inside and tall windows. Most picturesque little vacay for a couple like us. To say we did nothing these days would probably not cover the whole truth: we slept, had the most amazing food and wine, walked a lot in the nature, almost had an attempt to ride bicycles (Tanya was heavily failing, so we had to give up on the idea) and naturally had a chance to go to banya and had the relaxing massage at the end of the session.
All in all, Shishki have one of the most cherishing and wonderful memories from our trip to Belarus.
It would be unfair to skip another unbelievable experience we had in Belarus, Minsk in particular. While staying in the capital and having some date night here and there, we were looking forward to spending our couple of day and nights in some hotels. And let me say that Zalkind Hotel Rooms & Kitchen got us at hello. This little boutique hotel in the heart of the old city provide the best service and food of all. The rooms are stunningly designed, the service in the reception is friendly and truly hospitable, and of course the restaurant impresses with the wine list and the choice of seasonal dishes. Bravo to a well done job, Zalkind!
During our stay in the city, we had ourselves a nice romantic dinner in one of the most recognizable restaurants of the national cuisine called Bulbashy. Imagine our surprise once we saw the menu and found venison cutlets, pike golutsy (pike meat in cabbage leaves), duck hearts in gorgonzola sauce and so much more! 10 out of 10!
However, our little, no so little though, adventure in Belarus is not over yet. I have to be very honest, my fellow readers (are you there?) and say that the secret mission of this whole trip was finding the bison (those who knows, we call it zubr). After being careless during Expo 2020 in Dubai and showing Belarus pavilion to my SO, ever since we dreamt of seeing the greatest of them all – the Zubr. Hence, there in Belarus my parents and us two packed in the car and off to finding them in the wild, aka national biosphere reserve Berezinsky.
Should I say all four of us were impressed? Errr, not as much as once we saw gracious deer and elk (whose name Tanya did not know), or a bear (to be honest, she was the saddest bear girl in the entire park). But we came, we saw, we turned around and left home for late lunch/dinner. There, you have it: task to locate the zubr is complete.
At the end of our “homecoming”, Chris and myself had one more amazing staying in Zalkind and having once of the most delicious lunches of the vacation in the seafood restaurant called SFB. Oysters were on top, bouillabaisse was spectacular, grilled fish was as fresh as if it was just caught. And that champagne we had? Mmm, boy-o-boy!
Now, as we are approaching the end to this never-ending story, I have to say that I was…proud and happy to show to my favorite person what I call my motherland today. This country can be anything and everything at the same time: its forests, blues skies, cold winters and unstable political climate creates a very true picture to what is known as the Republic of Belarus. Will I encourage you to go and put it all in test? Maybe not, but I know for a fact if you decide to do so, this place will not disappoint you at all.
