It's strange to think that summer is right around the corner when just a couple of months ago it seemed so far away... The academic year is coming to an end (I'm done with 4 out of 5 classes but still teaching twice a week), friends are starting to leave or talking about leaving soon... A fairly strange time of transition, but I can't say it's anything new. Ends and goodbyes seem to follow me wherever I go, be it in California, Clermont-Ferrand, Middlebury, Irkutsk, or Moscow, but no matter how many times I go through them, they are impossible to "get used to".
I forgot to write about our group's trip to Belarus a couple of weeks ago... It was a great trip to a country unlike any other I've ever been to.
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THE ITINERARY
Moscow - Brest - Minsk (with day trips to Mir, Nezvizh, Khatyn, and Dudutki) - Vitebsk - Polatsk |
Here are some pictures in no particular order:
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Oktober Square in Minsk
"The feats of the people will live on for centuries" |
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| Nothing wrong with a little friendly propaganda... |
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| Saint Nikolay Church in Brest on our first day in Belarus |
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| The main entrance to the Brest Fortress |
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| Brest Fortress |
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| The Courage statue, gazing down at the eternal flame |
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A WISENT looking dapper at the
Belovezhskaya Pushcha near Brest |
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Getting ready for Victory Day
Thousands of these artificial flowers all over downtown |
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The Gates of Minsk near the railway station
(Thank you, Stalin) |
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Men at work behind the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit,
Old Town Minsk |
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Khatyn Memorial. This monument represents what is left over when
a wooden house is burnt down: the foundation and the chimney.
There is one of these representing every house in the
town of Khatyn before it was burnt down by the Nazis.
Bells ring every 30 seconds to commemorate the rate at which
Belarusian lives were lost throughout the duration of the Second World War. |
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A windmill at the Dudutki ethnographic
museum of Belarusian rural culture |
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| Wooden church at Dudutki |
MORE PICTURES HERE
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