July, 2011. Belarus, Minsk

Our first trip abroad was to a neigbouring country of Ukraine - Belarus. We don't need visa to visit this country and it's relatively cheap. We bought train tickets Kyiv-Minsk-Kyiv and found a place to stay through CouchSurfing for 1 night.

We must say, that we had some stereotypes about Belarus because of its undemocratic government. So we were expecting to see a low level of life there, scared people and a gray gloomy country. But when we came to Minsk our stereotypes were broken immediately.

We saw clean streets, many green parks, interesting sights, kind and happy people. Yes, they have some problems with their government. But they don't give up and believe that the situation will change in the near future.