Three
days. It took me just three days, to finally, fully and forever realize one very easy point–
„Don’t be a victim of someone’s opinion. Prove it by yourself “.
Belarus.
Land which seemed always so close to me, yet somehow so far. For me, as an Ukrainian, living in Western Ukraine, it would take me around 4 hours to get to
Belarus (distance is small, but road is awful, and I mean really awful). However,
my road seemed always not on the right way. Only once I have travelled through
Belarus whilst I was going to Estonia. Surprisingly, during that trip I have no
memorable flashbacks stored, that is maybe due to the fact that the trip was
quite tiring with lots of custom check-ups and so on. The fact that we don’t
need visa there, and it would be relatively cheap trip as well as one full of
surprises, seemed not persuading enough. „Lukashenko is watching everyone“,
„You will get into trouble“, „What will You do there?“, „They have nothing but
potatoes“, „It's communism out there“. These and many other popular stereotypes
and media paradigms seem funny, yet again they can influence your attitude,
thoughts and expectations. Cannot say, that it was totally in my case, but
somehow I didn't go there. But finally, having found time and most importantly
perfect traveler (Roksana), as well as purpose, I managed to make a short time acquaintance
with this „last dictatorship in Europe“.
