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| You could grow old on Belarus' public transport. The buses and electric trains which serve the country move at grandma speed. By looking up words in an English-Russian dictionary, we write rudimentary requests on scraps of paper to communicate with most people who don't speak English. We buy bus tickets with these little notes. Our goal is a small village called Mir, 100 km southwest of the capital. The bus sputters down the road, we're flagged down on a highway by an inspector who comes aboard to check our tickets (must be a corruption control), and the journey to Mir takes 2 1/2 hours even though the road is smooth, straight, and flat like a dusty bowling alley. Along the way we pass, without stopping, many small hamlets of low, run-down houses. Years ago, huge forests covered the area but now only tree patches stand like lonely islands in the midst of farmland. | |||
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The
16th century Mir castle (namesake of the Mir space station?) is a good example
of a Belarusian tourist attraction, empty and under restoration. | |||
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Tourism is down but the fishing is good. | |||
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Mir's bus station, a hub of activity. When the bus dropped
us off in this one-cart town, we knew it would be trouble finding a ride back.
All bus routes radiate from Minsk like rays of light from a star. If you want
to go to the next town by bus and it's not on the route to/from Minsk, then you
probably need to go back to Minsk first. | |||