Brest, Belarus

The train passed through Belarus, where we hardly saw any people all day, just endless fields and forests.

... crossing into Belarus.  The border guards were "matter of fact" and strictly perfunctory checking our passports and Belarus and Russian visas, and soon (2-hours later) we were off to Brest. The Brest station was vintage Soviet ...

... . Brest lies extremely close to the Polish frontier, so it's basically either the first or last city people see going through Belarus. As such, it's arguably more Westernized than other cities likely are, but it's still a major switch from the capital. ...

... movies, and I got the distinct impression that all the money is in Minsk. Even Brest was markedly poorer. On a Communist-dictator level, like Vietnam, Belarus didn't feel as though it were under a particularly different government from Canada, aside ...