Second visit to Minsk (2/2)
After our second night in Minsk, a night that included some heavy clubbing and way too much cheap vodka, my phone battery died, which included my alarm clock. So no waking up at nine o'clock for me. I didn't wake until it was noon, so I was way too late for the 10.30 meeting.
Fortunately the meeting was about time management and the monitoring of activities by project management, so not that interesting for me. In the afternoon we had an in depth project evaluation which was quite useful and interesting.
In the evening we had to rush to be at the stadium for the Belarus - Holland soccer match. The atmosphere was really great at the stadium, although it was quite cold for us. We had to stand still for almost 2 hours, which is not great for your fingers and toes. The match was quite bad. The Dutch team didn't care since they already had qualified. Belarus was quite enthousiastic though, and since they won 2 to 1, the atmosphere was even better.
After the match we went for dinner, since we hadn't had time before. So we ate around 10 o'clock, of course with a couple of beer and some good vodka. We had 'Rulka', which is actually nothing more than a pig's leg, prepared in a very good way. Lots of meat, very tender, and very tasty.
For some reason, I thought it was smart to not go clubbing after that, so I turned in after a couple of beers at the hotel bar.
Thursday was a long day. We had nothing planned for the day except visiting Khatyn. A very impressing war monument, to remember the atrocities by the Nazis to the Belarusian people. Since only the projectmanager and me had time that afternoon it was cancelled and we had time to do some regular work.
In the afternoon one of Lectric's contacts in Belarus took us to a tech convention in town. It was nice to see how that kind of things happen in Belarus. It looked a bit like a regular convention, but somewhat smaller and more 'Belarusian'. Which more or less means that there are lots of good looking women present to spread flyers and present all kinds of products.
At night we went for dinner at Ptich. A nice restaurant 5 kilometers out of Minsk. The restaurant had a bit of a 'christmas' look and feel, since it consisted of several wooden cabins with tables, it was lit with all kinds of small lights and it was a bit snowy. There we had a nice dinner with more vodka and beer, and shaslik again. The best meal of the week...
After eating we went to a club that one of the team members in Minsk had looked up. There was supposed to be a 'Sexy Style Party'. When we got there it was a bit early, and since the club had a bowling alley, we threw some balls. I really suck at bowling...
The party afterwards was very very good. I think that this was the best night of clubbing in Minsk that I have been involved in. The music was very good. The atmosphere was even better. And since it was a sexy style party, there were male and female dancers around. There were some striptease acts as well. For some reason that is far more regular than it is in the Netherlands. The women were looking really really good and the entire team enjoyed themselves.
Friday was a day of wrapping up. Packing bags, buying souvenirs, going to the airport and finally home. Unlike the flight to Minsk, this one went very well and I was home more early than I expected. It was very good to see Anneke again after 5 days. I think this was the longest time that we didn't see each other since we started dating 4 years and a bit ago.
Fortunately the meeting was about time management and the monitoring of activities by project management, so not that interesting for me. In the afternoon we had an in depth project evaluation which was quite useful and interesting.
In the evening we had to rush to be at the stadium for the Belarus - Holland soccer match. The atmosphere was really great at the stadium, although it was quite cold for us. We had to stand still for almost 2 hours, which is not great for your fingers and toes. The match was quite bad. The Dutch team didn't care since they already had qualified. Belarus was quite enthousiastic though, and since they won 2 to 1, the atmosphere was even better.After the match we went for dinner, since we hadn't had time before. So we ate around 10 o'clock, of course with a couple of beer and some good vodka. We had 'Rulka', which is actually nothing more than a pig's leg, prepared in a very good way. Lots of meat, very tender, and very tasty.
For some reason, I thought it was smart to not go clubbing after that, so I turned in after a couple of beers at the hotel bar.
Thursday was a long day. We had nothing planned for the day except visiting Khatyn. A very impressing war monument, to remember the atrocities by the Nazis to the Belarusian people. Since only the projectmanager and me had time that afternoon it was cancelled and we had time to do some regular work.
In the afternoon one of Lectric's contacts in Belarus took us to a tech convention in town. It was nice to see how that kind of things happen in Belarus. It looked a bit like a regular convention, but somewhat smaller and more 'Belarusian'. Which more or less means that there are lots of good looking women present to spread flyers and present all kinds of products.
At night we went for dinner at Ptich. A nice restaurant 5 kilometers out of Minsk. The restaurant had a bit of a 'christmas' look and feel, since it consisted of several wooden cabins with tables, it was lit with all kinds of small lights and it was a bit snowy. There we had a nice dinner with more vodka and beer, and shaslik again. The best meal of the week...After eating we went to a club that one of the team members in Minsk had looked up. There was supposed to be a 'Sexy Style Party'. When we got there it was a bit early, and since the club had a bowling alley, we threw some balls. I really suck at bowling...
The party afterwards was very very good. I think that this was the best night of clubbing in Minsk that I have been involved in. The music was very good. The atmosphere was even better. And since it was a sexy style party, there were male and female dancers around. There were some striptease acts as well. For some reason that is far more regular than it is in the Netherlands. The women were looking really really good and the entire team enjoyed themselves.Friday was a day of wrapping up. Packing bags, buying souvenirs, going to the airport and finally home. Unlike the flight to Minsk, this one went very well and I was home more early than I expected. It was very good to see Anneke again after 5 days. I think this was the longest time that we didn't see each other since we started dating 4 years and a bit ago.
posted by Sjoerd at
9:34 AM
