Second visit to Minsk (1/2)

Last week we went to Minsk for work, evaluation and, of course, serious 'getting to know each other a bit better'.

We left on Monday morning, and had to work our way through rush hour to get to Schiphol in time. We were not flying via Frankfurt this time, but Prague. Before we departed from Amsterdam we already had a delay of about 50 minutes. That seems pretty OK, but not if you only have 45 minutes to transfer in Prague. We got to Prague at the same time our next plane was leaving. Off to a good start.

The transfer desk booked us to Minsk via Vienna, a flight which didn't leave until the end of the afternoon, with us waiting in Prague for five hours. So, instead of wandering aimlessly through the airport, we decided to have a meeting and evaluate things that are happening in the company with a small focus towards working with the guys in Minsk. Our flight to Vienna was not with a trusted Airbus, or a solid Boeing. No, this was in some old Russian propellor plane..

The flight to Vienna took only 45 minutes, and after waiting there for another 90 minutes or so, our flight to Minsk was finally going to happen. The pilot informed us that there were heavy mists in Belarus, so the chance existed that we had to turn back to Vienna if we were not able to land. Good news... not.
So, instead of arriving around 2.30 pm, we arrived around midnight. We went to the hotel bar and had a couple of beers before turning in.

The next day was planned full with meetings. We started off with an overall evaluation of the projects of the last six months. After that we decided to delve into procedural issues in the afternoon. This was an interesting meeting, because both the Dutch and the Belarusians had a chance to speak their minds and get something going again.

In the evening a contact of Lectric in Minsk took us to a restaurant where we had some Belarusian food. Blinis and caviar as a starter, and Shaslik for our main course. Of course, we wouldn't be interested in the culture if we passed the vodka, so about 4 toasts later things were really getting nice :)

That night we went clubbing at the most sleazy place we know in Minsk called Max Show. It is something between a club and a bar, with bad music (the same tape they had on in June) and about half the women there are hookers. We had some rounds of cheap vodka there, and I had a couple too many, since I don't remember everything from the end of the night. All of a sudden I was outside, next I am in a cab, and then I wake up way too late on Wednesday...