Cheap, Cheap, Fun, Fun!

I woke up to my 10:30 alarm at 11:30, because my phone still doesn't register the time difference between Minsk and Vilnius. It's alright though, because Jonas and I were tired as hell this morning, and were lazy enough to spend 2 hours getting up and ready. 

I donned my Eastern European jacket and we headed out. We got to the Metro station at 1:30. Paid the 2,600руб ($0.31) for both tokens, and proceeded to catch the train in the only direction it heads from our stop, магилёуская. 

We got off where the lines intersect, and surfaced.

Instead of going one stop on the blue line to Lenin Plaza, where the train station is (to get our exit tickets) we decided to venture down the main Проспект in what we figured is the right direction to the station. Keep in mind, this was all based off my memory of looking at a map briefly on my iPad before we had left. We had (and have) no map of the city or metro.

I remembered seeing a restaurant called Seven on that map, which I mentioned to Jonas, as he used to work at a place called Bar 7 in Copenhagen. It was on the left side of the road coming from the station. And it was also next to us at the station we surfaced by, so we sort of guessed which direction to go.

We stopped in at Seven for a little light refreshment (coffee and a fresh-squeezed orange juice), which together ran us an exorbitant 30,000pyб or so, $3.60.

We walked for a while, wandered, meandered and got lost on some side streets.

We found a supermarket in a mall and got a snack of hot dogs in wraparound buns. 4 of them for 12,000, $1.45. So cheap!

We wanted real food, so we searched for a Kaфе оr Ресторан, trudging through the snow in the back roads of Minsk.

We stumbled upon a little place called Кафе Ашхабаg, which felt like it would be Turkish, though truthfully the cultural origins of the restaurant was a tad unclear. 

There was no English menu, so we pointed and stumbled through ordering something that we only had the slightest idea about, if at all.

Jonas ended up with a coffee and some sort of chicken and rice dish. I got what tasted like veal, with tomato and cheese, a salad, and a pineapple juice. All together it cost 61,200руб, $7.37. So cheap!

After paying, we headed back to find the main road we'd been walking on, Проспект Незалежнасцi.

We didn't come out onto the Prospect right away, but found instead the Church of Saints Simon and Helena. It's a beautiful brick church of unrecognizable influence (not quite Russian, not quite Roman Catholic, not quite Gothic). We were enthralled. Then we discovered it was sitting on Independence Square, the obligatory communist city center during Soviet times. Think Tiananmen Square or Red Square. It's like that. Good chance found the place. Lucky us. 

Under the square is a large mall. We wandered all three underground floors, looking for Belorussian hats and gloves, neither of which we found.

We got drinks at a coffee shop called CoffeeBox, with free wifi named CoffeeBox, with the password CoffeeBox. Such security!

Next to the train station to finally inquire about tickets to Kiev. But we never got any info. We reached the station and realized that A) the line was too long, and B) we had no idea of the schedule and couldn't find any. We resolved to return to the hostel, as the sun had set (it was about 6), and figure it out for the morning.

We wandered a while more through Проспект Незалежнасцi and the surrounding streets, heading back to the metro station we left from this afternoon.

We made it back to the hostel area around 8, stopping first at the supermarket in the next building. We picked up a ton of cheese, two loaves of bread, two bars of Belorussian chocolate, pineapple juice, two beers, and a tube of what we guessed was meat but turned out to be a pâté of some sort. In total we bought almost twice as much as last night, and it cost less than last night, about 110,000руб, ~$13.20.

We ate it in our private 8-bed dorm. We also calculated how much we've spent in the last two days. We estimated a little under 500,000руб, $53 or so. We've been eating nonstop, buying tons of food and not skimping on anything. And for $13.25 per person per day, we've been living as princes. Cheap!

We relaxed the rest of the night. Watched Talladega Nights and MST3K: Mole People.

Bed after 3.