This city is magical

I love Minsk. Last night we managed to get tickets to the Opera House for a New Year’s Eve gala. The show included snippets from various ballets and operas on this year’s schedule, presented in full costume, with sets and full orchestra. I enjoyed the show, but Alla probably enjoyed more of it since she took a little nap before we went out and I was running on guts alone.

From Drop Box

Alla was really excited to have a little bottle of Sovietsky champagne, which she thought was quite good. (I toasted the new year with grape juice, which wasn’t so exciting,.) I think the former USSR may be the only place left where the French haven’t succeeded in protecting the name Champagne, and for me this whole business is a bit of a joke.

We slept in this morning, which wasn’t hard because the sun didn’t really begin to shine until… well, I don’t really know because I was still asleep. By mid afternoon we were pretty well unpacked and feeling more at home, and I wanted to go out for a walk before the sun set. Suddenly I realized that it was getting dark around 3:00 and I managed to get out of the house by 3:30, when there was still enough light to take some photos of kids sledding in the park two doors away from us.

From Drop Box

I walked all around the park and explored a familiar place dressed in its white winter coat. I enjoyed the music playing quietly from the speakers near the “attractions.” (Ferris wheel, roller coaster and other rides.) I had imagined that the outdoor music would be only for warm weather, but I was wrong and indeed there were lots of people out to enjoy the park with me.

One other surprise is that the public restroom was even open in the next park over, and manned by a very sweet maintenance lady who let me pee for half price because I didn’t have small bills and she didn’t have change.

About this time, it was really dark and I decided to go home. But I didn’t get far before I got really excited to notice that buildings on either side of the river were lit by colored lights and that I could also see the colored lights over the city’s main boulevard. That’s when I decided that the city was magical, and I called Alla to ask her to but her boots on because I really wanted to take her out for a walk.

We repeated together the best parts of my earlier walk, and then we went over to October Square, where they had made a giant ice rink by outlining most of the plaza with a berm of snow and then filling the enclosure with water. A huge Christmas tree anchors the rink in the middle and I enjoyed the Belarusian sense of community I had feared might have been limited to warm weather.

I’m really glad to be here.