Novogrudok is an unassuming town between Minsk and Grodno which, with the freezing sleet and slush in which we arrived, did not look particularly appealing. It's the sort of place you'd pass through on the bus without so much as a glance if you were on the way somewhere else. We were as it happened - we had spent a long day travelling to the castle of Mir from Polotsk, but decided to stop off anyway to break the journey. The town's claim to fame though is as the ...

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Traversing Belarus from west to east and back again in the middle of winter is a curious choice of holiday it must be said, and aside from the coldness and greyness, we had to deal with a largely featureless landscape on our long train and bus journeys. When you think about a thousand ...

After a couple of pleasant if uneventful days spent wondering around Brest's provincial streets we moved to the capital, Minsk. Temperatures had risen and there was a thaw in the air, slush underfoot, which was making getting around a soggy affair. The train network in Belarus is extensive and inexpensive - the three hundred kilometre journey took four hours and cost $5, though queuing up and buying tickets proved a challenge with all signs in Cyrillic, no Eng...

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true inspiration in art and science" - Albert Einstein "Belarus? at Christmas? You can forget it. No way!" - this was my girlfriend's predictable response when I first suggested going to Europe's least-known and probably least fashionable travel destination sometime in early 2012, perhaps fancifully imagining a romantic, alternative festive holiday to the usual over-indulgen...

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true inspiration in art and science" - Albert Einstein "Belarus? at Christmas? You can forget it. No way!" - this was my girlfriend's predictable response when I first suggested going to Europe's least-known and probably least fashionable travel destination sometime in early 2012, perhaps fancifully imagining a romantic, alternative festive holiday to the usual over-indu...