Orthodox Christmas in Belarus || Magical Walking Tour

welcome back to aot Ventures it's a very very cold day at Minsk it's about 27 F which uh with the windshell factor it's around minus actually it's about 13 and then about or about -1 celsus so today I'm going to go Christmas shopping I know it's after or December 25th but I'm going Christmas shopping for the Russian Christmas which is on uh January 7th so I'm going to take a walk to the mall I'm going to bring you along and I'll show you all the sites along the way enjoy okay right in front of us is a theater uh which is very very old it's probably close to 100 years old or or older actually yeah way it's about 135 years old and it's still still active and then next to it is a park which where I take Obie uh pretty much every day uh especially since uh it's cold out so we can't go for the long walks so we just you know go across the street to this park and uh he does his business and then we go home um here's another theater uh that I don't think it's open right now um but they do advertise or you can see the old uh old uh posters from uh past movies or past uh Productions beautiful building okay so uh coming up is a brand new restaurant um that just opened up about a month ago it's called Grill London and uh we like it it's a chain um I think there's one in vnice and of course there's probably one in London but uh they have really good service uh the staff is friendly and uh it looks pretty much the same except they changed the color of the bar red down below it's kind of their uh signature for all their restaurants around the world all right and then uh we're going to go walk over here but I got to go we got to go under we got to go under the street and then pop up over there okay now we're on the Underground this is where you can get onto to the Metro you go to different parts of the city City but down here underneath underneath Main Street intersection you have little stores there's a coffee shop and you got Lova this guy claims to have the best coffee in minut you know how I know CU he told me okay here's the Metro right here I get on uh you got a little pastry shop for uh KFC have a uh kigi or bookstore bookstore now if you go up here come we're coming up on the other side of the street there's a little fast food Joy where you can get wraps actually had one wrap in here look that there you can see I'm making wraps the chicken orser okay we are just over there and now we've been underneath the street and we're right here now okay moving on okay so here's uh one of the biggest squares in Minsk and what they do every year is they put up a huge Christmas tree as you can see right up here and then they uh put lights all over they also have little fake houses but it's very festive and then they usually have music going on which I think I can hear it's usually blasting especially around right around when it gets dark they start blasting it cuz they turn the lights on here right now they're [Music] off see you have uh [Music] protected sare in Cas uh something happens everybody kind of comes here there'll be a lot more people here when it gets dark and the lights go [Music] on not sure if we're seeing an Instagram girl or we do have Santa [Music] [Music] Claus gigantic plock watch [Music] okay so next I'm going to go I'm going to go to uh right around the center of Minsk which is uh kind of well not we're in the center now but sisa stre is kind of the center of uh NTI restaurants bars coffee shops so we're going to we're approaching there so uh let's do it okay so today is Sunday so a lot of people are usually out and about on a Sunday uh even when it gets cold you know cuz they know how to dress warm but I think today is a big shopping day because Christmas Russian Christmas is on Tuesday so they only only have two days and tomorrow tomorrow is a working day so really today is the the only day that they can shop uh until Christmas so it's green so we got uh Paul chain coffee shop in Europe popular here too there's probably I know of like four um their service is getting better actually so before it was horrible you'd go sit down and no one would even greet you you'd be there like 20 minutes without someone coming up to help you but that's changed okay so up here we have a few bars um hoga bar right here you had Mad Men basically uh a lot of foreigners go to Mad Men with a lot of money and a lot of the local B Russian girls will go to meet these men and uh that will usually happen at Mad Men usually after midnight cuz that's when the dancing starts and the DJ and then uh around the corner are a few other bars that you can go to and right up ahead we have zero Cafe which is a very popular Cafe my old apartment there was one in my building and they're usually really friendly it's really important here in here in uh in bellus to find a restaurant or a cafe where they're friendly and provide good service here's a Bar opens up I think around 8:00 usually it's a small little bar there another little small little bar opens up at 6 um and here's a real popular bar it's kind of a cocktail bar um where you can have dinner so the the bar the main bar is up here and then the main part of the restaurant is in the back and again a lot of well to-do foreigners uh that want to meet local Bell Russian women they come here um because the B Russian women are looking to meet foreigners with cash and this place opens up at 6 o00 CTI and I go there a couple times just because we go to the bar and you can meet some interesting people but for the most part we don't we don't go there we don't go we will go to these little little bars here and just have a beer hang out and here's the main entrance for Mad Men the club okay here's a little uh internal path or Street a couple of the shops restaurants [Music] a little square with a fountain a couple trees here okay here's a restaurant here that's been here a long long time it's called rades Rasha ratesa it's very popular it's kind of like a brewery so it's a large you know Pub style restaurant and uh in the in the summer if you watch some of my videos You'll you know that I've done a few of these videos and uh here ATA and outside right around here is a Terrace a lot of the times you'll have like a street performer singing right here which is cool and if you look farther up the larger buildings that way that's where the mall is so I'm cutting through here oh let's go over here let's look at they have a little uh little kiosk shops that are uh you know they sell local souvenirs pictures paintings magnets slippers gloves jewelry and you usually have a guided tour either it'd be uh Russians or Turkish might be Russians speaking in Russian it's very popular for Russians to come to mensk especially during the holidays CU they just love how how simple it is here how nice the people are how clean the city is and uh how safe it is and they don't need a uh they don't need a you know they don't need a visa uh they have an agreement between bellus and Russia where you can you you know no Visa needed go back and forth as many times as you want little coffee cafe coffee to go fellow Russian souvenirs coffe coffee cup so these are magnets they're about eight rubbles which is about $2 $2.50 nice a lot of the shops aren't open but a lot of them are and this uh this artwork is synonymous with bellarus across the street is hotel Europe it just this year had their 140th anniversary you see celebrating it there and of course this isn't the original um it's the original structure but they've remodeled it probably two three times um it's you know it's an okay Hotel I don't I don't like the the core inside CU it's kind of old old uh you know Russian or old bellus style it's not very modern inside um I'm thinking the rooms are but not the hotel lobby and there's not really a there's no bar in there there's a old school restaurant which is right next to it um I don't know not my favorite uh across the street kitty corner right there is called the Grand Cafe and that's been here a long long time and for Valar Russian standards very very expensive like you can get uh you know probably a beer for 15 rubles which is you know $45 and that's very expensive for Belo or you get like cappuccino you know probably two three times the cost of a normal Cate okay so we're coming up on Grand Cafe I might step in there for you guys or I'll just uh video outside give a better view you can see the the windows that are lit around that's how far it goes or deep and then if you go beyond that is the kitchen but you know they're friendly staff just just a little bit more expensive you don't want to go there every day for a coffee cuz it's like going to Boston or something for a coffee um see if it's going to turn green oh there we go yeah they got a nice lit Reef surrounding the door you can see the architecture is really nice all the way up it's a very nice building and uh they they usually have have uh cables out here uh during the summer when it's warm so I'll just go in here real Quick's nice tree so it's really nice you got the chandeliers nice little bar on the windows so nice okay just leaving the grand CA Grand Cafe hope you enjoyed that okay here's uh go across the street and here's a a brand new restaurant that opened up during the summer and uh we we kind of like it quite like it this is actually uh where I proposed to cut you she's not my fiance so get it here I don't want to go in but it's they have a really nice bar it's uh bars made out of mar marble uh they make really nice drinks so anyways okay coming up believe it's an Orthodox Church a lot of people are going to church today it is Sunday before Christmas very cool [Music] they created a little scene of uh believe Bethlehem very [Music] cool see B Russians are putting gifts cookies oranges roses bread candy beautiful music we have Jesus on the [Music] [Music] cross you got to have your numchucks wow inter interesting okay everybody stops for the light they don't they don't walk unless it's green I would say 99% of the People Fell Russians they abide by the rules so there's no uh there's no one getting hit by a car here in men I mean I'm sure there is but I'm sure it's uh 10 times 10 times more people are getting hit uh in Boston where I used to live where they don't the pedestrians they don't even abide if it says red they go it's a restaurant that's been closed down since I've moved here and nobody's uh taken over this space and yeah I used to walk down these stairs every day to go to the gym I used to work out at gym 24 so I found a place at the chess club in car marks near my near my apartment but down here you have uh Burger King which uh Burger King uh never sanctioned bellarus uh I don't care about that so they're all over the place and so is uh KFC which is across the street KC's everywhere Burger Kings everywhere they used to be McDonalds everywhere but now they moved out and they sold off their restaurants uh to uh B Russian private investor I believe I believe I could be wrong though here's the main intersection here oh here we go and right up there you have a restaurant called fabri which uh all the young uh Bell Russians foreigners women men that have a little bit of money and like fancy things I like to go to F Rak it's good service there here's uh KFC it's funny how you have the colonel right here KFC Colonel then you have a miral of uh Soviet Union Soldiers very funny full fix they're all over the place uh there's another Cafe called hot fix so I don't know if it's the same company um they basically say serve uh the same coffee uh food uh up here is a sushi place chin Japanese sushi I believe uh life you see life right there that's actually a mobile provider my uh my girlfriend she she has that that provider you have uh Domino's Pizza which uh they're very I've never ordered from Domino's here in uh men's but uh looks good looks good okay coming up we have a classic fell Russian clothing store for men and women um Alma is the women's side which is on this side here um and I actually bought Kata her Christmas gift bought her nice jacket uh last year I think it was Christmas or was right before Christmas but I bought it here it's kind of classic very classic and the men's side is the tillier and I've actually bought a jacket here um last year last like before uh Christmas so you can see they have the women's over here too the very popular coats now or this year is like the white wool uh jackets they could either be long medium or right at the waist it's very popular ha I actually bought Kya for Christmas the American Christmas the Western Christmas on the 25th of December one of those jackets kind of a medium length and here's a doughnut shop kind of reminds me of Dunkin Donuts but it's not it's actually fell Russian now let's look looks very much like Dunkin Donuts but it's not kigi that's that's pronounced kigi in Russian uh that mean bookstore Oz [Music] books here's a a chain called the Discounter store if that's pronounced Discounter so they have a lot of like home products that are on discount it looks like they went out of business I mean they're all over M so I'm sure maybe this one just went out of business business interesting uh right up here we have Alpha Bank um that's that's pronounced Alpha bank and it's a Russian Bank a lot of the foreigners will uh we'll do banking here when if they move here because uh you can easily exchange your dollars uh your rubles into dollars or vice versa and fairly it's changing all the time but you used to be a to transfer a wire money from the United States to here I've never done it and uh oh look I wasn't expecting this you know what let's go on over here it's a Christmas celebration a lot of lot of boosts all right yeah in the summer uh any any major holiday or special event this is usually where they want to do it it's right across from uh right over is the Galleria Mall which is where we're going but they usually have it here in the summer there's always events here uh in the summer they the uh B Russians will celebrate the Independence Day which ironically it's July 5th one day after uh 4th of July St stes that's the way I know but they usually have a lot of good food here cor the pop desserts chicken they have soups look at this yeah you know it's not too bad he bought uh 68 rubles for one of those skewers of chicken we got sausages candy or something candy oh we got a got a concert going [Music] on foreign foree [Music] [Music] they're wear they're wearing uh typical B Russian style clothing back in the day [Music] [Music] [Applause] I got more boosts over here got a little uh Winter Wonderland or something little carnival ride for the [Music] children see a carousel look like you got uh Mickey Mouse deffy duck okay here's the carousel very nice yeah it is it is quite cold but I'm getting warmed up because I've been walking the only thing that's cold is my face okay more shops okay there's more more boosts down here but I'm not going to do that I'm not going to go down there there's where we're going we're going to the Galleria Galleria mall all right so I'm going to go underneath the street we'll end up over there we're now on the other side of the street got all right Galleria it's very lit up it's not like Time Square but it's pretty lit okay guys that ends my walk to the Galleria mall now I'm going to go shopping for Christmas got a few items I need to get but I hope you enjoyed my walk tried to show you everything hope it was interesting until next time ciao