Trip to Belarus for soccer

The Zaporizhzhya-Kiev train leaves the main railway station, and I load into one of the parlor cars. I am going on another trip, this time to the Republic of Belarus, to a soccer match between Belarus and Ukraine as part of the selection for the 2016 World Cup.

I arrive in Kiev very early. I want to pass some time, so I go to Syrets station, where I find Syrets Arboretum and walk around it for a while. The weather is getting better, the sun is getting hotter.

I go to the center, where I eat in a pusataya hut, and then, to the bus to Chernihiv. However, I do something incredibly – amazingly stupid and get the wrong branch. I get off at Kharkovskaya. I can get to the station I need by bus and it takes about 40 minutes more. These 40 minutes will still play their role.

As I arrive in Chernihiv, where the border with Belarus is just a short walk away, there are reports in the news feed that the border guards do not allow some fans from Ukraine to pass through. I mentally prepare myself to be turned away at the border and go back to walking around Chernihiv, but I still buy a bus ticket to Gomel.

We arrive at the border at night. They take everyone out of the bus and start screening their belongings. They pull me out of the queue:

– Where are we going?

– Football.

– A fan?

– No, just a fan.

I have nothing forbidden in my bag. They found the flag of Ukraine and examined it for a long time to make sure there were no inscriptions. After that they let me go and I went back to the bus. Two more guys join us on the way: they were detained at the border, one was turned around, two others were let through.

We arrive in Gomel late. There are no tickets for the nearest train, and the next one is at 5am. We have to go to Minsk. There’s nothing to do, so I buy a ticket for the morning and prepare to spend the whole night at the station.

It is terribly cold at the station at night. It is impossible to buy anything edible – only suspicious-looking sandwiches like airplane sandwiches and a cutlet, which was obviously fried for several days in a row without stopping. Therefore, we have to eat dry food.

I attract the attention of the Belarusian police much more than I did last time, when I was sitting here harmlessly unshaven on a huge backpack. Now I have a haircut, a smooth shave and only one bag. But the attention is intense. Several times they come up and ask me where I’m going. I show my ticket: to a soccer game. They back off.

While waiting for the train, I meet some more guys who are going to the same match. They are real fans. They go to every trip and do not miss a single game. At that time they were discussing the trip to FYROM for the match with Macedonia, so I gave them some advice on buying cheap tickets.

By morning, I’m tired and pile onto the train and I’m literally knocked out.

Soon we arrive at the train station in Minsk. Passengers excitedly look out the windows, someone whispers: “Something must have happened.” Soon the reason for their surprise becomes clear to me – we are already being met.

The train from Kiev. That’s why there is special attention to it.

The station is filled with law enforcers. There are a lot of police, riot police and young men in civilian clothes, who take close-up video cameras of everyone who gets out of the carriages.

I got off the train and literally bumped into a plainclothes KGB officer. After waving to the camera, I set off for the station. There’s still half a day ahead, which I need to spend to my advantage: eating, walking, taking pictures.

In order not to carry my things with me, I decided to hand them in to a storage room. It is not expensive in Belarus, although I could not find an automatic camera. I had to use a manual one.

And since the sun was shining outside, even though there was no wind, I changed into my sports clothes beforehand. After handing over my things, I headed for the exit.

The first thing I did was to run into a bistro, where I got buckwheat porridge with a cutlet and tea. To be honest, it was not very tasty. I wasn’t used to such dry porridge, to which, apparently, they didn’t even add butter.

I bought a yogurt and a bun at the nearest store for the future and went wherever I was looking. And they were looking, quite by chance, in the direction of the park.

I love parks in general, especially in the fall. Beautiful, slender trees and golden leaves underfoot. You immediately forget about the cold and watch squirrels and birds.

By the way, the birds here live in these various birdhouses. Apparently, there was some kind of contest among companies or something. I don’t know, but it’s not bad advertising for a few pennies. It is much more useful than destroying the appearance of the city with disgusting and motley advertising on billboards and scrolls.

In general, I have long noticed that the architecture of the city in the Republic of Belarus is watched. There are no millions of air conditioners and satellite dishes on the external facades of buildings. Signboards that do not fit into the general ensemble are also forbidden. All this has a very good effect on the appearance of cities.

The park was small, but quite cozy. The park was small and cozy, but very cozy. Soon the alarm clock on my phone announced that it was time to pack up and go to the train station. And all because I needed to buy tickets.

Things were even more interesting with the tickets. I arrived at the station ticket office and bought a ticket from Borisov (where the Borisov Arena soccer stadium is located) to Brest on the night train, and only after a couple of minutes I realized that I had bought on the wrong date. The confusion was due to the night train and the time difference. I went to give up the ticket and buy a new one. I had to pay only 8 000 Belarusian rubles (old) for all this, which was a mere penny, especially compared to the return of tickets in Ukraine.

But I had to buy a ticket for the train at another station, a suburban one. To do this, I started to go down to the subway with my things, where I was quickly stopped by a police officer. As I found out later, it is a regular practice after the terrible terrorist attack in Minsk to check everyone with bags and backpacks.

I was politely led aside and asked to show the contents of my bags. Since I had nothing to hide, very quickly the law enforcement officer wished me good luck and I moved on.

When I arrived at the suburban station and bought a ticket, I waited for my train. When I got on the car, I saw the guys I had seen at the station in Gomel. We got to talking, as they knew where to get off and how to go to the stadium, while I did not.

When I reached the town of Borisov, I was already thinking in my head about where to go, where to eat and what to see, as there was still time before the match. But as soon as we got off the train, the police came towards us.

In just a few minutes we were already in the police premises at the railway station, where we were asked to show all our belongings. They went through our bags and started sending us to the bus where all the fans were gathered. On the transport, under the supervision of the police, we were supposed to be sent to the stadium, but since we were not found any prohibited items, we were not wanted in their databases, and I had nothing to do with the fan movement, several people were released on their word of honor.

This was a good thing, as it allowed us to stock up on more snacks and water. There was nothing else to do.

I found information about a castle or palace on the Internet, but I couldn’t find a way to it. I just took a shuttle bus there, walked around the courtyards, photographed the temple and went back. Although, in principle, there was not much to see there. Only a piece of one wall remained.

During this trip, I did very little sightseeing information gathering and therefore missed the beautiful Resurrection Cathedral…..

From the station, on a marshrutka with several other fans, we went directly to the new stadium, where BATE’s home matches are played and which hosted the qualifying competition between the national teams of Belarus and Ukraine on soccer.

Preparations were already in full swing outside the stadium. The government of the republic had decided to avoid any provocation at all costs. Probably no other rally has ever had so many water cannons, autozaks and OMON officers per square meter.

There was again a check at the entrance. This time it was OMON fighters, not police officers. And they behaved much worse and more insolently. For example, they even searched the contents of my wallet!

But the match itself passed without provocation, except for the performance of fan songs that were not entirely friendly to the citizens of Russia and their President. However, those who were “charging” these chants had already disappeared by the start of the second half. As it later turned out, they were quickly and discreetly detained and even managed to take them to court.

In total, several dozen Ukrainian citizens were detained at the match and after it. The official mass media of Belarus were told that they allegedly organized scuffles and riots, but it was not true. There are no videos of these very riots either.

The match ended in a 0:2 victory for Ukraine, with the Belarusian team scoring an own goal.

In order to prevent the fans from scattering around the night city, buses were organized to the train station, where most of the fans went. Many left at once, while I and a dozen other fans stayed to wait for the train to Brest, which was running late at night.

This train station turned out to be very small and there was decidedly nothing to do. Not even a place to get a snack. And the cold took its toll and in the morning I had a sore throat.

But I did not oversleep the train and arrived in Brest in the morning, where they were waiting for us again. The fans were met from the train, their passports were taken away and they were sent by train to Ukraine. One of the OMON officers carried the passports and handed them over at the border. Apparently they were afraid that we would just jump in the forest and organize fan riots there.

When I saw a Belarusian in front of me, I decided to cheat. Putting the phone to my ear, I went just to the police line, saying to the nonexistent interlocutor: “Yes, yes, mom. Just got home.” A little freaked out by the impudence and looked at each other, they parted, and I walked to the station.

Initially I thought I would walk around Brest for another day, but because of a cold I decided to change my plans and go straight to Ukraine. There I was waiting for a warm dinner at my friend’s house in Lviv and the next match, Ukraine – FYR Macedonia.

It turned out that I was on the same train as the other fans. Only in a different carriage and with my passport in my hands.

In general, I will honestly say that the work of the police was exemplary. On the one hand – they did everything to avoid misunderstandings. For example, the sale of pyrotechnics was banned in the cities a week ago. At the entrance everyone was checked and the most insane were simply not allowed into the country. And then everyone was carefully escorted. At the same time, no one infringed on anyone and there are no claims against them.

I’ll tell you more. When they put things in my bags more neatly than I had put them in, it was even embarrassing.

It seems to me that the law enforcement agencies of other countries should learn from their colleagues from the Republic of Belarus to protect order at such events.

Some say that it is harsh – not letting people into some soccer games, inspecting everyone. But I believe that this is much better than allowing clashes in the stands, which then end in the use of force.

That’s what the trip to Belarus for soccer was like.