Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Belarus: Minsk
Minsk Minsk in the early 1990s felt like a place suspended between two eras. The Soviet Union had technically dissolved, but the city still looked and functioned like the USSR. Wide, monumental avenues built after the city’s near-total destruction in WWII had little traffic. It would take some time before cars became a “thing.” Concrete apartment blocks with identical stairwells and the faint smell of boiled cabbage dominated the city landscape. Trolleybuses and trams rattled but ran on time. Kiosks continued to sell cigarettes, newspapers, and necessities, but collapsing supply chains often meant that shelves were empty. People lined up in long queues outside shops, even when no one was sure what was being sold. A sense of order without resources, structure without certainty pervaded. People were polite but cautious; the habits of Soviet public life didn’t vanish overnight. Television was full of debates, new political parties, and the shock of Western advertising. ...