Time for a great trip to the EAST!
 

And when I say EAST I mean some part of the former "Soviet Empire", of course!

Tomorrow morning I'll take a flight from Bologna to Warszawa and then from there I'm taking a night train to Minsk, Belarus. I'll stay in Lukashenkoland for about 1 week before going to Vilnius for a couple of days and then flying back to Milan directly from Lithuania.

At first I have to say a big DZIEKUJE to Przemolog for having helped me in these days getting for me the train ticket from Poland to Belarus.

Then I'll surely send all your greetings to our beloved President! :)

So, see you back after the 2nd of May, hopefully with some more eastern prepaid cards to add to my collection! :beer: :beer:

I have just phoned to Effendi (I found a local calling card with a landline rate to +4236 :-D). He is travelling now by train (together with three women in the compartment :-)) to the end of the known world and far beyond :-D.
He sends greetings to all of you!

Yes, breaking high railway tariffs is in fact the art as sophisticated as avoiding roaming costs :-)

ii received a nice SMS yesterday from Effendi :beer: he was in Minsk, so don't worry... effendi is not died (maybe :lol: )

Well, I don't think we'll be going very far this summer. We were considering a trip back to Italy but the cost of air fares $1400/ea and the state of the dollar (0.74 Euro/$) :thumbdown: made us reconsider. We're looking a vacations closer to home. :cry:

DRNewcomb I hope that you can change idea... I'm waiting 4 you in Italy. :D

A nice dinner in Florence? :)

Every time I visit Italy I just know I won't be able to stay away more than a year but it never works out that way. I long ago decided that in my next life I have to be either Spanish or Italian. I think I'm really a Latin trapped in an Anglo-German-Nordic life. :D

No trip for me this year - have some vodka for me too :p
I am looking for a new job - so no vacation :)

I'm sorry that your green currency isn't appreciated very much here in Europe (not only in Eurozone, e.g. in my country US $ has recently dropped to the rate as low as 11 years ago) ;-). Maybe follow Effendi (not literally, I don't suggest replacing Italy just with Belarus :-)) and go east of the EU - over there dollar should retain some of its purchasing power :-)

PS. And what's wrong about "Anglo-German-Nordic life"? Is it hard to to be rich and well-organised :-D?

Dedicated to Przemolog... :D

МІНСК

And no one tried to arrest me! :D

Wow, what a nice collection of Vladimirs Iliches :-D

BTW, a few words of explanations about arresting. I told Effendi that my father had been in Minsk several years ago and then a policeman had forbidden him to a take a photo of the Lenin monument. But things have changed - happily in good direction :).

PS. It seems that you moved back towards the Polish border (Brest and Grodna) :-). It's a pity you couldn't start your Belarusian trip in one of those cities - this would make the ticket issue much simplier: no-reservation local cross-border train would be OK :-).