BEL: Town of Mir

Mir, Belarus

I'd planned to spend a day outside of the capital city of Belarus. As my BFF and I were interested to see a castle, we were thinking of going to either Mir or Nesvizh. We eventually decided to go to the former, which is a peaceful little town that's located approximately 85 km away from Minsk.

We'd asked the staff at Hampton by Hilton Minsk City Centre the previous day to help us check the bus schedule. He was kind enough to print us the timetable, which is available only in Russian, and use a highlighter to point out the bus that departs daily from Minsk at 8.40am. On the fateful day, we woke up slightly earlier to get prepared and have a quick breakfast before going to the main bus terminal. True enough, no one at the counter could speak English, thus the printout came in handy.

The one-way ticket from Minsk to Mir costs BYR 5.82 (~S$3.75). Such a weird price!

We actually tried to use a sign language to indicate that we'd like to get return tickets instead, but the staff seemed to suggest that we should get them in Mir instead. We were told to wait at platform no. 8.

Mir isn't the terminus for any bus routes. Do tell the driver that you're dropping off there.

Including both of us, there were less than ten passengers that morning.

The journey took about 70 minutes. We were dropped off at what seems to be the town centre with colourful buildings housing a bank, a pharmacy, a café, etc.

Perhaps it's just me, but seeing those buildings made me think of cowboys.

There's an inn if you're interested to spend a night in Mir.

To go back to Minsk, you have to wait for a minivan outside that building labelled "AYTAKACA".

We spotted less than ten people walking around the town centre.

The fruits on sale looked really fresh.

There's an Orthodox church, but it wasn't opened that morning.

There's also a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

I suppose that must be a hero of the town.

It shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes to walk to Mir Castle.

Mir Castle is listed under the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Having seen somewhere online that there'd be a bus coming at 12 noon to bring us back to Minsk, we made sure that we made it back to the town centre on time after visiting the castle. It turned out that we were earlier than expected, so we decided to venture further to look at the houses in the quaint town.

The further the houses are from the town centre, the less colourful they get.

Go straight to go to Minsk, and turn right to go Nesvizh.

It felt a bit like a dead town as most people stayed at home.

We didn't see a big bus coming at 12 noon. Instead, there was a green-coloured minivan that came at around 12.05pm. Each of us paid BYR 6.00 (~S$3.85) to go back to Minsk.

I made use of the stable Wi-Fi connection during the journey.

Would you like to live in Mir?