I’m fine with global warming at the moment

The one thing I was worried about coming to Minsk was its weather, which is normally pretty bitter, windy and wet in the winter. And we’ve had our moments, like on Thanksgiving when I cracked my skull, but since I returned from Antarctica, it’s been balmy. Comparatively speaking, of course. It’s not a sunny Florida winter, but a 35-degree high is pretty fantastical as far as I am concerned. And today it hit 45!

Traditionally, it snows until June or so, so I’m not holding my breath but at the moment I am thoroughly enjoying it. On Saturday, I took a long walk and a run on the treadmill. It was so nice. It’s still raining here and there, like on Sunday, but by and large it’s warm and daylight out. I’m no longer walking to and from work in the dark, which is just so much nicer than November or December. (January, too, but I was cruising.)

I’m still really looking forward to summer and have started making travel plans. I’ve signed on to Chernobyl and Bratislava and am a little worried about coronavirus, but what are you going to do about it? That’s March and I have London planned for April, so I’m hoping travel is OK by then. I’m really psyched for London; I’m planning on meeting Laurie and going to a show and Stonehenge, which is a bucket list item.

Honestly, other than a cage diving, I’m not sure what all remains on my bucket list. Iguazu Falls, maybe. Route 66. But that won’t happen this summer, for sure.

Beyond the trips planned and hopefully one to see Mackenzie during her exchange program (which I hope still happens) I have nothing on the agenda. I’m dogsitting Warrior for two months in June  and July, so I’m not really going to be able to run away during those months, and at some point we’re supposed to get an ambassador and I feel like I probably won’t be able to go anywhere big about two months before to about two months after. And that’s not fun because I have six weeks banked of leave and I’d like to use it.

Discovered today that the wonderful chocolate factory has a shop close to me. As it turns out, it’s essentially across the street from my apartment building. I stopped by and got a salted caramel bar today. It’s huge and should last two days.

Just another reason to love Minsk. If it gets cold again (and I  hope it doesn’t), I’ll swing by and get another hot chocolate with ice cream.

A nice long weekend

Since Presidents’ Day is a U.S. holiday, not a Belarusian one, it was a regular workday for most of Minsk. This enabled a group of us to tour the local chocolate factory, Kommunakra. Belarusian chocolate is pretty wonderful. The company has been around for 115 years. They do tours daily but not on weekends, so we jumped on the opportunity.

It smelled wonderful! The company makes all kinds of chocolates, but most are small rectangle-shaped little treats. When I first arrived in Minsk, I had a little welcome bag with a variety of them an oh, man, they’re fantastic.

A dozen of us – 11 women and one man – felt like we’d won golden tickets. After an informative bit about the company and chocolate-making in general (palm oil bad!) we hit the floors, decked out in hair nets, flimsy felt jackets and shoe covers. Did I mention it smelled wonderful?

The factory mostly has female employees and seemed a really family-friendly place. In the talk about the company, the director said they had 120 women out on paid maternity leave at any given time. They also have a health unit and child care.

There weren’t all that many people on the floor. Everything is automated, so mostly people were making sure the machines didn’t jam and then at the end, they were taking the packages of packed chocolates away at the end of the whole cycle.

The automated processes amaze me. Somewhere, at some time, someone watched people hand-wrapping candies, for example, and said, “Man, I am going to patent a machine to do that.” And someone did. There were these single truffles with twist-tied wrappers, and you’d see the giant roll of foil get cut off as a single truffle thing hit it, then the truffle body spun around as a little metal thing held the top part of the foil in place, and voila, a twist-wrapped candy.

We started with a dozen people and finished with a dozen people, and there were no Great Glass Elevators, but we really felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I expected we’d get a free taste, but basically, at every stop, our tour guide handed her one of whatever was coming off the machine. The first tasty thing was a thin waffle. The final candy would be a four-layer wafer-type thing. I had no idea they were little baby waffles, but man, that sample, warm off the machine, was so good! The waffle pieces were probably 18x18, and we watched them pop out, get bathed in chocolate, then five of the 18x18 sheets – four layers thick – got smashed together, then cut into individual pieces maybe 3x1, covered in chocolate, cooled and wrapped.

I’m a total sucker for shows like “How It’s Made,” and I love factory tours. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and then we went to the café, where I had a little spinach pie and hot chocolate with ice cream. The hot chocolate being exactly that – melted chocolate, no milk. It’s fantastic. I never had it with ice cream before but what a fantastic idea. I had to get a thing of water in order to finish it.

We paid about $7 for the tour and man we got our money’s worth. During the presentation, we had tea or coffee and however many little chocolate things we wanted to eat, because there was a huge display. (Me = two) Then we sampled all through the tour and we got sent away with a gift bag with two big chocolate bars. It was a very nice way to kill two hours on a holiday.

The other good thing to do on an American holiday is knock out doctors’ appointments. I lined up two. I had a thyroid scan and then went to a specialist for a quick consultation. All is well, and even more so when I went to pay. Both visits came to less than one CO-PAY would have been in America. Unbelievable. America’s health care system is a machine that needs its plug pulled.

I tell you, I really feel like I dodged a coronavirus bullet on that cruise. Had it been a week later, I think I’d be in quarantine still. We had so many Chinese tourists and so many people were coughing and sick, I feel like even if no one really had the virus, we would have been quarantined as a precaution. I feel so sorry for all those other people – vacationers as well as crew members – who have been stuck. What a nightmare.

Even though a lot of people are not wanting to travel, I have bought a couple flight tickets in the past few weeks. I have a lot of vacation time I need to use this year so I’m hoping to take some short-haul trips.

In March, I am aiming for Bratislava and in April I have a trip to London. Hopefully in May I can visit Mackenzie but after that I’m dogsitting again so I don’t know what will happen.