- We are at Vitebsk State Medical University and we are eating amazing borsch the best
borsch in the world - the. best borsch in the world is in the medical university canteen? - Yes, yes
because it's healthy, tasty and cheap - How cheap?
How cheap is it here? - It is less than one ruble - So sixty-three kopecks which is about 25 euro cents
- About that, yes! - For all of this!
Привет and welcome to the city of Vitebsk and you're probably wondering where the hell
is Vitebsk Conor it is in the north of Belarus very close to the Russian border
it's in the north-west. It's a city of 350,000 people so quite a
small town not the big metropolis like Minsk which is close to 2 million which
is the capital of Belarus and I'm here for a weekend to check out the city I
like to every once in a while get out of the big cities like you see on this
channel like St. Petersburg, Minsk, Kiev, Odessa and come to the provinces so the
city has a very interesting history associated with Jewish painters and the
head of Israeli intelligence Mossad so let's go and check out Vitebsk, поехали!
So I know that probably you're not a native Russian speaker watching this
channel and probably your level of Russian is not very high and that means that
when you come to the provinces to a city like Vitebsk then yes it's going to be
definitely more of a struggle to get around and to navigate things and
definitely to make connections with local people unless you speak a basic
level of Russian now there are two official languages in Belarus the second
one is Belarusian along with Russian and actually this is the city where I've
seen Belarusian written and used the most in all of my trips around Belarus
not really sure why that is I went to the local Irish pub ironically there is an
Irish pub and actually they spoke to me in Belarusian and the menu was actually
written in Belarusian and in English so there are English menus for sure and of
course occasionally you're gonna find normally younger people who speak some English
but overall there isn't much English spoken in the provinces of Belarus this
is also the region Eastern Europe in general where the English language
skills are the lowest in Europe by far so we're talking about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and
definitely people over 25 in general outside of a big urban center like I was
saying it's gonna be very unusual that they have a decent command of English so
if you are a big language freak like I am then this is a pretty
interesting city for that reason you're gonna get a big return your investment
having learnt Russian in terms of time and if you have learned a little bit of
Belarusian like I did it coincidentally it is very similar to Ukrainian
Belarusian so you speak Polish or Ukrainian probably you'll understand a lot
of it so that's another reason why I get I like my experience here
What you do say in Belarusian? Смачного?
- But it's not common, they don't say it here
- So what exactly does this mean it. I still don't understand the word
квітней 'yes, it means be like a
flower and shine - so that the city of Vitebsk - the symbol of Vitebsk is also knapweed
it's a purple color like blue and purple flower
- So back in the day of the Russian Empire Vitebsk was actually known as the
Russian Toledo as in Spain because it was such a beautiful city with a mix of
different ethnicities like Latvians, Belarusians, Russians and Jews in fact
the city is also known for being a mecca for painters and in fact a lot of Jewish
painters because at the time the city was about before the second world war
the city was basically about half Jewish here and the most famous those is Marc Chagall
So Marc Chagall was a very famous Jewish Belarusian French artist
he later moved to Western Europe obviously to escape what happened here
first the pogroms against the Jews in the region here in The Pale of
Settlement in the Russian Empire and later on during the Soviet Union when it
was invaded by Nazi Germany this region was completely depopulated both Jews and
non-Jews were murdered on masse and actually Belarus as a whole lost
30% of its population and most of the Jewish population of this town Vitebsk
actually left either they were murdered during the Holocaust or they left just
afterwards so today there isn't much ... well there is one synagogue left in the
city and there isn't much there aren't too many Jews left in Belarus in general
and even here in Vitebsk but at the time it was about 50% Jewish this city and it's
home to this kind of Jewish artistic renaissance in Eastern Europe
Jenuda Pen was a drawing teacher an artistic teacher here in the city and he
taught many famous Jewish Belarusian artists Marc Chagall was most famous and
the city kind of markets itself today on being the birthplace of Marc Chagall you
can go and see his house on one side of the river and then over here in the
other side reserved just beside me or just behind me you have the artistic
centre which has not just art from Marc Chagall but also other Jewish artists
from here from this region around Vitebsk
So a very interesting person born here in Vitebsk was Isser Harel now you
probably don't recognize that name but you will definitely recognize the name
of the Intelligence Agency that he headed up just after its foundation in
the 1950s in Israel and that of course is the Mossad now he actually also
founded Shin Bet which is the internal intelligence service in Israel and he
was born right here in Vitebsk now his main claim to fame not only just haven't
found it or led the Mossad is actually the extraction of Adolf Eichmann the
infamous Nazi who partook in the final solution basically the Holocaust the
extermination of Jews particularly in this region so that is the second world
war memorial here in Vitebsk and that is something you see very common an eternal
flame here in the region in the former Soviet Union especially in Belarus and
Ukraine this region was decimated by the Second World War
not only was its Jewish population effectively exterminated but millions of
people here who were non-Jews also were murdered by the Nazi regime and in
particular the Einsatzgruppen who came here just behind the Nazi
soldiers during Operation Barbarossa there is a great film that you can also watch
pretty hard film to watch called come and see иди и смотри that really
gives you a sense of what it was like to be trapped here you know behind enemy
lines to a certain extent if you were Belarusian during the Second World War
So the second anecdote I want to tell you about Isser
Harel was actually at the time that Stalin died so after Stalin died there
was a kind of rethink within the country well in the Communist Party in
the Soviet Union at the time because obviously as you're very well aware
Stalin committed many many atrocities in the country and he was basically a sociopath so
they tried to undo a lot of what Stalin had put in place in the Soviet Union and
Khrushchev the new leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union he gave a
speech a secret speech and no one had any idea outside of basically the
Politburo in Moscow exactly what he had said in the speech but Isser
Harel as head of Mossad he got his hands on a
copy of the speech and he actually shared it with Western intelligence with the CIA
that's how we were able to know that things had gotten a lot better in the
Soviet regime and we needed to I say we I mean with us in the West in Western
Europe and in the United States and that we could you know start to engage with
the Soviet Union that Stalin been replaced by definitely a lot more open
and less brutal regime even if obviously the Soviet Union remained to a certain
extent quite a tricky partner or rival to deal with
So if you have been to a provincial city here in Belarus be sure to drop me a
comment below in the comments section down there below the video and let
me know how you got on what your experience was like because one thing
that I've noticed during this trip to Vitebsk is that it's quite different to
when I go to cities that I know pretty well like Minsk, Odessa, Kiev, St.
Petersburg or even Moscow that I've been to a couple of times because coming in
here not knowing anyone not having been here before and relying on the
information that obviously I read online it was a little bit tougher than I
expected I also haven't been doing too many solo missions in general because either I'm
travelling with my clients or I'm hanging out with my friends and coming
here it actually reminded me that it's definitely sub-optimal to travel on your
own no matter how character-building it was back in the day when I did it a
little bit when I backpacked as a student definitely coming to a city and
not knowing anyone doing it on your own it is a lot tougher both psychologically
and definitely in terms of the experience that you have because it took
me the bones of you know five or six days to really figure out where
everything was in the city the best places that were really a good fit for
me and what I was looking to do here especially in the evening and that's
even though obviously with the internet you can read about places and look up
know different rating websites and review websites it actually didn't
really pair up to reality and one of the first things was because things had
changed especially information in English it was very sparse for these
for a city like a Vitebsk and then when I tried to go to places a lot more
actually even closed down or closed for the winter so it actually took me to a
few days of going around experimenting and figuring out where everything was
and then actually meeting local girls who were actually able to show me the
really cool in spots and whatnot that were actually what I was really looking
for and that was something I couldn't find online
reading or obviously being here on my own it actually took a little bit more
of a psychological effort to go out and meet people that's just the way it is
you don't have someone who's a good fit to travel with you that's who I recommend
always traveling with not just how the travel buddy for the sake of a travel
buddy that's probably the least optimal solution actually I had a prospective
client on the phone and he told me that exactly that he didn't want to have to
travel with certain people because they were work colleagues and they were
around the same age it just wasn't a good fit he'd rather come here to Eastern
Europe with me so that is a nice segue into what are you doing and next weekend
cuz it could be you with me here in Belarus I'm not advocating that we come
to Vitebsk on the first trip we can go to another bigger city and more lively
city in Eastern Europe for that somewhere like Minsk or Kiev, Odessa or
St. Petersburg or Moscow any of those cities are good also Lviv in Ukraine
the first step that you need to take is of course to go down below the video and
click on the link for the application form and apply but I'm only interested
in working with guys that are really pushing themselves to develop not
looking for a quick fix solution like an introduction website to women
there are matchmaking brokers dating sites I did some videos of the ones that
I can say are the most trustworthy that I've encountered because in general it's
not a very reputable industry all that if that's what attracts you then the
tsar experience is not going to be for you because that's not what I arrange
but what you are going to be able to do is come here and obviously not have to
do the solo mission or figure out where everything is and you're gonna have my
10 years over ten years of experience of traveling and dating in Eastern Europe
so it's gonna give you all the shortcuts so you don't waste loads and loads of
time you also don't go out on dates and stuff that are set up by matchmakers that in
the end are not gonna be a good fit for you we're gonna go out we're actually
socialize like real people in real life that's why I want guys that are actually
socially competent if you're a very young guy just like looking to have some
sort of sex tour sex tourism experience in Eastern Europe like paying for sex
stuff like that obviously this is not the channel for you because that's
not what I cater for also the tsar experience will not be for you even if
you're just interested in like hooking with lots of chicks and don't really
wanna go for quality also not gonna be for you gonna put you in that category
but if you've managed to listen through my rant at the end of the video then I'm
guessing you are possibly a good fit for the tsar experience so definitely fill
out the application form and if I think having vetted it that it's good for us
to talk we're gonna jump on a 10 to 15 minute strategy call and go through
it and it might be you with me here in Eastern Europe next weekend actually I
looked at the stats and I think of people actually click on the link and
actually in the end we jump on a strategy call I think it's like 1 or 2
percent so I do try to be really really selective once you come through that
process of filling out the application form so if we jump on a call it's definitely
a good sign it is a good possibility that we will work out as long as we
agree to everything on the call of course yeah it's almost spring time even
though we're actually in the middle of February pretty remarkable if you don't
like the cold it was good so I'm gonna go and enjoy my finally evening here have a
nice shisha or hookah something I love to do myself when I'm relaxing in
Eastern Europe and I will see you in the very next video, до свидания, ciao ciao!