I slept at 0 and woke up at 8. I called гостиницу "Сморгонь". 31 Rubles for 1 day.

Bolshoi theatre in Minsk doesn't have tickets until September. So no ballet for now.

I bought a ticket for the elektrichka to Gudogai. I should've just said Smorgon to the person in the ticket booth. The ticket is 6 Rubles, and going to Smorgon is 4 Rubles.

I am on the platform. It is very vintage - clanking trains and hardly any signs. But you don't need signs here, there are just 2 platforms. Usually one train goes at a time.

Nobody uses a laptop on the trains. A babushka was selling towels. She walked back and forth, saying, "Пожалуйста". Another man arrived, he lays out his goods with a price tag on the seat opposite to you, and if you aren't interested, he continues to the next person. He skips my seat, probably because I am a foreigner. They would get on and off the train at the small stops along the way. Another person, selling books. The ratio of people older than 40 and people younger than 40 is roughly 5/10 to 1.

3 hours, 120 km, 35 stops.

We arrived in Smorgon. It's so cold today.

The toilet near the station is just a hole

I didn't see many people with suitcases on the elektrichka, mostly just bags. The hotel is just 1 km away. The population in Smorgon is 30k.

We arrived at the hotel! The building looks very old.

31 Rubles. Everything in my room is clean, and there is an old Vityaz TV. There is a balcony. There is a private restroom shared by two people, and there are no other people staying here now. The room is actually quite nice.

It's raining outside, and I couldn't go anywhere. I went to a supermarket. I bought 4 маленьких йогурта, 2 фруктовых сока (маленьких), 1 воду (1,5 л), 1 бутерброд for 13 Rubles. The salary on the wall is 1500 Rubles.

I am trying to find a restaurant. I went into "Atmosphere" with 5 star ratings on Yandex. Actually it was a cafe, and I only had some coffee. The woman staff said that summers here are usually sunny, and I could see a park down the road.

Search for "restaurant" on Yandex, and you see all the cafes, restaurants, and bars. Search for "ресторан", and it only showed 3. I got some food at a Shashlik place. It's delicious.

Actually there is a Smorgon TV channel: ОКС-ТВ: новости Сморгони. I saw the supermarket across the street on this channel.

7 pm, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. Well, it's not sunny, but the rain stopped. Now it's 8 pm. I am walking around the city. 2 hours is enough?

Grey buildings everywhere, but the park is beautiful. There are groups of young people walking around.

We areat the center park.

We are walking along this street.

We turn east from Юбилейная улица. I saw groups of children and young people playing.

Усходняя вул.

I went to the north towards Улица Франциска Скорины. The city center have a lot of grey buildings. Small houses lie on the sides of the city, and there are fewer people, only a few kids riding bikes.

I went to РОС ДОСААФ and I thought something was there, but I didn't see anything.

Turn left and it's the Victory Park. Every city here has one.

I walked for 2 hours without stopping. I am returning to the city center.

I walked around the city for 2.5 hours. I walked around the northern part and the northwestern part.

Here is Sovetskaya Street. I bought hot dogs and a burger.

Nightclubs and bars here are only on Friday to Sundays, and they are open to 3 am. I really want to go to a bar right now, just sit there and see what's going on. I haven't been to bars before.

Then I suddenly thought about staying here, perhaps falling in love and marrying someone here. It's so peaceful, relaxed, clean, and beautiful. But then I looked up the salaries, and it's only 300-500 USD a month. Realistically, it's a terrible Soviet-command-like economy with no jobs and relying on Russian subsidies, or you work remotely (which I don't want to).

There are many young people on Sovetskaya Street at 11 pm.

And I suddenly felt very sad. It's 2 am. I am the only one here. I didn't even want to sleep because sleeping means tomorrow.