[Gopnik]

Intro:

   

I was in Minsk for a little over 3 weeks during August of this year. The reason for my trip was to attend a Russian language course at a local university. I chose Minsk because it is way cheaper than studying in Moscow or Kiev. The course was 350$ for one month of lessons (Mon-Fri, 4 hours a day) and the accommodation in a students dormitory was only 50$. You can find more information through these links:


http://www.mslu.by/russian-language-course

http://www.mslu.by/summer-course-russian


A little about myself: I’m a Spanish student (early 20s) 6ft 1, slim/athletic with average looks. I’d describe my game to be of beginner level. I’ve been studying Russian for about 5 months, I’m nowhere near fluency and can only have some basic conversations in the language.

Before I continue, let me say I did not get laid during my time there. This was mainly due to a combination of several factors: shit logistics, poor Russian skills and slow sex speed (no hookup culture). Not getting my dick wet on Belarussian soil was a humbling experience. I feel a bit lame for writing a data sheet on a place where I didn’t get very far but I saw many members being curious about Minsk so I hope this thread will be useful for those going there in the future.


Belarus:

   

I was attracted by the idea of visiting a remote, pseudo-communist country that some people call “Europe’s last dictatorship”, but once there the novelty and excitement didn't last more than a few days.

There’s certainly less foreigners than in Poland, but this is gradually changing. The main difference here, is that most foreigners are not westerners. There’s plenty of students from central Asia and also quite a few Africans, Arabs and Turks. I was also surprised to see guys from Venezuela, apparently their country has good relations with Belarus and they don’t even need a visa. Most of them are either studying the language or doing a preparatory year for med school or a degree like international relations.

Another surprise was that prices were higher than I thought. I was expecting Belarus to be cheaper than Poland, but more often than not, it was the opposite. I was told by some locals that it is not rare for Belarussians to cross the border and buy things in Poland to save some money. Salaries in Belarus are much lower than in Poland, my teacher told me she only makes 300$ a month, which is about the average in Minsk. The clubs are also around twice as expensive and most covers are between 10-20$. Their currency is very devalued. Approximately, 1 USD = 10,000 BYR and 1 EUR = 14,000 BYR.


   
This is what inflation looks like (here there’s a little over 1 EUR)



Girls:

I was in Poland last year, so I like to compare things between the two countries. Belarusian girls are more on the tall side, have Slavic features and many of them are blond. Belarus has more blond girls but Poland has more redheads (which I barely saw in Minsk). In my opinion, they also have better faces than their polish counterparts and even though they are not as busty, thick asses are not totally uncommon. I may be a bit biased since this was my first visit to a FSU country, but as soon as I landed in Minsk I was amazed by the local talent. My guess is that they look a lot like Ukrainian and Russian girls, there’s probably not many differences.

A picture is worth more than a thousand words, so here is a good representation of what a solid 8 looks like in Belarus:

   

Girls like this are not uncommon to see in the street or clubs, but gaming them is a whole different thing. From my experience and from talking to locals and other expats, Belarusian girls are conservative. It’s not rare for a 25 y.o to be married and have a kid or two. If she isn’t then she probably has a serious relationship and has plans to settle down. A few times at night, I ran into married girls that were under 30.

As for Belarussian guys, they are slightly better looking than Polish dudes and surprisingly some of them have decent style. However, they sometimes drink too much and they are very passive so it should be easy to out game them provided you speak Russian (about 70% of girls speak little or no English). In some venues girls mostly hang out in big, mixed groups and if that is the case, I’d recommend you befriend one of the guys. This is not too difficult and I actually found Belarussians to be quite friendly to foreigners, even when they would cockblock me for approaching their girlfriends. Also, men are somehow not very tall compared to their women. I often saw couples that were roughly the same height, even when the girl wasn’t wearing high heels.


Pipelining:

I was stupid not to try online dating before going to Minsk. Once there, I created a profile on mamba and the response rate was good, but I still had to message many girls and it was taking forever to get them out, so I gave up early. I recommend the site, but be prepared to put in a lot of effort. I’ve been told Badoo also works. Some members were curious about using VK for chatting random girls and getting dates. From what I saw, most cute girls had at least a few hundred followers. The way it works on VK is that if you send a friend request but she doesn’t accept, you become a follower and still get to see some of her photos, updates etc. If you check a girl’s follower list, you’ll see an international penis festival of thirsty guys of all races and nationalities. The blond girl from the previous photo is a random chick from VK that has around 1000 followers and only like 200 friends. The interesting thing is that I had many friend requests from random, average-looking girls. I wrote on the info section of my profile that I was living in Minsk and studying in the local university and girls seemed interested. I talked to a couple of them who looked decent, but they spoke only Russian and I never got to meet with them.


Night Game:

Unfortunately, the nightlife in Minsk is basically a weekend thing. I went out on a Thursday and had a tough time finding a club that was open. I believe this is only the case during the summer months, cause according to http://www.minsknightlife.net there’s a few clubs that open Mon-Sat. It also doesn’t help that the main clubs are scattered around the city. If you really want to get the most out of Minsk, you should visit when the students are around.


Max Show:

I went here on my first Friday. This place is in praspekt Nezavisimosti, about 5 minutes from the snobbiest club Dozhari. The place is not properly indicated and it looks like a cinema from the outside. The entrance was 120,000 BYR. When you get inside, there’s a metal detector and the bouncers do a frisk search like at the airport, which was a bit weird. I arrived there with some friends at around 1:30 a.m, it was full but not packed. The ratios were not great, I’d say 2:3 at the beginning of the night and like 1:3 at 4:00 a.m. The talent was very average for Belarussian standards. There were many attractive girls but there wasn’t a “wow factor”. Mostly the crowd was around 20-25 for the girls and slightly older for the guys. Right outside the dance floor there’s two smaller rooms where you can also order a drink and the music isn’t as loud. Outside of the toilettes there’s some sofas where girls sit down. The club is basically a big circular dance floor with 3 different bars, one at each side and one in the middle. There’s also a bunch of tables where uglier, older girls drink. All of the cute girls were dancing. The best spot was in the big bar in the middle of the dance floor in front of the dj set and the club dancers. I went there to order a drink and I saw a cute, petite blonde. I opened with “You look like you speak good English”. She pretty much didn’t and she also laughed at my Russian. I returned to my spot and while waiting for my drink, a cute brunette (7,5) touched my ass several times and started teasing me. She was with a friend, also attractive, they both had slutty faces. I danced with both of them and made jokes about the friend’s gun tattoo on her leg. It was going well and I started wondering if they were semi pros, but in the end they just turned out to be attention whores and left before I could escalate. I went back to the bar and the attention whores returned and I fooled around with them in front of the previous blond girl. I went back to her before the AWs left and we started making out heavily after some playful joking. I could tell she was horny and I almost fingered her a little in front of some of her friends. The problem was that my logistics sucked balls and I was too drunk to think what to do. Eventually she gave me her VK and left. I hanged out with my friends for while and I saw the blond girl talking to a short guy, who I later found out was her boyfriend. By the time there were no more approachable girls so we all left. Me and my friends were the only foreigners in the club, along with another Turkish dude who was with a girl. Even though I went there with other guys, most of the time I was doing my own thing, so going solo should be fine.

Bottom line: cheap club where the talent is not great and girls speak only Russian. Most of them congregate by the dance floor but they’re usually in small groups. Overall mild recommendation.


Coyote Bar: (Бар Койот)

The place is located 5 minutes away from the national library (the famous, weird glass building). I went there early on Saturday, at around 10:30 p.m and had dinner with my wingman (the place is like a bar-club where you can also order food). The place is more up scale than Max Show but without having a snobby vibe. I think the entrance was around 150,000 BYR. The talent and the ratios were quite good. There’s one big bar in front of a stage where they first play live music and later they get a normal dj. At the right of the underground entrance there’s a bowling place where drinks are much cheaper (50,000 BYR). I didn’t had any problems for entering back at Coyote with my drink from the bowling place. There’s also many tables, all of them for reservations. There were many older girls from two bachelorette parties who had male strippers. Overall girls where slightly older than in the previous venue, but they were still more attractive. I did a few approaches but even though girls seemed interested and I was talkative, I was tired from the previous night and I wasn’t in caveman mode. Basically I was having long, non-sexual conversations without being playful like the previous night. All I got was the fb of a hot, 21 y.o half polish girl and the digits of a milf tennis player who spoke Spanish. I was very impressed with the level of English among the girls, it was the highest from all of the clubs I went to.

Bottom line: Slightly high end club with hot, older girls who speak English. Ratios are good if you come early although girls in private tables won’t be approachable. Strong recommendation.


Black Hall:

I went here on a Thursday and I arrived very late (3:00 am, long story). The cover was 200,000 BYR, the highest I paid during my stay. The place is a snobby club, where rich guys party in the VIP area with bottle service. When I arrived it was starting to get empty and becoming a sausagefest but the talent however was very high. The few girls there, were among the best that I saw in Minsk’s clubs. I’m pretty sure however that some were semi pros and I also saw many old Arabs and other foreigners hanging out by themselves giving a sex tourist vibe. I was really tired and I didn’t drank enough so I wasn’t in the mood but I still talked to a couple of girls. I only found one girl who spoke half decent english and the conversations died out quickly. I can’t be entirely sure about this place cause I only stayed for a couple of hours during last call on a Thursday. If you go here, be ready to spend some serious money (drinks were 120,000 BYR). Having a good method of screening hookers from normal girls is probably a must since the place has a reputation of being full of semi pros. You’ll probably still find many attractive girls that are not sex workers but I’d expect this place to be difficult. I also saw a few mixed groups, you might have to break into social circles.

Bottom line: be ready to make it rain here and make sure you don’t waste your time on hookers. This is probably a difficult place but the girls are beautiful so it might be worth a try.


Titan Club:

I went here on two consecutive nights cause it was only a 5 minute walk away from my dormitory. Titan is dirty cheap compared to the other clubs. The cover was only 80,000 BYR and a drink here costs 35,000 BYR. This was a nice change after being in Black Hall but the talent was certainly lower. The ratios here are quite good and you can stand out just by not being shit faced. The girls might not be the most beautiful in Belarus, but your competition is pretty much inexistant. My favourite thing about this club is that you have a lot of approach opportunities. Once you go inside and up the stairs, you’ll see a “5 Dimension Simulator” at the right of some red sofas. The simulator is basically a cinema with moving seats or some shit like that. I mention this because it’s a great conversation starter and a very harmless opener. I would approach girls sitting in the small red sofa in front of the simulator and ask them if they think it’s possible for a cinema to have 5 dimensions. I would then follow up dropping bait : “where I come from I’ve only seen 3D simulators” you get the picture. Furthermore, most girls here are in small groups, often only 2 or 3 girls. You can also make small talk by asking how much is the coat hanger (it’s free) and other stuff like that. I know you can also do this small talk anywhere, but the good thing about Titan are the club’s logistics, since the coat hanger is right by the side of the sofas where the girls hang out. I also practiced an opener I had just came up with: “извини, ты знаешь как сказать "vodka" по руский?” (How do you say “vodka” in russian?) This became my standard opener by the bar and it gave me positive reactions most of the times. I would say this with a serious expression, as if my mother had just died. After the girl says “Да, конечно, водка ” I insist “да, по руский??” this time letting a small smirk. The girl usually gets that I’m joking here and from then we can exchange names, have a conversation etc. Sometimes I will tease her some more by explaining to her what vodka is as if she was retarded. In this place I also noticed a lot of eye contact. During my stay in Minsk I experimented with a more indirect style of game, (even at night) but if a girl made strong eye contact, I knew it was ok to be bold. Overall I had a lot of fun here, the only downsides are that no one speaks english and that the quality isn’t as good as in the high end clubs. On Saturday I went solo for the first time ever and I had a blast here. The approach opportunities make it really easy to be on a social mood. These girls I met using the 5D opener. They are very average for Belarusian standards and in the end I just used them for social proof, dancing with them before hunting for better girls.

   
Average girls in Minsk. Slim, not very curvy and with ok faces. The 5s and 6s usually look like this.

   


Bottom line: Cheap student club with average talent but very approachable girls. The guys are no competition but you’ll really need Russian here. Strong recommendation.


Madison:

I went here on my last Saturday. The cover is 80,000 BYR and drinks are 40,000 BYR. There’s not much to say about this place other than girls are in big groups. The talent is more or less average, perhaps slightly better than in Titan but not by much. I wouldn’t bother with girls at the dance floor cause chances are their boyfriends are keeping an eye on them by the couches. Surprisingly Belarusian guys were almost friendly when cockblocking. They would take no more than two seconds to come mark their territory after I delivered my opener, but once there after seeing I was a from Spain they would ask questions and talk about football (soccer). I also experienced something similar approaching a girl by the bar. I didn’t get very far this night and overall I do not recommend this place. You might do well if you crack through a social circle and get lucky. Girls everywhere are protected by their boyfriends/orbiters.


Other Venues:

There’s also two famous and expensive clubs called Next and Dozhari which I avoided cause I was told by many that they’re full of hookers. My guess is they’re more or less like Black Hall, where there’s some semipros but the talent is very good. If money is not a problem and you’re ready for a challenge I’d say give them a try.


Day Game:

I’m mostly a NG guy, but due to the limited and expensive nightlife, I was pretty much forced to give day game a try. Due to the shit weather, I could only do about 20 day approaches, mostly on my second week. During my first week it was so warm I couldn’t go out for more than 5 minutes without sweating like a pig. After the first days it got very cold and rainy and I didn't saw many people while I was out. I think it was Greek Kamaki who wrote on this forum that DG is almost impossible in Minsk because Belarus is a "police state". This might have been the case a few years ago, but from my experience doing day game in Minsk is perfectly fine. I now regret I didn’t put more effort into it, cause even with my inexperience I still got some decent results. Despite the weather I could had probably done at least a total of 40-60 approaches had I given it my all.

Mostly I used indirect style, just like in Day Bang. I usually opened either by asking for directions or for a place with free wifi and I would always do so in Russian. Generally girls were very helpful but I could only get a number close on those who knew english.
Out of the 20 approaches I got two numbers and one date, which I don’t think is awful for a beginner considering most girls only speak Russian. Girls here are very eager to help a lost foreigner. Two young girls for example walked me for 10 minutes to a cafe that had free internet. Another girl even offered me to use her sim card and use her internet on my phone. In both cases they were curious and asked many questions.

I also experimented with a different opener that is slightly more direct. I would use it with girls who were alone and smoking. They are not hard to find specially if the girl is on a break from work. In my poor Russian and with hand gestures, I would ask for a lighter and then for a cigar. I would light the cigar and just stand there, with out smoking (cause I don’t actually smoke). I’d then say something along the lines of “You know what, I don’t even smoke, I just saw you/thought you were cute and I wanted to meet you”. I say this in a serious yet playful way. I ramble for a while, drop bait, see where the conversation goes and go for the number. I used this routine 3 times and I always got good responses:

Girl 1- had a boyfriend and spoke no english, still smiled and asked personal q’s
Girl 2- also spoke no english but smiled and had a brief conversation. She left quickly back to work as soon as she was donne smoking.
Girl 3- spoke good english and I eventually got her number. I took her out out later that week.

The worst reactions I had during the day were with older girls who noticed I was a foreigner and barely answered my questions but this happened only twice. Overall, the best venues for day game are Nemiga, Kastrycnickaja (near the mcdonalds, although this street maybe too busy) and ploshad peramogi near the linguistic university. There’s also an underground shopping mall in Ploshad Lenina. Another good venue could be the MSLU student village, I lived there during my stay and there’s a total of 7 big dormitories in a small area. During August the place was half empty but I still managed to do a few approaches. I can imagine this area being packed with young girls during the school semesters. The place is 5 minutes away from the Piatrouschyna metro station.

   

   
The MSLU student village


Other Info:

Logistics:

Student dormitories close their doors between 12:00 a.m - 6:00 a.m. This is a massive cockblock cause most girls will be like Cinderella and leave before midnight, specially during the week. Also, knowing that if they go out they will be forced to stay until 6:00 a.m I can expect many girls to not go out very often. In Poland the only problem with student dormitories was that guests weren’t allowed in between 11:00 pm - 6:00 a.m so often you’d have to wait a bit to bang your girl. Polish students however can go in and out the dormitories at any time, so girls don’t have to choose between not going out at all or staying out till six. When going for a date it might be better to schedule it earlier than usual if the girl lives in a dormitory. You can also play this to your advantage. If it's already too late for her to go back to her dorm, you can suggest she "sleeps in your couch" or smthing and then go for the bang.

Dates:

I went on dates with 3 different girls but mostly the plan was often the same: go to the Nemiga area for a walk and then go for a drink in one of the bars/cafes. There’s also many places to grab a drink in Kastrycnickaja and also near Ploshad Pabedy (ploshad peramogi in Belarusian).


Conclusion:

Belarus can be tough. The keys seem to be logistics, patience and Russian. A strong bank roll also wouldn’t hurt. I strongly recommend day game since many student girls don’t go to clubs. I’ve never been to Russia or Ukraine but I can't imagine Minsk being better than Kiev, Moscow or St Pete. If you have what it takes, you can still have a great time here.