Minsk, Belarus

I received this postcard from Dima in Belarus.  The card contains 2 images: the Island of Tears on the left and Trinity Suburb on the right.

The Island of Tears was erected in 1996 as a monument to the 771 Belarusian soldiers who lost their lives in the Afghan War.  The monument depicts the mourning mothers of the soldiers who never came back.  The women are holding various icons such as photos of their sons and lamps, which symbolize the hope that their children might return someday.

Troitskoe predmestie, or Trinity Suburb, gets its name from the Roman Catholic Trinity Church that once stood in that area.  It's a small, quiet town with bars, restaurants, and small shops strewn on the streets.

Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is a the best example of Soviet planning

The card came with the following stamps:

The hare stamp was part of the Wild Animals stamps released in 2008.

I always associate Minsk with that Friends episode where Phoebe finds out that David will go to Minsk to do research.  Max says Minsk is in Russia, but we all know that it's not.  Well, Belarus was once part of the Soviet Union.  But come on.  That Friends episode was aired in 1994.