From ‘The Red Quest. Travels through 22 former Soviet Republics’ by Jason Smart

Beautiful women were everywhere in Riga.

Interesting fact: Estonia is the least religious country in the world.

Estonia became the only Baltic nation to gain independence without bloodshed.

Interesting fact: Hungary has the highest death rate by cancer in Europe.

Interesting fact: Moscow has more billionaires than any other city.

Interesting fact: the British Government once knighted mad dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.

Interesting fact: Transnistria declared itself independent in 1990, but no country recognizes it (not even Russia).

Interesting fact: In Bulgaria, a nod means no and sideways waggle means yes.

Interesting fact: In 2010, the Czechs were the biggest beer drinkers per capita in the world.

……the Prague Castle, the largest castle complex in the world.

Interesting fact: Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion.

Interesting fact: Kazakhstan is the largest land-locked country in the world that still has a navy!

The people of Tashkent seemed more Middle-Eastern in appearance than the people of Almaty…….in many of the Central Asian republics, having gold teeth was considered a symbol of wealth.

….Hazroti Imom Mosque……..The complex….contained the oldest Quran in the world, dating from the 7^th century.

Taskhent International Airport was a nightmare. Never before had I come across an airport bogged down in so much pointless bureaucracy and officialdom.

Interesting fact: When the ex-President of Turkmenistan renamed bread after his mother, anyone caught saying the old name risked arrest.

The people of Ashgabat had an Iranian look about them, which wasn’t that surprising since the Iranian border was only ten kilometres away.

Interesting fact: In the Middle Ages, Poles drank vodka to awaken lust.

Interesting fact: Tajikistan is the only country in the world where polio is on the increase

Despite being an Islamic nation, Dushanbe had little in the way of mosques…….

Kyrgyzstan…..Interesting fact: Mountains cover 80% of the country.

The European Union has banned all Kyrgyz airliners from flying in its airspace due to poor safety and maintenance concerns.

…….differences between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan……the roads were in a better condition, the buildings looked more modern, and the people dressed differently. Gone were the Muslim veils of Tajikistan; they had been replaced by hot pants and crop tops, all very European

……..bride snatching was common across Central Asia, especially in Kyrgyzstan. According to one researcher, half of all marriages in rural Kyrgyzstan were because of kidnap…….it is considered an acceptable way to go about things………the future mother-in-law will try to calm the girl down…try to persuade the young woman that her son is a decent…man………If the young woman declines this offer, the kidnappers may return the girl home, but more often than not, they hold her hostage in an attempt to break her resolve.

As the hours slip by, the girl knows one thing for sure; if she stays the night, her virginity will be shrouded in doubt. And while this terrible thought is going through her mind, her future in-laws might threaten to put a curse on her. in a country deeply beset by superstition, this is no laughing matter, and so most girls agree to the proposal before the day is out. The rest stay the night, ……refusing to entertain the idea despite the shame it will bring to their family. By morning though, almost all will have succumbed……….Although illegal, the police largely ignore bride kidnap because they see it as an accepted Kyrghz tradition.

Like most other Kyrgyz women, she looked vaguely Chinese, with shoulder length black hair and a slender figure.

Interesting fact: Belarus has more buried treasure than any other country in Europe.

The Belarusian landscape was filled with forests so vast that it reportedly harboured wolf, bear, elk, boar and even the heaviest land mammal to roam Europe, the mighty bison.

It was a miracle that any bison had survived. During World War I, with food scarce, the people of Belarus hunted the creatures to near extinction. In 1919, no bison were left in the wild. Some remained in zoos, and in the 1920s, someone wondered whether they could be bred and let loose. But with only four bulls and three cows of the original European stock remaining, this was going to be a tall order.

Amazingly though, one of the bulls got lucky, and then got lucky again…………this single bull became responsible for over ninety percent of the current stock of European bison.

During World War II, Belarus suffered badly at the hands of the Germans. For a start, 209 of the country’s 290 cities were destroyed, not to mention the ten thousand villages that were also sacked.

After the war, the Soviets began a rebuild, putting up Stalinesque buildings everywhere. They made Russian the official language…….it became one of the powerhouses of the Soviet Empire, most notably with its production of farm machinery and large trucks.

……..Belarus as the only country in Europe with the death penalty.

Interesting fact: 171 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall.