Story Time: They Wouldn't Let Me In!

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Travel to Belarus is still relatively new. With the visa-free system, people can now come to Minsk for five days and explore the city without any worry. Well, that is if you make it past the border at the airport! That's right, they are pretty strict about how hard it is to get in. And I was almost stopped!

Let me preface this by saying that you need universal health care to enter Belarus. If you don't, you need to purchase a plan that will cover you in Belarus. I knew this, so I packed every document that I could that stated that I was medically insured. I figured it should be fine, I have so many documents, there's nothing to worry about. 

Well, while my boyfriend passed through with no trouble with his American passport, which was something that we were worried about, I was the one that got stuck. Since we were worried about him and his American documents, we had him go first. That was mistake number one. Because while he was through to the other side, I got stuck at the gate!

Apparently, my French documents did not clearly state that I was insured universally. I kept showing them the document that I had and explained it is universal, it just doesn't explicitly state. They didn't like that, so they brought in a French speaking military person who read over the document and did not want to let me in.

That is when the panic set in! What? Not get in?? What do I do now. So immediately I start yammering on and on about how it's universal, how I can go anywhere in the world and I am taken care of. I took out another card that in France is basically your lifeline proving that you have health care. They were unfazed.

Finally, I brought out my EU health card, something I didn't think the bring out because they weren't an EU country. And guess what? It was the EU card that they were finally ok with. They questioned their supervisors but everyone was ok with a random EU card! I still don't get how that happened. But at least they finally let me through.

So while my trip to Belarus was off to a rocky start, it actually ended up being quite enjoyable! So if you're heading to Belarus, make sure your health insurance says universal somewhere on there!