Monday, August 13, 2007

I can see light at the end of the tunnel

Today I picked up our visa for Mongolia and then proceeded to hand in our application at the Russian embassy. Not surprisingly the visit there turned out to be the most unpleasant one. First we had to wait 5min in front of the door before a grim looking security-guard allowed us inside. Then the standard airport-procedure with metal detectors and bag opening. The next person I talked to was a grim looking official behind a window. He told me that the photos needed to be clued onto the application. 30 seconds later I turned around and wanted to hand him my application again but he was gone. So I had to wait 15min for another counter to become available. Of course it was hot and I had only slept 3h last night so the wait was quite a pain in the rear. Fortunately the lady at that counter turned out to be quite nice. So after 45min in the embassy I walked away with €35 less in my pocket and a note saying that I can pick up my visa on Wednesday, August 22th, from 2p.m. to 3p.m.

Anyway, we've certainly learned our lesson and if I had to do it again I'd shell out the €40 or €60 it costs to have a travel agent or other entity organize all the visa stuff. I don't even want to start adding up the time I spent running all across Vienna to organize that stuff.

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