On the National Express (no jolly hostess)

It's been a while since I updated this; I's bin preppin, innit.

Anyone who has travelled recently (i.e. in the last two years/post-Covid!) will know it ain't all that straight forward... But, where there's a will, there's a way! :-D

Generally, it's wise to check out the UK government website for entry requirements for the country you're travelling to. As we'll need to fly into Helsinki , we need to check out the entry requirements for Finland, as well as those for Russia.

Once we've understood what's needed Covid-wise (i.e. if a test is required on top of proof of double vaccination), we'll need to navigate the minefield that is Covid testing options: a plethora of test types, locations, prices, turnaround times. Just ideal for someone who finds it hard to make the seemingly simplest of decisions...!

Thankfully, given that Tony has already been to Russia, he knew the drill and was familiar with the  standard Russia non-Covid specific protocol: we had to apply for a visa and get an invite into the country... (Um... what?! An invite into the country? Urm... Do you know anyone, Tone?!)

I didn't quite understand the invitation bit and when Tony explained that he had previously paid a company to invite him intro the country, I had to admit that my little bum started twitching just a little! I hear there's bribery in Russia, is this where it starts?! Dear Lord. I don't want to be arrested upon arrival. 

Well, it turns out that this is, indeed, the dealio! It seems to be more of a formality than anything else and there are certain travel agencies that can take care of both the invite and the visa for a certain (sky high?!) fee. Tony seemed to think it wouldn't be all that difficult to sort this out ourselves (and we can save a bob or two too!).

Now, talking of bobs... the more astute of you (/devout who have read every word that I've bled, sweated - sweat? - and cried into this blog so far) will have noticed that, in one of my first posts, I said there were three of us heading out on this trip: Tony, me and Tony's neighbour (Bob).

So Bob and I clamber round our Tone's to meet one another and to sort out the next steps early Jan.

We find a company to invite us into Russia for about £9 each so we go ahead with that and go on to laboriously complete our visa forms - all however many pages of it  (yes, I am divorced, no I won't be travelling with my spouse - what kind of a question is that?!!!).

The night dragged on as we completed field after field on the visa form, listing out each country we'd visited in the last 10 years (I've had some awesome holidays in that time!). During these few hours, the travel agency issuing our invitation for entry were emailing back and forth asking for the full addresses of the places we'd be staying. Tony had listed out a few hotels per town in his research paperwork, which certainly made it a lot easier, but the agency wanted exact addresses and the Cyrillic alphabet posed a few problems (I suspect it won't be the first, or last time!)!

We got there in the end and also booked our flights into Finland. Tony and Teresa told us about the travel options they clocked when they were there dropping off the van the month or so earlier: when we get to Helsinki, we need to take the bus or train to get to Kotka before going on to Hamina.

We understood we'd be contacted in due course about the visa but, as Tony had completed his visa form at the tail end of 2021 and still hadn't been contacted, he thought it prudent to double check the process. He rang the visa issuing agency the following week to find out that the next step was to go to London to register fingerprints, and we learned that it could take up to 6 weeks to complete the process from that point on. Buggeryboo. 6 weeks?! It was mid-Jan and we had about 7 weeks to go until we were flying to Helsinki - we had to get to the Russian Vise Centre quicksnap!

< insert spinny, pop-art, cartoony urgent/dramatic jingle here >

KAPOW!

So, within a matter of days, the band are back together, taking a cosy little trip to London on the National Express (was our life a mess? It did make us smile!). After what seemed like endless toing and froing to their computers and printers to edit what seemed like the smallest of inaccuracies on our forms, we registered dotted our digits, paid our visa fees, handed over our passports and gave them back the little red bag they gave to us with our address written out. (Good job our Tone checked out what we had to do or I would've just sat there waiting for someone to contact me!) 

There are lots of different options with visas - single entry, multi-entry, 30 day, 90 day. Tony and Bob would continue into Japan to meet Teresa when I planned to fly back from Vladivostok so I took a single 30-dayer, and they a multi 90.

There were some interesting characters in the Visa Centre - one guy with tats all over his face and shiny teeth. Is that a Russian trend? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

After a fairly long day trapsing to London and back in a matter of hours, everything was in order: flights sorted, invitation sorted, visa application in.

Now it's just a waiting game for us to receive our passports back through our doors in that little red postage bag... I don't think I've longed to see my own handwriting appear on my doormat so much...! Eeeeeeh!