Please let us in!

Since we only had two kids at Fritids today I have spent all morning prinitng out and fixing stuff for Visas. However, I'm starting to doubt Russia will actually let us in. I mean really, all the paperwork I'm giving them is lies.

See, I've finally received my VISA invitiation from our Russian travel agency which is required to apply for a visa. On it is a signature (which is not real), a stamp of validity (which isn't real either), our itinerary list (which is lies), a receipt for that says we've paid for all our hotels (which is false and includes hotels we won't even go near) as well as our entry and exit ways (which is all lies surprise surprise). What is the point of making a system, that even an honest person as myself has to lie to in order to take advantage of? Don't Russia WANT tourists??

oh well, I guess that's Russian logic for ya.

RIPOFF!

A wise man once said "It's a jungle out there" and yet he wasn't referring to Africa. Subconsciously he was referring to buying tickets on the Trans-Siberian railway! MY GOD! If I was actually able to pull out my hair I would. Why is it so difficult? Well....

• No one knows how much it costs. NO ONE! Not even the fucking ticket vendors! So everytime you email an agency about it they give you a different price.
  
• By booking now you have to pay ca 50% more than if you would buy it on the spot. Yet if we don't book now, there is no certainty we would get to Beijing when we want to or be able to buy a tickets since my current Russian consists of da, neit, priviet and Slava Boga! (which means Praise the Lord!)
• You have to keep on being strategic. Not only do you want to book with an agency that gives you the best price on railtickets, you want one who will give you a good deal on Visas as well as willing to hook you up with a good hostel in St Petersburg where they can delivery the tickets to the hostel upon arrival (saving you lots of delivery charges) AND register you without you having to bribe the stupid hotel people 30 dollars. (In Russia you have to register every 30 days you're there to the government to make sure you're not organizing the Second October Revolution.)

ooooh. if only Russia was a bit more like Sweden. But the I suppose that would be less fun. Especially since the vodka would be so expensive.