That went well.\u00a0 Getting my visa took a mere 30 minutes, 20 minutes of which was queueing and the rest waiting for it to be processed.\u00a0 Everything is possible in Russia provided you pay, in this case the charge being $160.\u00a0 But it’s better than hanging around for several days.<\/p>\n
I was surprised in another sense too.\u00a0 Just when you have gotten used to Russian officials grunting at you from behind\u00a0desks and security glass, scowling at you as\u00a0you pass them your\u00a0documents, and behaving as though they are carved from cold, wet, granite, the young chap\u00a0in the embassy today brightly asked what football team I supported and proudly\u00a0told me he’d recently seen an English\u00a0film about football hooligans.\u00a0 And with lots of\u00a0goodbyes and good lucks, he waved me off from the counter.<\/p>\n
That said, the above episode was only the second\u00a0biggest surprise I got today, the first being the discovery of tuna porridge on the breakfast menu this morning.\u00a0 It looked to be nothing more than a pot of porridge\u00a0with lumps of tuna thrown in.\u00a0 Needless to say, I avoided it and helped myself to the more traditional breakfast items, which were excellent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That went well.\u00a0 Getting my visa took a mere 30 minutes, 20 minutes of which was queueing and the rest waiting for it to be processed.\u00a0 Everything is possible in Russia provided you pay, in this case the charge being … Continue reading