pretty money

Recieving Russian Rubles in the mail has been the easiest thing about this upcoming trip so far.  I ordered it on a Monday and it was delivered by 10am Tuesday.  I wasn't expecting it that quickly since everything else concerning this trip has had extensive paper work and waiting.
Nonetheless, we are getting excited and anxious to go to Mother Russia.  Excited because I get to see one of my college roomies and iconic Russia locations.  Anxious because I don't know how to speak or read Russian.  This may prove problematic when it is time to use public transportation. 

Warning:  The rest is kinf of a long narration-not completely interesting, but I wanted to add it for my own account.  Don't feel obligated to read it.

Why Russia?  About 8 years ago Wes and I were working the details of an international trip.  My friend and her husband were living in Moscow at the time and invited us to visit.  We seriously considered it, but ended up doing a month long tour of western Europe.  In the back of our minds, we always thought we would take my friend's offer up while they were living in Moscow.  We never did and they moved back to the US.  A little over a year ago they moved to St. Petersburg and I told her we were serious about coming to Russia this time.  I started doing the research to see what we needed to do in order to enter the country.  Russia does not make it easy and there are many steps before entering the country.  First, we have to be invited.  Luckily for us, my friend's husband works at the US Embassy and he helped us out a lot!  We got an invitation as "Guest of Embassy".  Otherwise, we would have to get a travel agency or hotel to issue an invitation. 

The above picture is part of my invitation.  It's kind of cool to see how my name would be spelled in Russian.  Anyway, I think that is what it is!  The invitation is only good for a 90 day window.  By the time we really got in gear with our whole Russian visa application plus time when we could both get off work, September-November worked best for us.  And when it came right down to it, the end of October was the only time it would pan out.  As I am writing, the high in St. Petersburg is 58 degrees.  Yeah, it is going to be cold and rainy, possibly snowing when we get there!  I suppose that will be part of the charm of our trip. 

After we got the invitation, we were able to fill out our visa application online.  Our friends warned us that everything has to be entered exactly as it appears on the invitation.  Once again, thanks to them for helping us interpret the invitation.  Once the application was done we had to go to San Francisco to turn in the application (that they already had, since we submitted it online), passport, etc paperwork.  I read every detailed instruction (twice if not three times) on their website to ensure we had everything  they needed to process our application. 

They required a cashier's check or money order for the application fee ($140 each-nothing is cheap in Russia), a prepaid Fedex Envelope to send the visa to our home, passport, application, and the invitation. 

We both took a day off work to go the Russian Consulate in SF.  They have a very short window of seeing people 9am-Noon.  We vowed to get there right when the doors opened.  The traffic did not agree and then we had to find parking and then book it up a hill (of course the Consulate office would not be at the bottom of a hill).  We ended up getting there at 10am.  The line seemed to be going rather quickly.  It was our turn at the window and I noticed a sign that says they require a photocopy of our passports.  They would not make copies for us.  I was about ready to cry.    We ran down the hill, around the corner and few blocks we were at the FedEx store.  We made our copies in like 2 minutes and then booked it back up the hill.  I was sweating profusely by the time we made it back in line.  We made it in time with about 30 minutes to spare before they closed up shop.  They took our paperwork, passport, and money and told us we would find out in 7 days if it was acceptable.  It was actually about 8 days, but whose counting!  With visas in hand we were able to book our flights.  And now, we are counting the days to our adventure.  If anyone has Russia tips for us, we gladly welcome them.