Thread: Travel Blog; CIS/ex-USSR countries (i.e. Russian speaking)

Originally Posted by Hanna

The nature of Belarus seems identical to Sweden's, even though Belarus is much further South. Not sure why.

Because climate in Scandinavian peninsula is affected by Gulf Stream, places in Siberia and North America wich has the same latitude have much colder climate.

Originally Posted by Hanna

-and Dudutki Village (a traditional Handicraft village - if I can figure out how to get there...)

I also want to find out where the Russian embassy is, and submit a visa application, since I have finally got my Minsk registration sorted out, thanks to Yuri's (landlord) dodgy contacts...(according to the registration, I am staying at a hotel called "Turist".)

There is a really horrible memorial which I don't want to go to alone, just too sad. It is called Khatyn, and it's about war crimes by the Nazis in Belarus. Among other things, inhabitants of several villages were locked inside of buildings and burnt alive.

Almost 3 million Belarussians died in the war - that's 1 of 4 people in the country at that time. All of Minsk was destroyed. It IS surely a small miracle to rebuild and recover so quickly.

The bus number 323 Minsk-Dudutki starts from Autostation "Восточный" near the hypermarket "Gippo" ул.Ванеева, 34 in the morning 9-40 and afternoon 12-55. The museum doesn't work in monday.
Russian Embassy is situated on the street Гвардейская, 5a go to Nemiga by metro, then walk to the bus station in the direction of "Дворец спорта" then you should go by bus #1 or #69 past the monument "Stella - "Minsk a Hero City" ,
Right after Stella there is your bus stop (Гвардейская) quit and cross the road to the perpendicular street, then go down this street straight forward until you see at the right hand a two level building with a russian flag. Before in this building was a kindergarten were I spent my young years )

"If you want to imagine what was Minsk at bygone times and to feel the atmosphere in which ourancestors lived, you should visit the Traetskaye Pradnestse (the Trinity Suburb), which is the restored medieval center of Minsk."

The first paragraph of a souvenir photo book given to me by my friend Irina. She moved after she graduated college. Lovely area.

"Let the restored area of the Traetskaye Pradmestse remind us of this town, which was lost. Lost but not forgotten."

Last sentence of the English portion. (Written in Belorussian, Russian, English and German)

I can recommend a Belarusian cultural event "The Show on The Grass"
Крамбамбуля і J-Морс разам зграюць “Канцэрт на траве”. : Будзьма разам!
If you need a translation I will post it later

Thank you so much for the information Whiteknight!
Today I have visited the Troetskoe Predmestie (Trinity Suburb), War memorial at "Hero City", done some shopping and been to the Russian Embassy. Yesterday I went to the Botanical Gardens, the childrens' railway and an large public park, and just strolled around a bit - photos later!

Today at the Russian Embassy things did not go well. As Whiteknight mentioned, the consular section is located in an old school, on a residential street. My plan was to go there and pick up the application form, and maybe ask questions. I assumed that in an embassy, people would speak English.

It took a while to find the building, it's not visible from the street. When I found it, it was quite thoroughly protected. A CCTV camera, a little gatekeepers kiosk and a locked gate. Not very inviting...

Somebody shouted from the intercom "Yes, what do you want?!" in Russian. I replied in my bad Russian... "I am a tourist, I want a visa for Russia."The person then read something from a script, of which I only understood... "You need............embassy of the Russian Federation......."

I tried to say that I didn't understand, but the intercom was off. I felt very stupid and got completely tongue-tied. I should have asked for somebody who speaks English.. There is a difference in the etiquette of how and when to switch to English, in this part of the world. Because they didn't offer, I assumed they couldn't speak it, or didn't want to. I left the embassy really frustrated and disappointed.

I had a nagging suspicion that what the person might have said was something like "you can't apply for a visa here, you have to apply at the Russian embassy in your country of residence". Andrei the guide had said something along those lines, but he didn't know for sure. But why then, do they even have a visa section in Minsk in the first place? Belarussians probably don't need a visa to visit Russia. So who is this consular section serving... ? And why does it even matter where you apply!

I will call them on the telephone tomorrow and ask. But if this is correct, then I simply won't be able to go to Russia. Unbelievable, I am just so gutted! So disappointed! I got a visa for the USSR in a country that was not my own (Finland). No problem whatsoever and it took one day for me and 40 other kids in the same group. Why does modern Russia have to be worse than in those days!!?

Originally Posted by visatorussia.com

1. A foreign citizen can obtain a visa to Russia ONLY in the country of his/her citizenship. Exceptions include those who have a residence permit for a foreign country for the period more than 90 days. However, the final decision is left up to the consulates. We recommend that you get in touch with the Russian consulate in the country of your current location and make sure that your application will be accepted.
2. A multiple entry business visa allows nationals of all countries to stay in Russia up to 90 days out of the period of 180 days. A multiple entry visa is only available for people who have been issued a Russian visa before. If this is your first visit, you are only eligible to obtain a single or double entry visa for 1 to 3 months.

The guide book definitely did not mention this, I DID read the section about visas. It's completely normal to get a visa in a third country, I've done it several times. But for some reason, it doesn't work for Russia. I thought Russia had become more relaxed about stuff like this - but it seems that a trip to Russia needs careful planning, from home - not somewhere you can expect to just pop in for a visit. What an awful shame!

I really liked Ukraine and I like Belarus a lot - but it's not the same as Russia.... I want to go there.
If there was some dodgy underhand way of fixing this, I'd use that, but ultimately a visa needs to be issued by an embassy and if they won't do it, then I am stuffed.

I wasn't going to fly on this trip, but the overland route back to Sweden without entering Russia is basically not interesting for me. The Baltic states or Poland are the options. I guess I'd choose Poland because I haven't actually been there.
My visa for .by is valid until 24 July however.

Sad to hear that. But no wonder in it unfortunately. Generally staff in Russian Embassies are complete assholes and snobs. All they do is telling to fvck off to everyone including their own compatriots. The roots of this phenomena go to iron curtan times and so called Soviet "blat".

To my mind you have 3 variations at least. The 1-st is based on the fact that there is no controlled border between Belarus and Russia. So you can go to Russia for some time, then return to cross a border with EU from permitted (by your visa) country. 2-nd do the same but cross the border of Russia with some trouble, for example to give a bribe to the custom officer or get a violation in your passport. 3-rd try to get the visa from Minsk, or from Kiev or from anywhere. I can help you with communication to the Embassy. Also I think that you should try to ask some touristic agency to do the visa for you. They usually got many advantages and "blat" in various embassies, it's their work at last, but nobody knows how much they can ask for the service, In addition you can apply in Sweden or UK embassy, and ask to explain what's wrong with Russian visa and maybe to do some assistance with Russian embassy. If you liked the first two variants be aware that there very seldom can be a passport control of public transport on the road police post near to Moscow. So if you trap in it you should be ready to say farewell to some amount of money. The amount of money depends on how bravely you assure them that you have not any cash money but those you have in a wallet )). About "The Show on the Grass" it was denied for unknown time by government... The pressure of culture is continuing... it's very sad.

I checked the page for the festival that you mentioned. Why was it denied? I suppose if somebody wants to be an idiot bureaucrat they can say that the location is unsuitable or something. There were some comments there which seemed a bit political (I just ran it in Google translate) - perhaps they simply won't allow it because they don't like the people behind the event. That's a shame either way.

Yes, the thought of going to Russia anyway occurred to me too... However, without a visa I probably couldn't stay in a hotel, and I couldn't cross the border to Finland as I wanted. I am almost certain you have to show a passport at a hotel in Russia. I'd have to go back to Belarus and then to Poland or the Baltics. Plus, I could be banned from entering Russia again, which I wouldn't want to risk.
I hate the idea of giving bribes and even if I was going to try it, I would have no idea what to do!

I've been calling the RU embassy on 3 different numbers I found online but they are not responding on either number.
How strange. Don't know what to make of this. So I still don't know for sure what the situation is.

The idea of going to a travel agency is really good. I'd have to find one that speaks English but it shouldn't be impossible.

Today I will go to Dudutki Village!


EDIT - Oh dear, this is getting curiouser and curiouser, as Alice said....
I decided to call MY OWN friendly embassy instead - they are after me to register with them anyway, and they answer the phone...
On the other end of the phone I got a Belarussian woman who worked there but spoke fantastic Swedish.
She really wanted to help and managed to call somebody who was actually the Russian consul. He told her that for Swedish citizens, there is no problem getting a Russian visa in Minsk, and I should print out the application from the website of the Russian consulate, and submit to the consular section. She said that if I had any further problems, I should either call her back from outside the embassy, or tell them that "Igor Yurievitch says it's fine".
Interesting. Compare with the comment from the site above! Two completely conflicting versions.

Originally Posted by Hanna

I checked the page for the festival that you mentioned. Why was it denied? I suppose if somebody wants to be an idiot bureaucrat they can say that the location is unsuitable or something.

Unfortunately Beurocracy and Idiotism are the most remarkable features of Belarusian government

Originally Posted by Hanna

Today I will go to Dudutki Village!

Good luck and have a nice day, Hanna!

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

Unfortunately Beurocracy and Idiotism are the most remarkable features of Belarusian government

Hehe.... But don't forget they are rather good at renovating buildings and keeping the streets clean though! And the traffic lights for crossing the streets are 110% great.
I would not be a rude guest and start criticising....


Also, check my edit update on the Russian visa situation!

And I am not sure I can make Dudutki today... I might miss the bus.

Originally Posted by Hanna

Hehe.... But don't forget they are rather good at renovating buildings and keeping the streets clean though! And the traffic lights for crossing the streets are 110% great.
I would not be a rude guest and start criticising....


Also, check my edit update on the Russian visa situation!

And I am not sure I can make Dudutki today... I might miss the bus.

Actually I'm proud that you liked Belarus, and my depressive thoughts are mostly connected with the current situation and with the obvious mistakes of the leadership that were the reason of it. My personal disgust of Lukashenko I'm trying not to show . Yeah I advice you go to Dudutki by a morning bus, by the way, tomorrow there will be an exhibition of basket weavers, I think it will be interesting

Originally Posted by WhiteKnight

....my depressive thoughts .....

Looking forward to hearing about it over a glass of wine, lol.

On the visa situation: I spoke with a woman who organises invitations to people who want to visit Russia; business or tourist.
She thought that perhaps I can only apply in Minsk if I am a permanent resident. So that's version 3 of what the rule is....

Oh, there is one other option actually. As an EU citizen, I am guaranteed to be able to apply at a Russian embassy in any EU country. Looking at the map, VILNIUS is not that far from Minsk. There is not a lot of extra trouble to go there, I think. Lithuania is the Baltic state that I have never been to, so it's somewhat interesting. To get the Russian visa, it's worth it. Does anyone know how long it might take to get to Vilnius from Minsk?

Originally Posted by Hanna

tell them that "Igor Yurievitch says it's fine"

Congrats! You started to discover how the stuff worked in the former USSR. But if you forget the Sesame's name (=Igor Yurievitch) the magic door will not open for you as you'll still be just one among the crowd who needs something.

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Congrats! You started to discover how the stuff worked in the former USSR. But if you forget the Sesame's name (=Igor Yurievitch) the magic door will not open for you as you'll still be just one among the crowd who needs something.

She didn't get the surname though... and also, why is there a consul for a city that has an embassy? Normally consuls are in cities that don't have an embassy, I think. I am not completely convinced about this yet. I mean, they didn't even let me through the gate at the consulate!
The other problem is, I can't hold down a serious conversation; nobody's going to take anything I say in Russian very seriously since it'll be riddled with grammatical errors.

Anyway, I will have some copies of the application form printed out, and keep calling the RU embassy.

I can't find the REAL homepage of the Russian embassy in Belarus, all I am getting is search optimised sites selling invitations, that have names purporting to be the real embassy, but are not, for example russianembassy.biz etc.

Oops, here it is, in Russian only. ПОСОЛЬСТВО РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ БЕЛАРУСЬ THANK YOU YANDEX!!! I got only spam and junk from google.

Originally Posted by Hanna

She didn't get the surname though...

That's right, and technically you're not supposed to know who that is. Typically, it's a current decision-maker at that level, tomorrow it can be someone else.

Originally Posted by Hanna

and also, why is there a consul for a city that has an embassy? Normally [...]

Huh? Normally? Are you still asking questions? Clear your mind from questions and enter the world of Zen!

Originally Posted by Hanna

I mean, they didn't even let me through the gate at the consulate!

That's because the magic door to riches opens only to those who know the current password (Sesame).

Originally Posted by Hanna

The other problem is, I can't hold down a serious conversation; nobody's going to take anything I say in Russian very seriously since it'll be riddled with grammatical errors.

Use your weakness to your strength, my young padawan learner. The next time you approach that evil speaker-phone by the magic door speak only English with confidence (and don't speak Russian at all, don't even show them you know Russian) and you'll be taken seriously. Don't ask for someone who speaks English, but openly say in clear and confident English: "Good morning! I'm a Swedish tourist and I'm here to obtain the visa." And if they say anything in return (whatever) finish them with the calm and confident "Igor Yurievich said I can apply here and I have my application filled in". That will work. Be tough and may the Force be with you!

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Use your weakness to your strength, my young padawan learner. The next time you approach that evil speaker-phone by the magic door speak only English with confidence (and don't speak Russian at all, don't even show them you know Russian) and you'll be taken seriously. Don't ask for someone who speaks English, but openly say in clear and confident English: "Good morning! I'm a Swedish tourist and I'm here to obtain the visa." And if they say anything in return (whatever) finish them with the calm and confident "Igor Yurievich said I can apply here and I have my application filled in". That will work. Be tough and may the Force be with you!

Thank you oh wise Master Crocodile!
That sounds like a strategy that would work!

EDIT: The truth about applying for Russian visas in CIS countries:
Finally I found a number for the embassy that worked. AND I managed to get myself connected with someone who spoke English. The address for the visa section is different from the place I went to, I think. Perhaps they changed the address or something. I spoke with a really nice man who told me that EU citizens can apply for a Russian visa in Minsk. However this does not apply for non-European nationalities. Hence the confusion; a lot of the info online is targeted at Americans.
He also gave me the name of a tourist company in Minsk that can sort everything out for me. It takes 5 days to get the visa (maybe there is a fast track service).

For a 30 day tourist visa, an insurance, an invitation and the visa application form is all that's needed. A business visa offers more flexibility, but if I plan my trip properly it might not be needed.

Hurrah!

Visa update:
After an exchange of 8 emails between me and a helpful girl called Alexandra at a visa support company, and lots of phonecalls from her to some Russian ministry, we have established that it takes 6 days to get a Russian visa invitation (business) for an application in Minsk. After I have the invitation, it has to be submitted to the Russian embassy in Minsk, together with the other forms. Not sure if I should stay in Minsk and wait this out, or go somewhere else in the country and come back to Minsk later...

I am not sure, and I would recommend anyone who needs a Russian visa to get it on their own country, to avoid the hassle that I've been through. The amount of time I've spent on simply FINDING OUT what the rules are, is unbelievable... and I am still nowhere near actually having the visa.

I put Moscow, St Petersburg, Samara, Kazan and Murmansk as my planned cities for visiting. It's probably not feasible to visit all of those though, and I think with the business visa it doesn't matter if you go to the places you said you were going to visit.


What to do next in Belarus??!
I have seen most of the main sights in Minsk now, and done the errands that I needed to do. But I have to stay a bit longer, because of the Russian visa situation.

I am playing with the idea of going to a "sanatorium"... I read the Belintourist info and got seduced by the pictures of holiday resorts and spas in the pine forest by a beautiful lake... just the kind of thing I was dreaming about during my endless London commute and late evenings in the office... I have never been to a spa in my life, actually.

But are my Russian skills up for this... ? And would I be the only foreigner? That would be weird... According to the broschures, people from Germany, Baltics, Poland and Scandinavia go to sanatoriums in Belarus.. But I must say I have only met one person who who has ever been in a sanatorium, and she went somewhere in Russia, not in Belarus. Judging from the pictures, these places are not luxurious, but they are spotlessly clean (like everything else in Belarus.... ) and in a reasonably good repair. I am not sick in any particular way, but there are a few things I wouldn't mind getting some treatment for.. Not sure whether this is a very cool idea, or very crazy, and whether I will be able to find a nice place that has a vacancy. If anyone has any experience of this, please give me some advice!

Another option is to use the extra time to cram Russian - as it turns out, I have not been able improve my skills in Russian as much as I had hoped (although I HAVE improved.. )

Originally Posted by Hanna

I put Moscow, St Petersburg, Samara, Kazan and Murmansk as my planned cities for visiting.

Москва... как много в этом звуке
Для сердца русского слилось!
Как много в нем отозвалось!
(с) А.С. Пушкин

Я хотел бы жить и умереть в Париже,
Если б не было такой земли — Москва.
(с) В.В. Маяковский

В общем, в Москву - обязательно!!

Well, I actually don't have a very good impression of Moscow at the moment.
I suppose it's a matter of personal taste but the things I have learnt from this forum and from upmarket magazines etc shows a picture that is not very attractive to me..

Too many cars, too crowded, corruption, lots of disgustingly rich people being superficial, arrogant and throwing money around them. Lots of really poor people, possibly dishonest/dangerous. Extremely commercial and very generally very expensive and flashy.

Of course, the history, culture and architecture etc interest me, and some nice people from this forum live there. But those other things are quite offputting.

И москвичей в Москве всё меньше и меньше. Скоро они станут реликтами.
Любимый город становится чужим.