London Wrap Up

*Includes Russian Visa Drama part III

I flew direct from Santorini to London in order to arrange a few things, see some friends, and catch my flight to Boston for my 10th college reunion in June. Because I had been to London before, I didn't feel an overwhelming need to see the touristy things - though I probably could have done with a bit more than what I did see, and the (lack of) photos are evidence of that. In the evening after arriving at my hostel from Stansted airport I basically revelled in the fact that I could fill up my water bottle from the tap, turn on the TV and hear English, and flush toilet paper. The hostel activity was pretty quiet, so that evening I watched 'Little Miss Sunshine' in the common room. It was the second time I'd seen it and I have to say, I enjoyed it even more - something about the dysfunctional family, where each one wants something completely unattainable (beauty queen, airforce pilot, fame as a self-help guru, etc) and have to accept that they're not going to get it.

On Saturday I was due to head to Wales to meet Sarah Owen, a dear friend from Australia who has lived in Cardiff for 2 years now. Rather than head out on the town and see sights, I took advantage of a big block of time in which to organise & upload 3 weeks' worth of photos to Facebook. As I also didn't feel a compelling need to eat 'traditional' food of the country, I revelled in the organic salad bar at Whole Foods for lunch. Took the train to Reading to meet Sarah and drive to Cardiff. There I met her new boyfriend Steve (we like Steve...anyone who devotes 3 hours of his Sunday to showing his new girlfriend's friend around town whilst she's at yoga scores big points).The weekend was basically about catching up together, eating Japanese food, and walking around Cardiff. I learned a very cute Welsh word for cuddle - "kutsch" - though given my observation of Welsh signage that's probably spelled with 8 'F's, a couple of 'G's, and maybe a W.

(I think Welsh and Afrikaans are in the same category of languages - I place them in the 'only spoken to retain separate sense of identity but not actually functional or worth learning if you are a tourist or even if you live there' bin)

The Russian Visa part III

On Monday I returned to London with 2 objectives: obtain Mongolian visa and rearrange Russian visa. Mongolian visa was a snap - the embassy was 3 blocks from my hostel, I dropped it off at 11:30, paid for rush service and picked it up at 12:15 - just enough time to get myself organised with Russian visa docs and head to Barbican station to lodge them.

Now...the Russian visa. For those of you not in the know with this drama, the Russian visa is reasonably straightforward, albeit precise and bureaucratic, to get - so long as you don't have anything strange. It is ALWAYS best to get this in your home country (in this case Australia as I was travelling on my Aussie passport) and I had actually done this with considerable stress due to my evil travel agent but that's another story. The problem came when my trip was cancelled and I had to rearrange my Trans-Mongolian trip. The Russian visa dates are very specific to entry and exit, and my previous dates allowed entry on July 3rd and exit on July 19th. Naturally my new tour exits Russia on July 20th. Cue new Russian visa.

* Not that I hold a grudge, but I will mention that if my evil travel agent was half sensible she would have built 'fat' into my travel dates and we could all have been spared this whole drama. OK I do hold a grudge. You've been warned.

I was reasonably confident after my communication with the office that I could actually lodge the docs there (there was some question, as I am not a UK resident...why that matters I have no idea). I was less confident as to how long it would take and was anticipating needing to plead my case...it was looking good for a while and I left thinking that I could lodge my documents with a prepaid international express envelope, and head to Boston/Norway/etc knowing my passport would be returned to me in Norway at my friend's house in Stavanger in 10-14 business days.*

*Were I to be a UK resident applying on my Aussie passport, I could have had it next day. When I inquired as to making an exception and as to why this is the case, I was promptly informed that it's the same for Russians applying to Australia, which I highly doubt but anyway I'm not going to digress into a lamentation of diplomatic tit-for-tat on visa costs and process.

The next day, however, I learned that

• Fed Ex does not sell prepaid international envelopes

• UPS does not sell prepaid international envelopes

• DHL does not sell prepaid international envelopes

• Royal Mail does not sell prepaid international envelopes

I went to the Russian embassy and tried to lodge my form and passport and tried to leave a credit card or overpay an amount to cover the cost of an international courier, but was swiftly and curtly informed that they do not accommodate such a request.

(cue tears)

(doesn't work)

After an hour of panic/stress/calming down and rationalising I lodged the visa forms anyway and worked out a way to have someone pick up the visa on my behalf. Because, despite the precision with which the Russian visa office operations on lodgment and rules, any bloody idiot can pick up anyone else's passport so long as they are in possession of a docket that looks as official as a receipt from Tesco. No ID required here!

Bless Christine, who was in London till the 27th and who graciously agreed to assist me in this regard.

The rest of the week before heading to Boston on Thursday (on my US passport, in case you're following this) I caught up with good friends - Jen from St Louis/Wellesley and partner Christine (or, Saint Christine in my book), Sal for a quick coffee, Sue and Bridget for dinner and Hamish for a post-dinner drink. I was caught in the tube strike and had to walk to Paddington Station to get to Ealing to see Sue & Hamish, but at least the transit to Heathrow was painless and cheap (by London standards!).