August 25, 2008 - Back in the Россия...

Hi everyone! Россия is Russia in cyrillic & that was my attempt at a (albeit bad) joke (think old Beatles song...back in the USSR!). Ok - it's been a long day, give me a little slack! :) So - we arrived back in St Petersburg late yesterday afternoon. Switzerland was so nice and relaxing, we almost didn't want to leave; our driving force was getting back here so we can complete our after-court paperwork and pick up Nicky! 3 weeks is a long time to be away from home...we've barely been gone for 2 and it's starting to take it's toll already. Kris got a cold or sinus infection and has been feeling rather poopy & I somehow pinched a nerve in my shoulder blade, therefore turning my neck is quite painful. We're quite the couple! At least we didn't have much to do today..or so we thought. In case any of you ever plan to travel to Russia, keep these few things in mind. 1) You must have a valid passport...not too much to ask. 2) You have to apply for a visa to enter into the country...still not too much as a lot of countries require this piece. 3) In order to get your visa, you must have an invitation to travel to Russia. This is where it can get tricky; we were lucky and our agency did that part for us. We had to fill out the visa application, send it to an agent working for our agency in DC and the invitation was sent to her, so she did all the leg-work from there. 4) After getting off the plane in your city of interest (ours being St Pete of course), you must fill out a "migration form" (similar to our immigration/customs form in the US)...once again, not too much to ask. You go through passport control and they look at your passport & visa (all without smiling or saying a peep), give you your stamp (they do love their stamps in this country!) and you go merrily on your way. 5) This is where the process gets tricky...getting the visa registered in the city you are staying. If you plan on staying in the city for more than 3 business days you need to get registered. Usually this service is offered through the hotel you are staying; since we are staying with friends in an apartment, we had to go to a hotel that proclaims to provide this such service. Well - this afternoon we began our trek through the streets of St Pete looking for the hotel our friends have sent other visitors to as well. It wasn't too far from the apartment, but finding things in this city can be quite difficult. Not only is everything in Russian (go figure), but most streets do not have signs indicating their name. We found the hotel without too much of a hitch...turns out Kris is pretty decent at reading maps! We get inside the hotel and the girl starts making copies of our paperwork and asked for our contact info and at the same time was calling someone else (manager maybe?). After a few minutes this guy (manager?) came and told us that he cannot provide the service, as he was not the one to issue our invitation letter! (Keep in mind, our invitation was all provided to us both trips by our agency and the first trip we used the registration service provided by the apartment rental company we used; they didn't issue our invitation letter & had no problem). So, he gives us a map and the name of another agency we can use and sends us on our way...for about a "5 minute" walk he says. Well - knowing that this place is near the apartment we stayed at during our first trip to Peter, we knew it would be more like 30 mins (it's about 2 miles away!)! To top it off, the wonderful weather we experienced during our first trip has disappeared and has been replaced with 60-ish degree rainy weather...gotta be great for Kris' cold! We stopped into the Radisson hotel on the way; I had read they would do the registration for a fee as well. We walked in, walked up to the check-in counter and asked the girl at the desk if it was a service they provided. She looked at us as if we were some crazy street urchins and said they only do that for their guests, and maybe we should "find a 3 star hotel" because they might do it for us! As if that was completely beneath them...too bad for them...at 1000 roubles ($40 or so) a pop, they're missing out on a nice profit! We find the registration place fairly easily and give them our info. Not only do we have to make the trip back there to pick up our paperwork tomorrow afternoon, but we found out we'll also have to get registered when we get to Moscow next week (at least we're staying at the Radisson & they'll do it for us). I have yet to find anything explaining WHY we need to get registered, just that it's a must or you will be fined. The other side of the registration too, is that's what's holding us up from getting Nicky and bringing him home. We have to go and get his registration voided and it's in the town of Pushkin and we have to be registered in order for it to happen. To top it all off, we thought that we might get to see Nicky this week since we got back in early (we didn't need to be back until the 28th), but our agency has 2 other couples that are here picking up their little guys, so they will not have time to take us to Nicky's home too. :( We're pretty bummed about that part, but we do get to see him Thurs & Fri, so at least we have that to look forward to. We are going to the Hermitage/Winter Palace tomorrow and will go into the Church on Spilled Blood on Wednesday...both are supposed to be amazing inside and since it's rainy outside, it will be the perfect distraction!