AT LAST

Finally our visas for Russia and out passports have arrive with only 1 day to spare. That was a  very stressful experience. Of course we only have booked the Flight to Beijing and the return from Warsaw (our final destination). We will have to boook the rest as we go, hopefully that will work out.
We are now at the airport waiting for the first flight of our journey. There is hardly anyone at the airpot and no queues due to so many European flights being cancelled as a result of the volvano erupting in Iceland. We will be stopping in Singapore for a couple of hours before heading off to Beijing.
Oh the airport at Singapore is lined with sleeping people. these poeople can not get to there next destination beacuse of the ash in the sky from the volcano.  They do not look very comfortable or happy poor things. They all have matching sleeping bags so these must have been provided for them. The airport is in darkness as we step past sleeping people and make our way to our flight.

One Step Closer

Yah today the Russian Consulate told us the passports would be put in the mail from Sydney today. Of course no hint of whether they issued us the long awaited visa. I guess we will have to wait for the envelope to find out.

So near yet so far

With only a week to go before we depart we still have no Russian visa. We finally obtained a letter from the Russian travel agency which took weeks of emails and then finally a telephone call to Russia. The money then had to be transferred into their acount via three banks starting in the USA. We were very relieved to get our letter of of invitation.
We applied for our visas and these were rejecgted with a notse saying "date". So we have changed the dates and reapplied. We have heard nothing and so we sit here with no passports or visas wondering what is going to happen.
I have just emailed the consulate to make enquiry about the progress. Meanwhile my fingernails are bing bitten down to the quicks.
Fingerscrossed!!!!