Visa II

My trip to the Russian Embassy today was... well, you can read about it and decide for yourself.  Once again, there was the usual crowd of yelling Moldovans outside the gate.  Once again, I saw an elderly woman burst into tears when whatever document she wanted apparently wasn't going to be completed.  And once again I walked away only partially satisfied.  [For the first leg of this journey, click here.]

This time I returned, having made the decision that I would get one single-entry visa for the first part of my upcoming vacation and one transit visa for my second (and shorter) stay in Russia.  I was armed with an official invitation, purchased online and UPS-ed in its original non-copy, non-fax form.  Below is an excerpt from my conversation with the man in charge of granting visas.

ME: I would like a single-entry visa and a transit visa
HIM: [After seeing my invitation], Vell, I cannot geeve you a tranzit viza because yu doo not hav yoor plane tickets.
ME: But I do have them, right here [I pull them out of a folder.]
HIM: ... [He takes the plane tickets and invitation wordlessly and disappears into another room]

I had countered his typical defense with the secret weapon of preparedness.  Fortunately for him, 5 minutes later he was able to regroup and strike down my strategy with an even mightier one: absurdity.

HIM: Vee cannot give you a tranzit viza because vee cannot give you two viza at same time.  You go to Russian Embassy in Mongolia.  They shut one viza and give new viza.
ME: But...
HIM: I already said you.  Go to Russian Embassy in Ulaanbaatar.

So, the saga continues.  I paid $60 and in two weeks I can come back and get my single-entry visa, so at least I'll be able to (in theory) get from Moldova to Moscow to Mongolia.  The tricky part that remains will be getting out of Mongolia, through Moscow, and back to Moldova.  Hopefully procuring a transit visa from the Russian Embassy in Ulaanbaatar won't prove too difficult or waste too much of my vacation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

Moral: There are plenty of places on this earth that I haven't been that don't require visas.  Why don't I go there?