Hello and thank you for reading this blog. As many that read my blogs know I enjoy traveling to places that normal people might not consider. There are countries that I have been to that my little golden ticket(my U.S. Passport)get me right into. Places like the Ukraine are one of them, and also most NATO countries as well. I don't have to pay any visa application fee's or do any interviews. Being former military service sometimes those interviews are lengthy for me. My job in satellite communications always makes the interview special and not in a good way. Places like Armenia require a visa but my experience is that the money is just a way to make money for some politician somewhere. The U.S. pays many countries to run counterintelligence through the US no fly list....kinda like we do in most of South America with drug cartels. But places like Russia are a whole different story. I tried the obvious choice on my first trip to Russia many years ago and went to the Embassy in Washington DC. That trip wasn't bad at all and I even got vouchers for travel to other countries on that trip. In Washington DC there is the usual place to go called Embassy Row. The name says it all because most countries are represented in a very small area of the city. It's possible to walk from one to the other and then another in no time at all. Washington DC is a 3.5 hour train ride from my tiny island home and the trip is pleasant and the trains....well, they are better than any train I have ever been on anywhere in the world. Maybe better is not the right word. They are more consistent than most countries. In Asia there are very fast trains but they are often down for maintenance and overpacked. Trains in most of Russia are not that nice. Back to Embassy Row. I got maybe $1000 in incentive vouchers for Estonia, Romania, Poland and Lithuania. Yes Lithuania! In Estonia you may need the vouchers in summertime. It's like the new Ibiza or the beaches of Monaco. Careful there though, the designer drugs sold there can do real harm. Many human trafficking gangs run and deal those very bad drugs. Or you could end up in a bar where you are teased in to buy a woman a drink or buy a bottle if champagne and then BOOM....the check comes and it's $700! Your options are to pay it or have the 3 men at the front door take you out the back door. Sound crazy? It's true....check. Many of those rings are ran by Arab men...alot of Turks work with the bars there and the taxi's also. Beware of those scams! Vouchers were pretty cool but I found a pattern-vouchers for overpriced goods marked up to be discounted. You may not need a Visa to enter some countries but that absolutely doesn't mean that it's always safe. My neck was crushed in Kharkov and the Ukraine requires no Visa at all. Before the Crimea was annexed into Russia I actually visited the Black Sea and even in Evpatoria there was a tourist bureau paid for by the USA. Tiny place....but still aiming for the almighty dollar. Russia requires a Visa and documents like a tourist stamp from the place you will travel to like an actual hotel or a travel agency. They will have these registered stamps. To me it seems another way to milk money out of travelers but I could be wrong. Without an itinerary you will get nowhere. They require your itinerary, travel dates, airlines plus the places you plan to visit. I was made to provide every single detail of my travels because of my past in the military but I got the feeling that everyone had to do that. The Russian embassy finally found a company staffed by Russians in Washington to handle the Visa process. They help walk you through what is needed and handle all the money involved with the Visa process. In my case I needed a passport and Visa fast so I followed the hint of my local postman and called my local congressman. I told them I had to travel fast and why and they wrote me a short letter and thanked the passport agency in Washington for helping me. No joke...it was that easy. I went to the capital and gave the Congressman's office my papers and the application. They actually walked me down to the lower basement of one if the capital buildings and there it was.... the passport office. The page(that's like a kinda lower secretary)for an office worker told me to come back in 4 or 5 days...5 days tops. I found a hostel and made friends and then visited more Embassy offices and got all sorts of travel advice for the former Soviet states. I got my passport in 3 days!!! Yes...3! When a U.S. citizen applies through the mail it could take 6 to 8 weeks but using a recommendation we can get them inside of a work week...less than 5 days. I took that passport and all my travel documents to the agency Russia hired to issue Visa's. They wanted every detail but we're really helpful in telling me what I needed. There is a fee structure for getting a Visa. For overnight it's nearly $300. For 2 days it's about $185. For a week it was $115. This was a few years ago. Mine came back in 2 days and thankfully I used CheapoAir and got an a Delta flight right into Moscow. That was just a one time use of Delta for Russia. The Russian gov't requires that half of the staff is Russian on the Delta flight. I decided to use Aeroflot for my travels after that. I arrived in Moscow and things felt just like the USA....it was all super pricey! I then hopped on a flight to Novosibirsk after a customs and a lengthy interview. Notice I have left out a detail that is gonna come up in a minute. I arrived in Novosibirsk and the person I was meeting was waiting for me. I went through more customs checks and off I went to the trains. The trains in Siberia were not new. They were not nice and clean. It was dark...maybe 8 pm at night and the train left at nearly 10:30pm. I was not warned about the trains! :( Nobody pulled me to the side in all my travels to all those Embassies to tell me about $#itty trains. My $38 ticket was for second class. I thought for sure it wouldn't be that bad. Wrong!!! The train was dark and dank, and maybe 40 to 50 years old. Second class had no door for the 12 hour trip. The seat became a bed and the bedding came wrapped in a plastic bag...sheet, cover sheet, thin blanket, pillow case, crappy pillow and a wash cloth. My friend and I laid opposite each other, had some tea, and tried to sleep. The train was noisy, smelly, and there was no privacy in second class. I asked what 1st class was and I was shown basically the same type of seats that became a bed with 2 above and 2 below and a sliding door with a table. That was it. For $9 more I could have had that? I didn't miss alot that time. The trick next time was to buy all 4 seats, and lock the door. Boom...privacy! I arrived in Novokuznetsk and had friends meet me there. I had to take a long shower to wash the grime off my body from the train. I had noticed all sorts of cops at the train station and when we went back outside my friends flat they were there again. My friend approached them and asked them why they were there. They then told me ANOTHER detail that no one told me. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Every single person that travels there on a tourist Visa or a Home stay Visa must register in each city they visit within 3 days. I did NOT know that. 2 choices...go to a police station and register or a post office. I tried the postal way and I was followed everywhere for my 2 weeks there. Anytime someone knew I was an American I was followed. I went to a little village near Sheragesh and BOOM...a policeman asked if I had registered. I realized it was nothing more than a way to extort money from visiting tourists. I was just dollar bills to them. Bottom line in countries that require a Visa they are gonna want more detail on your travels. With Russia I can't say if it was my military service or just the money in my wallet but I sure had to jump through alot of hoops. Find out the rules, ALWAYS get emergency contact information for your nearest Embassy and ALWAYS tell the Embassy where you are going and how to contact you. The U.S. Embassy in Ekaterinaburg called me every day to check in. Russia is so big they have more than one Embassy. When I tore my Achilles tendon coming out of an icey River the Embassy told me what clinics were best for me to go to. They even took care of contacting my travel insurance. Visa free doesn't always mean SUPER safe and VISA REQUIRED doesn't always mean not safe at all. I can safely say that Russia was safer for me than just about anywhere. I did have to pay a few bribes but that happens in Visa fee countries as well. Register wherever you go.....make sure people know where you are and stay in touch with your Embassy. In short....DO NOT ACT LIKE AN ARROGANT WESTERN MAN. It's better to have some help from an agency. I was lucky to have friends there and they took care of me but you may not have this. I don't know everything but I can give advice based on my own travels. Be safe, contact an agency where you want to visit and ALWAYS check them out. Learn some of the basic language for where you want to visit and seek out others that speak your own language. It's already hard to find our life partner so follow a few small things to stay safe and to keep you wallet where it belongs...safe with your money for your plans with the person you plan a future with. Another long BLA BLA BLOG by Andy. Take care fellow travelers and message me if I can help. Peace & Love...Andy