the visa voyages (addi)

It seems that in israel getting visas is not the easiest thing in the world :)

So here are my adventures of trying to get a visa from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and China.

I started out with going to get the Kazakhstan.

First time got there at 12:30 but no one was excepting, the embassy that said on the sight that they are open till 13:00 but the doors actually close at 12:00, so strike **1**.

Second time I messed up and came on sunday, which in israel is a work day.... but we always forget that for the rest of the world its a weekend, strike **2** .

Third time I got there, and it was a working day and got there during opening time (11:30) but no one was there.... 15 min after a bit stressed out wait finally the girl came out, looked over the papers and sent me to pay the fee two blocks away, usually no problem but I had 10 min to go to the bank, wait in line, pay and get back. So I did what every sane person would do..... I took of my shoes and started sprinting, some how got to the bank, payed, and got back to the embassy huffing and puffing, my feet burnt and half of Tel Aviv thinking im a having a nervous brake down.

So do you think I got back in time ???

No, but luckily this is israel, so they did let me in.... got the visa in and a week later got my passport and was ready for the next embassy.

Next on the list was Uzbekistan. After getting a bit lost in Ramat Gan, found the embassy and tried to get in, after being explained that the only way of getting a visa to Uzbekistan is threw a visa office buy several people there, and after being very, very charming and insistiv, the guard took me to talk to the consul. After a long talk of me trying to explain why me and a friend are going to drive 13,000 km, he asked what car we are driving.... so I told him.... a match box with an engine, or by its formal name, Daewoo Matiz. As I was trying to explain to him that this is supposed to be an adventure and the hole point was to do it in a way thats not logical, he kept on insisting, while laughing, that A. we are crazy and B. we are not going to make it past Austria.

Sadly, after a very nice talk with the consul of Uzbekistan (by the way hi, if you are reading this) and him deciding to follow our trip, he told me that its still not possible to get the visa with no assistance.

So that was a total strike out, as well as the Ukraine visa, so at the end I gave my passport to a visa office and I should be getting it back with all of my visas on the 7th of july...

Its been a long and tiering way, but who cares, im of on a crazy trip and im going to get stuck in some raely crazy countries. So its all worth is!!!!