So after some crazy amount of hassle and red tape. Really bright red blood tape, I now have this glued piece of paper (a very expensive piece of glued paper) in my passport that should allow me to enter Russia as a tourist. I use “should” because technically they can stop me for whatever reason when I get there, visa or not.

In other words YIPPEEEE! Or should it be AIIIIEEEE?

My original plan included a quick trip to France to go to another concert, but unfortunately that show is actually near the border of Spain and I would of needed extra travel time that just seemed too complicated for a 2 hour show. (Now, I’m not saying going to Russia isn’t complicated but hey – why add more complications?) It would of been nice, but it didn’t really make sense adding more stress.

That said – the only way I’m able to afford this trip is because I have enough air miles accumulated to go for a discounted price. Also said, by the time I managed to get the visa all worked out, when I went to reserve the flights, I wasn’t able to go directly to Russia (even with stop overs) on the days I wanted to travel. I had to get creative…

I ended up deciding on going to Helsinki, Finland first. That way I could explore Helsinki for a day and get to St. Petersburg a bit more refreshed than 18 hours or travel ick.

Of course Helsinki isn’t the cheapest place in the world and I am limited to 2 nights/one full day there, so I ended up finding a tour guide to take me around for a couple of hours so that I can see what I need to then explore on my own for the rest of the day. My credit card really hates me for this, but it will hopefully survive without melting. The one thing I’m not terribly content about is the hotel situation – it doesn’t seem very exotic or Finnish to be staying at a Holiday Inn in Helsinki. But since it is across the street from the airport shuttle and I have an early flight to Russia it seemed a logical choice. There were a few other choices, but price and location had to be considered. Turns out when I have to leave for an early morning flight, I don’t really want to try to trudge my way around in a strange city – go figure!

Now then my flights are nuts – air miles means you fly more miles.

My departure: Montreal at 20:45 to Geneva, Switzerland short layover of about 90 minutes, hop on another plane to Copenhagen, stay there for 4 hours (ugh) then go to Helsinki. I should be arriving around 20:00 the next day.

Then Helsinki to St Petersburg is a short flight about 36 hours after I get to glorious Helsinki.

Returning is a bit easier (except for the 6 am flight), St Petersburg to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Montreal. While I might be departing Russia at 6 am and have a 3 hour layover in Germany – somehow I travel back in time and get to Montreal around noon. That drive home is going to be pretty funny I think.

Now an added bonus – I know in advance that whenever I travel overseas or far away (it happened in Argentina, France, etc) my tummy does not seem to adjust well to the water (even when bottled) so inevitably I expect to be pretty ill when I return for about a week. Hmm come to think of it, my tummy was fine in the UK. I bet they import their water from Canada. 🙂

TMI? Why am I telling you this?

Well here is the thing that just came up yesterday. A company I interviewed with recently now wants me to fly out for a face to face interview in California. They would of liked me to go before my trip to Russia – but I’m not going to be that cruel to my body. So they are insisting I go when I return, most likely about 4 days after I get back. Ugh.

This is a test of my willingness to travel me thinks. But then last year I went to Australia and back in 6 days. I CAN DO THIS!

If you can’t tell, I just had some chocolate, I’m on a sugar high and really excited about all the fun coming up in one week!

I’ll miss the kitty though. 🙁