So since I have been living here, I have often felt as if I wasn't taking all the opportunities to travel and see all the cities and places I have always wanted to. I'm not complaining, because come on, I've already gone back to London, saw Berlin, and then spent a long weekend in Paris, which is obviously amazing. However, when I first came here I remember thinking that there were sooo many places I wanted to try and see, and somewhere along my stay I got wrapped up in the daily grind of life (don't we all?) and haven't been out doing a lot of the things I told myself I would when I first came here. For instance, the world famous Oktoberfest begins next month in Munich, which is about 5-6 hours by train away from me here in Bonn. When I first moved here I thought without question that I would go there, I mean if anything is cut out for me, Megan Osgood, than it is Oktoberfest ;) However, here it is, August 27th, and I have no plans of going. That sucks. By this time, it's so late in the game that trying to find a plane or train to Munich, let alone somewhere to stay, would be next to impossible/way to expensive (I've already looked into it, and definitely not a possibility). They say that 7-8 million people (yes, I said MILLION) flood the city and its surrounding areas to partake in the world's largest outdoor 'volkfest', so obviously if you don't make plans a year in advance, or you don't have thousands of spare Euros just lying around, you're not going to be able to make it. Which just sucks. I see that as another opportunity I missed. I just keep telling myself that I will still be around in the future, so that I will always have other ones to go to. I guess we'll see..
With this idea in mind, I started looking around for cheap flights to some places I would love to visit. I found some that are reasonably priced to Oslo (Norway)--a little on the expensive side for an Au Pair, but it's somewhere I would love to go so maybe.. I also looked into flights to Salzburg (although again, I can't bring myself to go here without Suzy Bear, ultimate fan of The Sound of Music), and Copenhagen. But my best bet, in terms of finding the cheapest flights I could would be to book with the cheap airlines here GermanWings, or RyanAir (pretty much Germany's/Europe's equivalent to JetBlue or so). I went to GermanWings' website to see for any special deals or offers they were selling, and on the home page they were offering fares for as low as 54.99 Euro (one way) from Cologne/Bonn (my airport) to Moscow, Russia! I have always wanted to go explore our former Cold War enemy, so naturally I was super excited to see that I could potentially get a flight there and back for around 120 Euro (it's a lot for me, but SUPER cheap for a flight Moscow, so I had to jump on this chance, right?!) And of course, this is where I started running into some major problems. For anyone traveling into the Russian Federation, whether it be for business, school, or tourism, one must have a visa before entering the country--and a strict one at that. To apply for a visa, (as a tourist), you have to already go ahead and book the place you where you intend on staying and then the hotel, who will act as your "Russian Sponsor" while you are there, goes ahead a writes an "invitation" for you to the Russian Embassy, giving them all the details or your booking and the exact dates you plan on being in the country. Once your formal "invitation" goes through, then you are allowed to actually apply for the actual visitors visa. To do this, you of course send a photo of yourself, and all the paperwork they give you to fell out, accompanied by a fee of close to $100 dollars.. but oh wait, if you are an American citizen trying to enter the country, that fee is bumped up to closer to $200.. awesome. Once the fees have been paid, and the visa is granted, you are allowed to enter the country for the EXACT dates on your said visa (which are the exact dates of your hotel booking). If you leave even a day after the visa was originally said to expire, you might as well get comfy, because you will be stranded in the country while they will try to extend your visa to give you a new exit day, which can often take up to 20 business days... all at your own expense of course. It really is no surprise that the Russians are this crazy about letting people come and go in and out of their country. I mean, hello, their Russia. It's what's expected of them, no? :P And even after all of this, Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world (Fun Fact: They have more Billionaires per square mile than any other place in the world), so I would have to save a lot just to have enough to sleep and eat in the city for about 3/4 days. After looking into it, and really wishing that I would be able to take advantage of the low flight to Moscow, economically I just couldn't do it. Bummer.
So with that dream killed, I immediately started looking into other deals to other cities. GermanWings is cool too because they have a feature called "Blind Booking" where you can pick the type of trip you want (i.e., Shopping/Culture/Nature/Party etc) and then there is a pre-set list of possible destination cities that you could get, and all flights doing it this way are 19.99 Euro one way (about 54 round-trip) You first pick the category you want and then fill in all your information and it isn't until AFTER you have already booked it/paid that they tell you which city out of the pre-set list you have received. It's pretty much the coolest thing/idea I have ever heard of and I have been (of course) wanting to do it ever since I found out about it months ago, but (of course) never have. I talked with Naemi and she definitely wants to go with me, so I hope we can book something soon and go maybe the last weekend of September. The category I most want to choose is the "Metropolis Eastern Europe", which gives me the possible destinations of: Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Kiev (Ukraine), Krakow (Poland), Prague (Czech Rep.), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Warsaw (Poland), or Zagreb (Croatia). All of those choices sound super interesting to me, with my biggest wish is getting Kiev, Krakow or Sofia. So I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully, Naemi and I will figure something out, book soon, and I can come back to tell you which destination I have been given! But for now, it's time for me to go make some breakfast. Talk to you all soon, and I hope all is well back home. I miss and love you all! xoxox Megan
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