Month: June 2006

It’s been a while since I visited Limassol’s immigration offices. All my needs until recently were covered by my employer. And from until recently, I myself am a Cypriot, so I don’t have anything to do with the immigration offices.

This time though I had to visit to arrange some paperwork for Maxim and Olga. I didn’t use my company services because Olga and Maxim cases were connected to my citizenship which was handled by someone else. (If that sounded complicated, don’t worry because it is really complicated).

I have to say that nothing has changed in the immigration offices during all those years that I haven’t been there. The attitude is still the same – terrible. The efficiency is still the same – terrible. And there is only one way to avoid pain and confusion – pay some money to one of those old dudes who are connected. They know their ways, and, though they are hard to talk to (years of government work damages their brains) and they can’t guarantee anything, your chances for success will be much higher than on your own.

Olga’s and Maxim’s papers were submitted in less than an hour. Hopefully their pink or yellow (or whatever color) slips will be ready before I leave for Russia.

The date for Maxim and Olga travel to Russia has been set. They are leaving this coming Friday. There’s still plenty of paperwork to go through, but I hope we’ll manage to finish it all. I have the tickets in my hands.

I’ve also booked the tickets for my flight to Russia, which will be on the 16th of July. For some reason, I am worried. Not scared yet, but worried.

We actually. Today all three of us (Olga, Maxim, and I) travelled to Nicosia to do some paperwork. At first, we came to the worst place in the whole country – Russian Embassy. Queued up. Investigated about what and how. Our turn wasn’t coming up in at least two hours, so we saved our place in the queue and moved on for more paperwork.

Ministry of Justice and Public Affairs. If I remember it correctly. I had a vague idea of where to find it, so we drove there and parked. Olga went for a little walk with Maxim, while I went for the quest.

I have alreayd made this observation previously, and only confirmed it this time with more evidence – English language is not as widespread in Nicosia as it is in other cities of Cyprus, which host a lot of tourists every year. I tried the petrol station at first. There were about six employees and a few visitors. None of them understood a word that I was saying. One of them pointed me to the souvlaki house across the road. I went there. The woman didn’t even know how to say ‘hello’. And she looked way too puzzled. I walked up and down the street and asked in a few more kiosks and little shops. No English. None. At all.

Finally, I got into a branch of Hellenic Bank, where one lady understood me and pointed to the right direction. On the way, I asked in a couple of other places and managed to find a guy in some sort of mobile phone shop who told me exactly where to go. Gladly, the Ministry was still open and everyone in there understood English just fine.

Last time I saw someone in Limassol, who didn’t understand English was about two years ago in some remote shop of baby clothes. As soon as I started speaking English, the lady shamefully shooked her hand and called someone for help. Not to mention that in many situations I don’t even have to speak English – Russian is good enough (especially while shopping).

With all stamps in place it was time to go back to the Russian Embassy (I really hate this place). When we came back, our place in queue was still saved. Two minutes later though, one of the clerks emerged and said that almost half of the queue (including us) can leave, as they won’t be served today. Whatever.

This was the main question on my mind after uploading another 1.5 Gigabytes to my Flickr account. I really hope so…