Next on the list is getting some visas sorted for Ukraine and Russia, everywhere else should be fine.
For the Ukrainian visa they ask you for the following: “Tourist Purpose – documents confirming that the purpose of travel is tourism; (original touristic voucher of relevant touristic agency/touristic agreement, booking or payment of hotel services, booking of excursions, two-way tickets, etc);
What does this even mean? Tourist purpose? Original touristic voucher of relevant touristic agency/touristic agreement?
When you’re riding a bike through the Ukraine and have nothing booked except flights to and from Austria and a bike, and no intention of setting an itinerary specific enough to satisfy this criteria – what can we give them?
We’ve waited in vain for some guidance from the Ukrainian embassy, which is in Canberra which is also a bit of a hassle. We pulled all of the other information together, wrote a blurb about our plans and our Google Map of the route. And finally just booked some hotels through an online booking site, which happened to be only $5NZ/night so not big loss if we don’t get there on the day booked (actually it ends up we could cancel them for free so no damage done!).
The other issue seems to be whether I need to actually present myself in Canberra to get the visa!!
At least the Russian embassy is in Wellington so I can go and see them.
The other issue is that there is a requirement to specify entry and exit dates for the Russian visa, which seems pretty difficult when there’s no set plan; but we’ve been able to confirm that this means we can enter Russia anytime after the start date and leave anytime before the end date which should work fine.
These are actually rather important things for this trip otherwise we’re going to have to change the route completely. And now we’re this far into it, that just doesn’t seem right!
Fortunately no trip to Canberra required. Application posted and now lodged at the embassy, waiting with fingers crossed for the next 10 days.
Steve has presented himself at the Ukraine embassy in Frankfurt, unfortunately a 4 hr ride away ?. A couple of minor issues resolved through his ability to smooze and another ride to Frankfurt in 2 weeks and it should be all good!
Now the Ukrainian embassy website is down so I can’t see the status of my application. I can’t wait for this one to be sorted!! Then we’ve got the Russian one to deal with, hopefully that might be smoother sailing!