I HAVE LEFT !!! I HAVE ESCAPED !!! - or: russian border guards - part 5

YEP !!! it is DONE. i have LEFT RUSSIA FOR GOOD.

but not without being able to tell another story... on, guess what, russian border guards... (check november 2005 blogs for the first four parts on russian border guards)

so there i go, with plenty of luggage (since i don't know when my shipment will arrive back to europe - this can take weeks if not months, depending on many factors), with tears in my eyes and sadness in my heart, and the bloody border guards won't let me cross the border!!!

can it be, that leaving russia is even harder than entering it?! only in this country is something like that possible.

the first lady looks at my travel doc and doesn't understand anything. instead of calling a supervisor immediately, she just looks at it from all sides, reads all pages, looks at it again from all sides, looks at me, then at the picture, then once again at the russian visa, then again at all sides of the travel doc, then reading the visa probably once again... you get the picture? FINALLY she has the glorious idea (mind you, of course she was asking questions all the time as well, some even twice - she even asked me whether i was a refugee, irony of life... those who know me will understand what i mean...) to call a boss. this is about 10-15 minutes later. people behind me probably already started to hate me, as the queue is growing longer.

so the boss comes. obviously only another 5 minutes later, since he was busy, probably playing solitaire on the computer in the back room. anyway, he looks at my travel doc one time for about 10 seconds and waves off, ie tells the blonde border guard lady to let me through, given my diplomatic status... why why why could that chick not ask her boss immediately?

i already miss the anarchistic chaos a la russe...

leaving russia - the unthinkeable thing to do ... ?!

3 years ago, in april 2003, i had arrived to russia. i came for 2 years. and stayed for 3. and now, at the end of this month, i am actually and really leaving the country again. i mean, for good.

i can hardly believe it...

mixed feelings...

i suppose it's time to leave, 3 years was a long time, intense, in both good and bad ways. but will i be able to leave without the crazyness around me to which i have gotten so used ?!

oh bozhe...