It was a slight headache to get a visa for Belarus in Kiev Ukraine. A bunch of legwork to get an invitation, get the invitation sent to the right embassy, get all my papers in order and get to the Embassy at the right hour of the day, but in the end (and 90 bucks later) I made it to Belarus.
You'll notice that it's valid only from October 25th to November 11th.
Interesting story.
I decided to take my chances and catch the 18:30 train on the 24th from Kiev to Minsk, arriving the next morning (the 25th) at 6:05, thinking that I'll cross the border sometime in the night, and hopefully AFTER midnight.
Well, we reached the border at 11:15. Ukrainian police came through, collected my registration card, stamped my passport and left atound 11:25.
Then came the Belarusians. Kept looking at my watch... 11:32.... 11:38... they were getting closer, in the same wagon now, but my couchette was at the far end. 11:55: "Passport!" Now, this guy couldn't have been older than 24. Really. He takes my passport and starts flipping the pages. (Luckily I've been on the road long enough that most of the pages are full.)
11:57. Come on... This has to be the 25th by now.
I see him examine my visa. He then, get this, pulls out his stamper, turns it upside down, depresses it and stares at the stamp to see what the date is. Apparently he's not the type to a) carry a watch or b) remember the date.
So, I'm sitting here thinking, "Cool, the longer this joker takes trying to figure out what his job is.... and it'll be midnight." But no. This guy actually pulls out his radio and (what I find out later) calls his supervisor. They chat for a bit (it's now 12:01) and then he says to me "One moment".
12:08. The supervisor shows up, gets the story, looks at his watch and tells the guy to stamp my passport.
So in the end, sometimes bureaucracy works in your favor!
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