In spring 2009, the idea started to shape to visit Alena in Moscow in Summer. We haven”t seen each other since the US, which was in 2002/ 2003 even though she studied at American University of Bulgaria in Blagoevgrad and I had visited Bulgaria in 2006.
Now however, was the time to be. It was fairly easy to find a date on when her vacation from work would match my vacation from studying in London. The only complicated thing is to get a visa for stay as a tourist. Before one can even apply for a visa, one needs to have an official invitation by some inviting institution. These invitations can be issued by individuals in Russia, however, this is rather complicated. So there is now a little industry of institutions issuing invitations for some renumeration. Continue reading Getting ready for МоÑква (Moscow)