Russian Embassy.

I arrived expecting having to wait in line. I arrived expecting the process to take a long time...
what I got was beyond anything I could imagine!
I got there at 9:20 in the morning and by the door there was this HUGE crowd of people. They were not lined up though... they were just crowded in as tightly as possible to the door, they were all yelling and screaming at each other but especially at the guard who stood at the door. They were Russians!
I stood at the back of the crowd just listening and watching trying to follow some conversation to discover what was going on... something with there passports that is about as far as I got... the guy at the door only let in certain people.
The key thing for me was that he was dealing only with Russians and not foreigners... I PUSHED my way to the front of the crowd and before guard had a chance to yell in my face I put my Canadian passport up and shouted at him KANADA! He was a little shocked but quickly recovered and told me to wait right there for 5 minutes.
While I was waiting 2 German young men were standing with me... the guard came out again and we got shoved inside the door and rushed through a security check... up the stairs to another long line.
I found out that the 2 German guys were going to Russia for the 1st time to climb a mountain in the Caucasus Mountains (further south then Rostov). They were excited about the climb but not excited about having to go to Russia!
I got to the desk and was asked a question in German and as I stared blankly at the man he tried again in Russia... I understood atleast part of it and the guys behind me filled in the rest. We took our numbers and continued on to another line.
I was first in line at the next window - YEAH!
My excitement did not last long as the man quickly informed me that the form I had was out of date (I printed it off of their site but we won't get into that!)
he was nice enough to give me a good one though - in english - so I left the window and found a spot to fill in the now 3 page form (the one before was only 1pg).
After I finished the form I went over to pay for my visa... she knew no english so we used russian... I quickly learned that Visa and Cash don't work. I asked what am I suppose to do. She smiled and pointed at picture of a German bank card and then in the room around me. She waved over one lady who immediately took me by the arm and we started approaching people asking them if I could use there bank card and then I would give them the cash...
We found someone... what a relief. After that all was simple. I paid and went back to the origianl man who took my stuff and told me to come back to get my visa next week.
I am glad that its all over with.
Now I am getting to enjoy Berlin!!

BYES