Two weeks from today, I depart on the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord, the first of the three trains, which will take me from the UK, across eastern Europe and Russian Siberia to Mongolia, before continuing to Beijing, China. I'm only spending one brief night in Paris, for which I need to book a hostel, before taking the train from Gare de l'Est in Paris direct to Moscow, taking about 35 hours or so. This will be a warm up for the 5 day train journey from Moscow to Mongolia, I will be taking 3 days later. The Eurostar ticket was £56, the Paris to Moscow ticket was just over £300 and Moscow to Mongolia cost £280, and they have all been delivered so the only thing I am really waiting for now are my visas.
Typically, I left my visas until almost the last minute, and initially applied for Belarus transit visa (£77), a Russian two week tourist visa (£138) and a 30 day Mongolian visa (£94), through the visa services of RealRussia.co.uk. I chose to use a visa service as supporting documents were required for my Russian visa, which I did not have and they would be able to provide for me. Currently I am awaiting the Belarus visa, having had the Russian and Mongolian visas already processed. Since initially applying for the visas, I read that obtaining a Chinese visa from the embassy in Mongolia would not be as easy as I had first heard, and so have decided to quickly apply for my Chinese visa here in London, before I go. If all goes to plan, my passport should be ready a few days before I leave, so fingers crossed there's no fuck ups.
I still need to move all of my stuff out of my flat, cancel my standing orders, redirect my post, get a few things I need for the trip and stock up on medicines, which I imagine will be done next week, as this week I am busy from photographing weddings, with one more this coming Saturday.
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