Visas

The Chinese Consulate smells like food, some are queuing and eating lamian at the same time. It is hot, like Shanghai in July –the last time I went was April in Milan, though- and a confused happiness. There are wannabe business men who believe Shenzhen is their chance. In the crowd, which is never a “queue” but three groups of people stuck together, they say that paying the travel agency of someone who knows the consul…
At the Russian consulate I met professional queuers. It is the system which forces you to do so, queuing quietly, as many times as it is required. Lenin is dead but USSR is not.
First queue: window number 6: documents’ control.
Second queue: window 8: withdrawal of the documents already controlled. Of course, before me I have the exact same people in the same order and the windows belong to the same big office. The nice blonde lady at window 8 closes the documents withdrawal after me.
Third queue: window 9: the window is opening when I join my place in the queue. The same blonde lady! She simply turned his chair by 90° degrees. “Good morning!” “But madam!- I’d like to say- you said goodbye to me at window 8! Do you pretend you don’t know me at window 9?” Eto Rossiya: every action has its own queue…
I have been told that at the Cuban Consulate people are waiting with no hurry that something comes.
Europeans don’t need a visa to go to Japan. That’s a pity: I would have loved to use the Japanese consulate’s restrooms!
As for the moment I am in Russia I checked: the Italian Consulates in St. Petersburg is open for TWO hours a day.