We still do border runs every 6 months, which has been complicated by Covid-19! In 2020, foreigners' documents were extended so we were able to skip it once or twice. In 2021 (one year ago), we went to the U.S. for new visas...that's another story.
In November (2021), we'd been back for 6 months and needed to cross the border again. Sadly no Finland or Estonia this time as the border rules were a bit ambiguous. We really miss being able to easily access neighboring countries by train or bus! Finland was not accepting the Russian vaccine for entry, and Andrei didn't have an Estonian visa so we weren't sure he could get in with just a Finnish one. In non-Covid times, I could go across with the kids by myself. But I really didn't want to get stranded without Andrei.
Also, Russia requires a fresh PCR for entry. Now, if you are going out and in within 24 hours, how do you get the PCR test for re-entry? Many were simply getting the PCR test in Russia and using the same one to get back into Russia. Sounds easy enough, but logically...you could have picked up Covid during those few hours out of the country. We decided to call border control to confirm, and they said we needed to get a fresh PCR test from outside of Russia. Of course if we hadn't called, we might have just done it no problem.
So we determined that the safest thing would be for the 4 of us to find a visa-free country and spend a night while waiting for a fresh PCR.
With time ticking, we started hunting for direct flights to Georgia, Armenia, Serbia, etc. The cheapest direct flights left were for Yerevan (Armenia), so Andrei went ahead and made a booking.
When we came home from getting PCR tests (making it just as the lab was about to close), we had received a message that the booking had been changed. No big deal...but a short time later, it was canceled. So I took to my computer to redo the booking.
Upon check-out, my bank card was rejected. I tried again with another card and it worked out.
The next morning, one of the flights was canceled and the other wasn't. I went ahead and canceled the second one since it was within the 24-hour grace period. Now we were back at square one and needed to leave the next day so that we could be back in time for Andrei to go to work the next day.
Andrei and I had both lost track of our booking attempts, but our bank accounts were being charged each time. I looked at my balance and saw a PENDING notice even though my purchase had been rejected. Andrei was getting texts about hundreds of thousands of rubles being withdrawn. He transferred the last of our funds onto his card and set out for the airport.
The airport is pretty far by public transportation, 90 minutes or so. Andrei got there and went to the airline offices to ensure that he was making a legitimate booking. I kept my phone nearby in case he needed to call to verify something.
At that moment, my ringer stopped working. I have no idea what was going on, but my phone was silent, even though it was not in silent mode. The sounds in other apps were working. By the time I finally picked up my phone to look at it, Andrei had called 10-15 times. Of course we were both upset! But he hadn't given up and was able to book the tickets one-way.
After that, he went to the other airline (a different one) to book the return ticket. He was successful...and it was cheaper than booking online, though the other charges had not been refunded yet.
My phone continued to not ring, probably up until the moment when Andrei arrived home, after dark, having spent the entire day at the airport. And we had to be there again the next day for our flight!
To be continued....
This is definitely the stuff of bad dreams...in fact, perhaps in the next post we'll find out it is another nightmare! (I'm parsing these out, as it is such fun to have blog posts to read again.)
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