Damn you bureaucracy!

I knew I would have to face this sooner or later. Today I braved step one of my Romanian visa application.

Normally, this is quick and painless. When I went to Sweden, I filled  in a form, sent it off with my passport and a cheque and was promptly  mailed back my visa. France was even easier: a quicktrip downtown and  $70 took care of everything.

I don't know how many times I called the Romanian representative in my city. There was never any answer. You'd think he would have voice mail or the like.

Ok, onto step two: I called the embassy in Ottawa. No answer. Great. Why should they make this easy for us? Like anyone actually wants to visit Romania. Yes, I'm bitter.

Incidentally, during this whole ordeal, I was chatting on MSN with Maud, the intern going to Bucharest.  I told her I was going to call the consulate in Montreal. She informed me that she was there that morning and that she was amazed by its disorganisation. Lovely. I called and
and when a man answered the phone, I explained in French that I would be requiring a visa for my internship. He must have mistaken my English accent for Romanian because he replied in a stream of Romanian. "Wait! Wait! I'm English!" "Vous preferez parler en francais?" "Oui, oui, s'il vous plait." Ok, no problem. I have a minor in French. I can do this!

The guy had no clue what was going on at all. You'd think that the representative at the consulate would have a vague idea of...say...how someone should acquire a visa? He kept having to check with some invisible woman standing behind him to clarify what he was telling me. Should I really Fed-Ex my passport to some guy who didn't even know that I needed an application form?

He told me to come in Monday morning where we could discuss this further. "C'est impossible. Je n'habite pas a Montreal!" "Mais Mlle. Maud, tu etais ici ce matin" "Non, je m'appelle Karla. Maud est une copine. Elle fait la meme programme que moi, mais elle ira a Bucharest et j'irai aTimisoara." Incidentally, I was talking to Maud at the same time on MSN. Small world, huh? We must be the only eastern Canadians applying for visas.

We hung up and I tried an alternate number for the Ottawa embassy. A man answered and after I went through my spiel about needing a visa, he told me that the secretary was out and that I'd have to call back Monday. "Bye bye" *click*.

Great. So this means that I have no:
a) visa
b) fixed travel plans
c) idea of what I'm getting into

What *am* I getting into?