well hello friends I hope you guys are
having an amazing day and I wanted to
just sit down and film this very quick
little video for you a quick little
story time of what was a bit of a
mistake that I made and I feel you know
a bit silly that at the time I didn't
like look at a map very least but I'm so
glad that I caught it when I did it was
definitely a good learning experience
and if you have no idea what I'm talking
about
this was my last video hate to leave you
hanging but I really can't just brush
off of the mood that I'm in and pretend
and it was an amazing trailer and
everything was great we're literally
half of it I was like panicking and so
let me actually start from the beginning
of the story like a proper story time
video as some of you guys already know I
was born in Ukraine and moved to Canada
when I was five so because I still have
relatives in Russia I was able to apply
for the three-month long private visa
that it would allow me to take a journey
like this usually tourist visas are only
thirty days and for me that's just not
long enough and so st. Petersburg was my
last destination before I was going to
go back to Ukraine and about a month
before that I had really started
thinking of how am I going to get to
Ukraine am I going to fly or am I going
to take the train
so I remember looking at plane tickets
and at the time it was coming up to
around two hundred dollars for a one-way
ticket from st. Petersburg to Kiev but
of course that plane ride would stop
somewhere because for those of you who
don't know there are currently no direct
flights from Russia to Ukraine because
of the war going on so I knew that if I
was going to fly I would most likely
stop in Belarus or I think there were
quite a few other flights through Poland
but they were a bit more expensive so
because I've been on a bit of a budget
for this trip traveling for so many
months you know every single day does
add up I was looking for a less
expensive option so when I went to see
if there were any trains between the two
trees I was happy to see that there was
there showed to be a train from st.
Petersburg to Kiev that if you went in
Platts cart in third class it was gonna
be about a hundred dollars so yeah back
in October I had booked that train
journey and felt like great this is one
more thing off my list that I don't have
to worry about or so I thought so fast
forward to me being on the subs on train
and I'm reading my Lonely Planet guide
book and at the end of each chapter they
usually put transit sort of detail so
any kind of trains going in and out of
st. Petersburg you know how you get to
the airport all that kind of information
it was saying how yes there are a whole
bunch of trains that go from st.
Petersburg to a lot of major Eastern
European sort of cities like you know
Kiev but but make sure that you know
that all of those trains go through
Belarus now that itself didn't bring up
any alarm bells because I was like yeah
so what I'm going through
Belarus like I'm not stopping there I'm
just going through Belarus so thankfully
Lonely Planet elaborated and said that
if you are a Canadian or American
national obviously this doesn't apply to
Russians who can get into Belarus
visa-free but for my fellow Canadians
and Americans you need a visa even if
you are going through the country as
transit you still need a transit visa so
when I read that I was like oh crap I am
a week away from having to be out of
Russia I have already spent $100 on my
train ticket I did not know if it was
refundable or not how that all worked
and I knew that now my only options
really were to see if I can get a
transit visa and you know keep my train
ticket if I can get that in time and I
don't know how much that would cost or
what they need or I fly with flying I
was actually really worried about that
because I thought well I'm
week away the prices are probably going
to be two times what they were before
while I was on the South Sun train
unfortunately because I was an economy
that part didn't have free Wi-Fi and my
internet on my SIM card wasn't working
because we're kind of in between small
towns so there was no way for me to
really like check Expedia extensively or
to see what the guidelines were about
returning my ticket so it's basically
just sitting on the trade be like I
really hope that I can get a refund for
my ticket and I hope plane tickets
aren't that much more expensive but the
very first thing that I did do when I
got to st. Petersburg is I did call the
consulate of Belarus in Russia because
it's actually very confusing very
confusing the rules that they have about
their visa-free regime when it comes to
Canadians Americans and probably a whole
bunch of other countries so for my
fellow Canadians and Americans you can
go into Belarus for 30 days visa-free
like you get it at the border but
there's a few rules that you have to
follow I'll actually put it in the
description the things that you need to
make this possible but basically the
main thing is that you have to be
entering Belarus only through Minsk
Airport so you can't get it if you're
coming in by train so this is where it
gets confusing though is that you can
get this visa-free regime if you're
flying into Minsk Airport from anywhere
but Russia if you're coming from Russia
and wanting to stay in Belarus for like
an extended period of time even let's
say two three days you need a visa but
if you are flying from Russia and you
are just transiting through Belarus like
I would be if I was flying to Ukraine I
just have a couple hour layover and
Minsk
I'm on to Ukraine that's okay
that kind of transit is alright and I
don't need a transit visa but if I'm
going by train and transiting through
Belarus even though I'm not stopping
there I need a visa very very very
confusing when they have two completely
different rules depending on how you're
transiting and as far as getting a
transit visa that really wasn't worth my
time she even said so herself she said
it'd take at least a few days and would
cost like forty or fifty dollars and
just extra hassle so thankfully what
ended up happening was that I was able
to get basically a hundred percent
refund for my train ticket as far as
plane tickets go thankfully I got really
lucky with that and prices were actually
the same as when I had been looking in
October basically my total price for the
plane ticket came to two hundred dollars
maybe slightly less so all in all things
did work out but I'm very glad that I
found that out when I did because
strangely enough somebody had actually
emailed me like one of you guys one of
my subscribers comment down below if you
were the person and actually told me
about this like this was the ironic
thing but at the time I didn't think
that I would be you know going through
Belarus that didn't that didn't even
cross my mind and they didn't know about
this so when they got to the Belarus
border they got stopped they couldn't
keep going with their train and they
just got so much hassle they had to pay
a huge fine and they actually had to go
back to Ukraine before then flying to
Russia so if that would have happened to
me that would have actually been much
worse because I can't go back to Russia
I don't have a visa my visa end but I
have no idea what would have happened
and I'm sure it would have just been a
huge headache and it would have been
such a shock if it would have happened
at like two o'clock in the morning when
you usually cross the border so
yeah that is my story and thankfully as
you guys see I am currently in Ukraine
doing well and have a lot more content
to come for you guys but yeah if I can
just give a little shout-out to Belarus
because I do really want to go there
like I hear that it's an amazing country
and I think maybe this next year I will
you know try and visit it from Canada
obviously not from Russia I wish that
they would just kind of streamline their
entry/exit requirements because that is
super confusing when you can enter
through one way and get visa-free but
you can't through another country and
another mode of transit like I wish that
they would just have like one rule for
all kinds of entry points but anyways
I'm not an immigration official I don't
know all the ins and outs of that but
very confusing so yeah I hope you guys
enjoyed this video and I really hope
that the people who need to see it do so
these types of mistakes do not keep
repeating themselves so I hope you guys
are having a fabulous holiday season
there is still so much content to come
I'm actually gonna have a year-end video
coming up next that I do every single
year 19 things that I have learned in
2019 so stay tuned for that video and
then after that we will of course be
continuing onwards with st. Peter's
version so yeah I hope you guys are
having an amazing day thank you so much
for your support with my channel it
truly means so much keeping your own
kind of beautiful and I will see you
soon bye guys
[Music]
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