Trilingual Bilateral Cultural Exchange, Part 2

It turns out that trilingual cultural exchange, like all things, gets tainted once you wrap it in a shroud of mysterious bureaucratic inefficiency. The Russo-Egyptian combo is lethal!!! My brother Heber and I have planned a trip for this summer, starting here in Egypt and ending in Japan where we will meet my parents and pick up my youngest brother from his mission. After much thought and debate we decided to visit Russia and China, with an overland journey through southeastern Europe on the way. Had I known how difficult the visas would be to get, I would have bagged all that and just gone to Thailand. But oh well. Heber got his visas taken care of at great expense; I'm almost there.

Here is what it took to get a Russian visa in Cairo:

$30 to have an agency "invite" me to Russia.
$75 to have said "invite" shipped to Cairo, as the embassy here requires the original copy.
5 total trips down to the consulate
12 hours of waiting time, 8 outside the consulate, 4 inside (over 5 visits).
$150 for the visa itself.

Needless to say, I was never so excited to hand over the final $150 and have it be done. After 3 failed visits down to the consulate without entering, I found out which travel agency the university here in Cairo uses to get visas for its professors, and they said they'd be happy to help me. However, they apparently had never helped an American get a Russian visa before: the embassy has a rule that agencies MUST do single-day service, which for Americans comes to $550 plus insurance fees, meaning the total cost of my visa was going to approach $700. So last Thursday, being the last possible day I could apply for regular service and have it be done in time, I went way early and parked myself in front of the door 2 hours before it opened. My zealousness paid off, and I got in. I had to come back today, and I once again got in, but then had to wait inside for over 3 hours while they.... well, I don't know exactly what they were doing.

Next up: Visa to China.