Doh!!

I kind of feel like an idiot right now. Sometime yesterday (Wednesday, 27 July) I decided it might be a good idea to find out about a Chinese visa. For some reason getting a Chinese visa hadn't entered my mind yet because I knew the Russian visa would be more difficult and the Chinese visa would be relatively easy. But I hadn't thought about the increased difficulty of getting a Chinese visa in Russia. So after doing some quick research at the book store yesterday and going to a travel agent this morning (Thursday), I found out it will take 3 to 5 days to get the Chinese visa, which of course they can't start until they have my passport, which is probably in the Russian embassy right now. I can pick up my passport from the Russian travel agent on Monday (31 July) at noon, and, as my luck would have it, the Chinese embassy closes at 11:30 am every day. Very convienent. So assuming I can get the Chinese visa process started on Tuesday, hopefully I can get my passport back by next Friday (4 August). I don't know how or why I decided to ignore this minor detail until now. Fortunately I don't need a visa for Mongolia!

So it looks like I'll be 'stuck' in Scandinavia for at least another week. Fortunately I can travel back to Sweden if I want and around Finnland, but I can't go to Estonia or Latvia without my passport. And, for better or for worse, my hostel is full tonight and I didn't have a bed reserved, so I think I'm off to Turku, Finnland this afternoon and maybe do a little traveling around over the weekend. I have to be back in Helsinki though on Monday for the passport exchange.