Action is inevitable! Let’s begin!

The day of the Czars’ reunion is approaching!
Preparations are culminating!
And the Czars are full of expectations!
The Reunion is taking place tomorrow in Moscow!

The Czars discussing at the lunchtime.
From the left: Martin Madonovich, Zdenik Fredovich, Hudyslav Bonegovich

Zdenik Fredovich is fighting the bureaucracy in Czars headquarters in the heart of Russian kingdom and dealing with final quests of obtaining missing transportation documents, supervising preparation of Czars hotel suites, and keeping an eye on the Czars treasury.

Martin Madonovich is setting forth to Prague already today, on Friday August 28th, for the final mission – to reacquire all passports of the Czars crew that have been kept by foreign ambassadors for the purposes of thorough security clearance. The operation needs to be successful at any cost.

Hudyslav Bonegovich is taking command of backup units in the undisclosed field office in central Moravia and executing the tough selection and prioritization of essential survival tools and other Czars equipment required for the Reunion. Besides, he is gathering power for prompt embarkation on Prague-Moscow royal plane on Saturday morning.

As of now, most of transportation documents are ready.

During the last days, some of the critical operational landmarks including time codes leaked out to public. Let’s examine the files:

Aug 29th – Czars’ royal plane from Prague touches down in Moscow & celebration of Czars reunion
Aug 30th – Sep 4th – Moscow and St. Petersburg proceedings
Sep 5th – Sep 10th – transsiberian journey to Mongolian borders (Moscow > Ekaterinburg > Omsk > Novosibirsk > Bijsk > Tashanta)
Sep 11th – Sep 21st – expedition over northern Mongolia (Tsagaannuur > Ulaangom > Moron > Khövsgöl Nuur > Amarbayasgalant Khiid > Bayangol > Ulanbaator > Sükhbaatar)
Sep 22nd – Sep 24th – Lake Baikal adventures
Sep 25th – flying back to the Moscow headquarters & Czars crew disunion
Sep 26th – reaching the Czech lands again!

The journey of more than 15 000 km is about to start.

You can follow the exact journey on Czars' secret interactive map.

Long live the Czars! :)

Of the bandits of the Kingdom of Bureaucracy

So far the most fierce enemy of the Czars have been the hostile, evil and cruel bandits of the Kingdom of Bureaucracy. In order to proceed with their plans, the ally czar armies had to fight for special royal entry permits (sometimes also called "visas") for both kingdoms laying in the way of their mission.

Russian and Mongolian royal entry permit peripetia

• Besides several other things, a special invitation is needed to have at least a chance to obtain any kind of Russian visa. Fully fair way of obtaining this invitation can take up more than one month and assumes good contacts in Russia and their willingness to assist. With support of special entities (and some financial compensation) however, it can be done in a matter of hours with no contacts whatsoever. So where is the point...?
• In order to obtain a double entry Russian visa, a return flight/train ticket from Russia to another country has to be presented. Nobody cares whether it makes sense within travel plans to buy such ticket (i.e. flexible travel plans etc.). Furthermore, this ticket cannot always be bought (as in the case of the Czars: train ticket from Ulaanbaator (Mongolia) to Ulan Ude (Russia) cannot be bought in Russia nor anywhere else besides Mongolia)
• When train tickets for double entry (that are - as mentioned above - almost impossible to obtain) are finally obtained, they are declared "unnecessary" and refused at the embassy. Those time and money-intensive tickets then become a very fancy decoration.
• To obtain a visa for period longer than 3 months, an HIV-negativity certificate has to be provided. Wrong. Even if this certificate (after all hardships) is provided, only a 3 month visa is issued anyway. The certificate can then accompany the useless train tickets at the hall of shame.
• Russian embassy in Prague is impossible to contact by telephone nor by any other modern way of telecommunication.
• Prolonging a Russian visa (especially the business one) is impossible, even for a few days. Furthermore, obtaining one business visa severely limits the possibility to obtain another business visa for another 6 months. Only possibility how to be allowed to stay longer is to go around the system and apply for another visa, most likely a different type.
• To apply for another visa, passport has to be presented at the embassy of home country. Travel costs to do this might become "a bit" meaningless. Sending passport home is costly and/or dangerous. Staying in Russia without passport is not encouraged, since no proper document to confirm own identity and authorization to stay would be available.
• A special letter describing planned itinerary of visit has to be written to the Mongolian ambassador in order to qualify for the visa granting process.

Looking at those ridiculous requirements, obtaining a double entry visa for all Czars + a single entry Mongolian visa seems rather impossible (at meaningful costs). A few battles have already been won, so let's keep our trust in tactical skills of all armies!

Long live the Czars! :)

First victory

Although tha Czars have led their kingdoms bravely through dozens of cruel winters and drove back countless legions of bloodthirsty invaders, the most dangerous threat standing in the way of their reunion was an unexpectedly obscure thing - a stamp. More precisely, vast amount of irrational stamps, papers and tickets required for an entrance to kingdom of Rossiya and Mongolia.

Nevertheless, even these treacherous challenges couldn't bring down the fearless Czars and with mutual support Martin Madonovich and Hudyslav Bonegovich finally obtained Russian visas (Mongolian are on the schedule for the next week). In the meantime they have also refined their royal plans so the reunion finally got quite a clear shape after more than 300 e-pigeons sent among their kingdoms.

The official dates are set: 29.8.2009-26.9.2009

In the picture: One of four heroically obtained useless train tickets the Czars had to buy in order to get the visa. It proved to be double useless as Russians throw it away at the embassy. Never mind. Thanks czar Fredovich for one week of early wake-ups, quarrels at Russian train stations and numerous calls to travel agencies.

Long live the Czars! :)