Loco

In this post, Kate describes how she applied for a Russian visa from Australia before embarking on her Westward journey home…

Applying for a Russian visa is best described I think, as a hoohah (for those of you not familiar with the term, Webster’s dictionary defines it as “a disturbance: a disorderly outburst or tumult e.g. ”they were amazed by the furious disturbance it had caused, what a hoohah”). And amazed I was because Russia would like to see you jump through hoops, while juggling fire, and possibly riding a unicycle, so unlikely as it may sound, that is exactly what I did.

First you need to work out an itinerary, Russia isn’t interested in going with the flow, they want to know what you’re up to, every minute of everyday, so get a map and guide book and make a plan. The people at www.realrussia.co.uk are mighty helpful and very capable when it comes to answering queries about train times and all that jazz. They also have the benefit of offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg so they really do have their ears to the frosty Siberian ground and can give you some accurate estimates of travel time and price. Obviously once the visa has been issued you have a little more freedom but the consulate doesn’t reward laziness so just make a plan; places to visit and stay, things to do, trains to catch and don’t forget to factor in insanely long train rides in between destinations.

Then you have to score yourself an invite. The Ruskies don’t want any old riff raff galavanting around their fair state, after all you might well be a 007 esque, exploding watch type spy of some description. So play the game and take your self to www.myrussianvisa.com or www.visatorussia.com and apply for an official invite. These can only be issued by registered travel agents each of whom has a unique tour operator code which will appear on your invite. This part is relatively painless and will only set you back aournd 20 quid for a standard issue 30 day tourist visa, which is normally emailed to you within a couple of days. You can ask to have a hard copy posted to you for an extra 45 quid but my advise is to simply print the document straight from the PDF, it should print out on one page so make sure it comes out as it appears on screen because the consulate won’t look kindly on any dodgy comic sands font or borders falling off the page!

So now you’ve got an invite you can bask in the joy of reading your name in cool Cyrillic letters, and gather your strength to apply for the visa itself. Some of the online agents can apply for the visa on your behalf and although this is tempting it is usually twice the price of applying directly to the consulate. Do not be afraid, anyone can do it so long as you read the document carefully and maybe complete it in with a pencil first. Fill in all the fields and check in the instructions which will come with the application as many forms ask that you ‘N/A’ any questions with do not apply to your circumstance e.g. please list any relatives you have in the Russian Federation. You will also be asked fill in your invite number and travel insurance policy number (remember to take hard copy of these with you to the border as they may be asked for).

So that’s it, now all you have to do is wait anxiously for 3 weeks while someone has your adventure, and your passport in their hands. Depending on your nearest consulate you might drop the application off in person, or send it along with a prepaid return envelope (I would recommend registered post, a little more expensive but it will save you a fortune on manicures after all that nervous nail biting). Despite the aforementioned fire juggling my application was fairly painless. Just get organised, be patient and you’ll be laughing all the way to the Kremlin.

Image courtesy of quinnanya

Before you say anything, I know what you’re thinking - the title of this post is the most immense pun ever bestowed upon mankind. Yes, that’s right, Loco2 co-founder Kate Andrews is coming back from down under and making her way back overland across Asia. This is the first in a series of posts that will track her progress.

Last time I wrote a big fat mammoth post I was grappling with the harsh reality of re-entering the modern world after a brief spell as a barefoot, pig farming wife in Tonga, and an ever shorter spell of being a hardcore, fish catching, shark wrestling sailor in Fiji.

But the delights of Big Bald Bob and his teeny tiny speedos, or limbo competitions and serious snorkel action in a tropical paradise are far behind me now, and I am once again well versed in the joys of safe tap water and double beds. Today I face the prospect of making the even harder transition from straight hair, high heels and cocktails to bare feet, dorm rooms and carrying my evil monster backpack.

In short, I’ve been so busy being fabulous in Sydney that I have gone a bit soft. My wrists are free from beaded shell accessories, I don’t even own an anklet and frankly, my pedicured feet are just too damned pretty to go without some sort of silk slipper at the very least.

But before we tackle that bad boy let’s take a look at what the bejesus I’ve been doing with myself for the last 9 months. Well, after suffering a sequence of small seizures due to things like shopping centres, dress codes, and rush hour traffic, I pulled myself together, like the proverbial drawstring on the duffel bag of life, and got involved in some serious city living.

I got a job, in a pub, and I worked really hard, but it was fun, and I accidentally don’t have much to show for it! That’s because I simultaneously rediscovered the pleasure of frivolous consumer living; skinny jeans, live music, clubs, pubs and delicious cheese from the deli counter. I went to the beach…a lot, and broke a world record for the most number of people floating on inflatable flip flops on Bondi beach.

Sydney was a blast, and that is why I accidentally lived there for 9 months. But lately I’ve been sort of thinking about contemplating maybe missing England a bit, it has been almost two years after all so I decided it was about time I got back on the road.

I have decided to undertake the last leg of my trip not by sea, but by land, and believe me this overland adventure is going to be a beauty! Although I normally like to (not) fly by the seat of pants this one requires a little more on the organisation front, especially since I will officially be going behind the iron curtain, into a world of scary scary vodka swilling Russians.

So I’ve been busy looking at maps and calendars and have devised an all-mighty plan that should see me home in early October for a great big party of monumental proportions with candy floss, and a big band, and a ticker tape parade, maybe even a lion tamer, you’re all invited…sweet! But before I get carried away with that I have to tackle the small challenge of getting all the way from Singapore to the UK, and once again get used to sweating profusely while lugging my backpack around unfamiliar cities and battling foreign transport systems.

I am personally not a particularly big fan of snails at the moment, as I discovered one of them munching down big-time on my newly-planted courgette plant this morning.

Having said that, it would be pretty sweet to move at an incredibly chilled pace all the time, and here at Loco2 we are all about extolling the benefits of that kind of approach to life. It is exactly this subject that is being tackled at the forthcoming ‘Slow down London’ event, taking place in a week’s time on 29th April at the Southbank Centre.

The event features the legendary Ed Gillespie of slow travel fame in conversation with a Financial Times journalist who writes the ’slow lane’ column (which I must admit I’ve never read but I’m sure it’s great). Tickets cost £7.50 and can be bought from directly from Slow Down London. I should be going along so if you are too and would like to meet up to talk about Loco2 or anything else slow travel-related, then feel free get in touch.

The event is part of a wider initiative that is encouraging Londoners to generally slow down. What a marvellous idea.

Spring is in the air… well almost… and the time has come for me to make a really important decision. Which festival should I go to this summer?!

With so many great festivals out there, it’s hard to know where to start; do I go for Eastern European madness at EXIT, a sunsplash in italy, or naked Scandinavians at Roskilde? What a dilemma!

Whilst the people, the music and the sun-to-rain-ratio are all major factors affecting my decision, what I would really love most of all is to lose myself in the music, and happily dance away all day and night with the knowledge that the organisers were doing as much as possible to reduce the environmental impact of the festival.

So dearest Loco2 friends, here’s the low-down on my top Green Festivals 2009.

I think I might just have to go to all three!!

WOOD, Oxfordshire UK
15th - 17th May 2009

I would strongly recommend the second annual WOOD festival which takes place on the 15th, 16th and 17th May 2009 in the beautiful surroundings of Braziers Park, Oxfordshire.

They’re a funny bunch - so I’ve left the WOOD gang to persuade you to partake in all things woody themselves:

The organisers behind TRUCK festival, the UK’s coolest small-but-perfectly-formed summer festival, have created a new kind of music event, powered by bicycles, wood-burning stoves and the sun. The aim of the festival is to celebrate music and nature, so naturally it’s called… WOOD!

We should say ‘here’s the first purpose-designed green–eco-sustainable festival’ but we’d sound like ‘Dave’ Cameron - we prefer to keep things simple, natural and… woody. Things made of WOOD include the composting toilets, the showers heated by wood-burning stoves, the campfire, the guitars, the yurts (yes, you can hire one) and, of course, the solar-powered stage. The food will be cooked (by our friends from Oxford’s famous Vaults & Garden Café) in a wood-fired oven, and we’re making all the performers do a song by our patron saint Woody Guthrie.

As well as a strong and diverse line-up of (mainly) acoustic acts on 2 stages, there will be opportunities for everyone (from children to grandparents!) to participate, with workshops covering singing, woodcraft, making wallets from orange juice cartons, and everything inbetween.

Artists already confirmed include:
SPIERS & BODEN, MEIC STEVENS, PO’ GIRL, JIM MORAY, DANNY THE CHAMP, STORNOWAY, JONQUIL, CO-PILGRIM with plenty more still to be announced.

For more info and tickets visit the WOOD website.

ROSKILDE, Denmark
2nd - 5th July 2009

Roskilde Festival is on a par with Glastonbury as one of Europe’s biggest festivals, but adds a very naked Danish twist to festivities. This may also be the only festival in Europe where you can dance in the shadow of a giant wind turbine and camp in a carbon neutral camping area. Excellent.

Winner of the Green World Award in 2008, the Green’n’Clean award in 2007 and a Microsoft Excellence Award in 2008 for an electronic system for collection of festival garbage Roskilde has always had a strong environmental focus. And they’ve most definitely cranked it up for Roskilde 2009 with a campaign called Green Footsteps.

Green Footsteps focuses on how Roskilde Festival can shoulder their part of the responsibility for solving the potential climate catastrophe. Part of the Green Footsteps campaign is the creation of a Climate Community at Roskilde ’09.The Climate Community is a centrally located camping quarter primarily running on CO2-neutral energy. The energy will be generated thanks to the festival-goers’ efforts, e.g. through pedalling on energy-producing bicycles and ditto dance floors - as well as from renewable energy sources. To reserve yourself a camping spot in this area you must leave 3 Green Footsteps - low carbon travel to Roskilde ’09 will leave you 1. The second can be left by supporting windmills in Malawi when you buy your ticket and the third is left down to your imagination!

As well as a climate caravan tour, a sustainable stage, and a humanitarian refund collection for Bangladesh, Roskilde will be leaving their own Green Footsteps to reduce the greenhouse gas-emitting activities.

* We a doing a CO2 account so that all emission from Roskilde Festival can be calculated.
* In the energy section, we are looking into the possibility of buying windmill power and getting generators running on vegetable oil or solar energy instead of diesel.
* We are working on having more “in-season”, locally produced food as it is more climate-friendly. Furthermore, production of meat is climate-damaging, so we are also looking at increased promotion of vegetarian food (however, the meat eaters need not to worry – it is always a matter of choice).
* We are also working on recycling as much garbage as possible, so that we can reduce incineration and the following CO2 emission.

For travel to Roskilde see our low carbon travel itinerary here.

ELECTRIC PICNIC, Ireland
4th - 6th September 2009

Electric Picnic is the best festival in Ireland to be sure. Easily rivalling the slightly larger Oxegen, it is imaginatively structured and has a strong personality. We can’t think of a better way to end the summer.

Winner of the ‘Green Festival Award’ 2008, the Electric Picnic has always had a strong environmental focus but this year the gloves are off to tackle the festival’s impact on Climate Change.

A new area, the Global Green, is being launched at this year’s festival which will be the place to relax and reflect on critical issues. The Global Green will feature Cultivate’s Re-Think Tank, Amnesty’s tea and bingo tent, sustainable fashion with Re-dress the Science Gallery and more, Trocaire’s flower garden, Friends of the Earth, green crafts, EmissionZero, Stop Climate Chaos, Change and others will be creatively communicating a positive message and help get you active.

Aiding Electric picnic to ‘Eco-Librium’ are environmental consultants EmissionZero who will measure, reduce and offset the carbon emitted as a result of the picnic. Over the course of the festival, the eco-consultants will be analysing all sources of CO2 in order to reduce emissions and maximise energy efficiency. EmissionZero aim to reduce the Picnic’s Carbon Footprint by 25% over the next five years.

For travel to the Electric Picnic see our low carbon travel itinerary here.

Green Grass photo on homepage thanks to Chad Johnson.
WOOD logo thanks to Chris Bennet from TRUCK.

Here at Loco2 we try and focus exclusively on how incredibly fun low carbon travel is, rather than on the negative effects of all those pesky planes. However, in an exception to the rule (the day after the Government made itself even more unpopular by deciding that Heathrow would have another runway), I thought I would share this excellent video from our friends over at Do the Green Thing.

If you haven’t already checked out their site I would recommend doing so. It includes lots of excellent ideas on how to live sustainably, presented through the medium of short, amusing videos.

And for those of you (like me) getting rather depressed about the fact that it looks like voting Tory at the next election might be a good idea, I raise a glass to you, and I’m sure that during 2009 we can help each other deal with the blues (the blues. Get it? Chortle chortle I am a comedy genius).