Lessons Learned #3: Visa Registration

trying out my Bukoh kit with Moscow's city lights

I didn't want to leave Russia. After my 9 days were up, I was regretted even booking a flight to Riga and Oslo months before. I could have stayed in Moscow indefinitely if I could. But I had to look on the bright side. 99% of the my time spend in Moscow I was with Ilya (a cousin of Boyfriend's), and some time also spent with his mom. There was a point during my stay where I desperately went to Couchsurfing  on Russia Day to find people that I could meet up with. I was well advised not to go to the center during this day because there were planned protests against Putin. As much as I wanted to see this action, I was advised once again- this time my Boyfriend- not to. 7 years in a Russian prison will not be worth it. I didn't question it so I spent the most of the time in Ilya's apartment, mostly on the computer. In the morning I noticed that the fridge was short of bread and ryazhenka (ряженка) so I went alone, for the first time, to the market near the apartment. Ilya was away tutoring an art student anyway. I was pretty sure he wouldn't have let me off by myself if he were there. I survived my supermarket experience, but brought back the wrong type of bread. It was close, but not the one that I wanted. 
So back at the apartment (sorry for that detour), I went on Couchsurfing to find people to meet up with so that I could at least get more cultural insight from different people. I messaged a few, gave them my phone number (I had gotten a Russian SIM when I arrived back from St. Petersburg), and hoped for the best. I even contacted a Postcrosser who had earlier suggested that we meet up while I was in the city. Is 'desperate' and understatement? Perhaps. In the end, no one contacted me, but a few days later I noticed that the Postcrosser did indeed reply, but it went to my spam folder, which I naturally never view. So that day was a bit of a failure escaping the apartment, but I guess I got some stuff done, like organizing photos, posting a blog entry, and even washing some clothes. 


Then I remembered about registering my visa. Russia has this little nuance about visas. If you are staying in Russia, one needs to register their visa on the 7th day if they are to stay in Russia for more than 7 days. But did that include the 7th day? Or was it after the 7th day? I tried to educated myself thoroughly about the process because I was to leave Russia the next day- but I still was left confused. In some cases that I read, it is only if you are staying in a city for more than 7 days. If I were to follow that, then I was fine. Clearly I was in the country for more than 7 days, but it does not include holidays. The saturday before was a holiday and then it was Russia Day that day. So that would leave me at 7 days when I was to depart. In the end, there was nothing that I could really do because registering a visa takes about a day or two. I had to take the risk at the airport at passport check and just hold my breath. The consequences didn't seem all that bad: either I would spend some time in jail while the whole thing was sorted out, or I would basically be banned from the country for the next 5 years.

The next day at the airport, I passed passport check! I was prepared to play the role of the stupid tourist. At least I didn't have to stoop to that level.