In strange lands
They give him no visa, then they let him overstay

After I’d visited 80 countries, Latvia rejected my visa. They said I needed an invitation letter. However, I had another option open to enter Russia but it would be very cold there. So off I went to the Lithuanian embassy for a visa and they said I needed an invitation letter to enter Lithuania too.

I was in a dilemma. How was I to get a visa for the next leg of my journey? Na ta sasurali, na ta sala sali. Who would invite me to either country? This was the first time I’d been told such a thing anyway. No other country had needed invitation letters as yet. But little Latvia and Lithuania would not let me visit, they refused to listen to what I was doing and why.
The only option left for me was to apply for a visa to Poland. I went to the Polish embassy and got my visa the very next day. That too, a gratis visa, without charge!

Some embassies understand what I’m doing, some don’t. When they do, it encourages me to go on. In the Polish embassy, they said that I could get a transit visa to Lithuania without an invite if I had a Polish visa. Seemed like luck was on my side again.

The Latvian transit visa was only for three days. The route was tough and cold. It took me five days to go cross-country on my bike. I had overstayed two days! When I went to the border immigration, there was no exit check point in Latvia. I didn’t get an exit stamp! Baffled, I pedalled into Lithuania.

It was around Tihar when I cycled into Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. I tried to find some Nepalis but in vain. I did meet Andrius, my friend Nischal’s brother-in-law. Nischal married Raminta, a beautiful Lithuanian lady. Andrius showed me around town and told me stories of the time he visited Nepal for his sister’s wedding. Once in Kathmandu, he decided to take a riksa from Kupondole to Thamel. At Thamel, the riksa driver asked him for $100! Andrius gave him $10 but the driver did not relent. He followed Andrius around for a couple of hours.

I gave Andrius a Khukuri as a gift from Nepal. He bought me a nice warm jacket, a Lithuanian flag, and headlights for my bicycle. It’s almost winter here in northern Europe and it grows dark at 3.30 PM. I was in Lithuania for nine days, overstaying my visa again. But I didn’t have any trouble at immigration. I marked Poland as the 83rd country on my journey’s list. It grew colder as I headed southward. I’m waiting to see snow in Europe. Maybe I’ll reach Germany before it snows.

Peace,
Pushkar Shah, in the Baltic region