My Dear Clients
Personal photos with my Dear Clients that I took during our sightseeing tours in different places and weather seasons. Here you can see my works as a personal photographer too and I hope that you like my photos!
I have also received some of nice pictures via e-mails from my old clients. I really appreciate it, thank you very much!
Client: John & Donna Winter From: Wisconsin, USA Trip: Travel, 2 days and one evening in Moscow Tour:Moscow Kremlin Where: view on the Cathedral's Square, nearby Tsar Cannon Date: April 25th, 2007
A case with Russian VISA
On April 24th, I met at the airport John Winter and his wife Donna from Wisconsin, USA. Back in March, they had requested my services for April 24-29. During the past month I had been corresponding with them many times in order to make and interesting itinerary for their stay in Moscow (I booked an apartment for rent, organized a long distance trip to Suzdal/Vladimir, made interesting plans for sightseeing in Moscow to include the popular sites based on their interests.… In the same time, my colleague in St. Petersburg, Olga, booked for them accommodations and made a sightseeing itinerary from April 30 to May 9th for St. Petersburg and Novgorod (ancient town, one of cultural centers of Medieval Russia).
On their way to Moscow from the U.S. John phoned Amsterdam during their layover and informed me that he just realized that the entry dates on their Russian VISA were only for 3 days-- from April 24 to 26. He had not checked the dates when he received the VISA via post from the Russian consulate in Seattle. While he was on the way from Amsterdam to Moscow, I made several phone calls to try to sol
ve their problem. But after calling their hotel (Holiday Inn Lesnaya) in Moscow; the US Embassy; and also talking with experts from Russian VISA Online all of them said it is not possible to extend the current VISA once they have crossed the border into Russia. By law, they have to leave country according to the entry dates stamped on their VISAs and, if they still would like to continue their trip to Russia (St. Petersburg part), they have to go to the closest European county, for example Poland or Finland, and apply for new VISAs there.
Of course my clients were very upset and I was too. On the morning of April 25 they told me they decided to go to Finland and they already booked the flight from Moscow to Helsinki for the evening of the 26th. Because of all these circumstances with their Russian VISAs they had more time for sightseeing in Moscow and I had to change the itinerary to show them as much as possible within two full days and one evening. Of course, I had to cancel the booking for the apartment in Moscow and for the house Suzdal, explaining the situation to the landowners.
On their first evening in Moscow, even though they were tired after the long flights, they asked me to show them Moscow at Night (in order not to waste a single minute in Moscow). At the end of the tour, it was almost midnight. We went to a mobile communications shop on Tverskaya Street which works 24 hours to purchase a SIM card and calling phone card (IP telecom). I gave my cell phone to John (his cell phone had not even a slot for SIM card) so that they could make important phone calls to the U.S. to rearrange his trip, call the consulate in Seattle and their family (children). Compared with charges for international phone call in hotels, to use a cell phone with calling cards is very reasonable. The price, for example to call the U.S. or Canada, will be about 20-40 cents per minute.
On Friday, April 25th, we walked a lot in downtown Moscow because of terrible traffic at the end of a week. We able to see the Moscow Kremlin grounds and cathedrals, Red Square, St. Basil’s cathedral, GUM, have lunch with Russian blinyes (pancakes) with ham, cheese and mushrooms, walk to the other side of the Moscow River to see a panorama of the Kremlin and visit the State Tretyakov Gallery. Because of the terrible traffic in the afternoon we used the metro to return back to their hotel. When I returned back to my home after 8 PM, I made several phone calls to the hotel in St. Petersburg, which my clients booked in advance. I explained the problem with their Russian VISAs and asked them to help by sending an invitation from their hotel as soon as possible.
Yesterday, on Saturday April 26th, when I met my clients in the lobby of their hotel at 8:45 am, they were happy to show me the invitation from their hotel in St. Petersburg which was faxed, at my request, to their hotel in Moscow (Holiday Inn Lesnaya). They booked a flight to Helsinki for 8 PM, so we had the full day for sightseeing. Following my plan made on the fly the night before, they enjoyed seeing the Armory museum in the Kremlin, the Moscow Metro, changing of the guards by Old Traditions on Red Square (I will try to post some interesting pictures from this very soon) and even visited Izmailovo crafts market to buy Russian gifts for their children and friends. At the end of the day, even with bad traffic to the airport, we arrived on time and I saw my clients off to the desk to check in to be sure that everything was OK. Even though their trip to Russia was darkened by all the circumstances with their VISA and they had less time to spend in Moscow than they had planned, my clients were very happy with their stay. I wished them good luck in Finland getting the new Russian VISA and continuing their adventure in Russia in St. Petersburg and Novgorod.
I worked with John and Donna almost 2.5 days. I tried to raise their spirits, help them solve the problems they had with their VISAs and rearrange their trip to draw their attention away from their problems and make their stay in Moscow more relaxing, interesting and enjoyable. During the last 3 days the weather in Moscow was fine, perfect sunny warm days with puffy clouds and temperatures about +16..+20 C, and no doubt this helped me and my clients have a great time in Moscow. Here I would like to suggest to all travelers who are going to visit Russia, please, check your VISAs and all important papers concerning your trip in advance. You will save a lot of time and money and avoid many problems!
Note: These Moscow Photos are to help you familiarize yourself with Moscow's Sightseeing and my services. The photos in my albums are protected by international copyright law. You may keep my photos in your personal albums or, you may use these images as personal wallpaper on your computer, but, they are not for distribution (commercial or non-profit). If you would like to buy a specific photo, feel free to make your request via E-mail. I do hope you enjoy my work as photographer. Many of these photos were taken during excursions with my clients. You can find my pictures in Internet under nickname "ArtLook" (short from Arthur Lookyanov) at the follow websites:
Moscow, Russia 
Contact Info: Arthur Lookyanov