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Tour cancelation
I want to start by saying that we are from Serbia (un-fucking-fortunately),
possibly one of the worst countries in the world to live in at the time.
Every possible chance to see the rest of the world that is wasted is a big deal for us..
We don’t get to travel using only our passports..
We need to spend a bunch of money, time, go through suige of lies, degradations and humiliations every time and all that doesn’t
even guarantee you'll get viza.
So, you actually must have the sticker that sez you can exit the country.
All of this was for one sticker that they just didn't want to give us.
Needles to say, this tour was the only thing that kept us going.. After every fucking bad thing that’s
happened in last few months, we just said ‘fuck it, i’m going on tour with my band, see the Europe, meet new people’..
Here’s the blog that clarifies what happened with our tour..
Or at least i hope you'll get some expression through what we’ve passed..
I’d like to say that i started arranging this tour in April/May this year..
So, 5-6 months ago..
The first bad thing that’s happened was that Pera (lead guitarist) got invitation to go to civil army serving..
And he couldn’t move it to next year.. So we thought, ok, it shouldn’t be too hard to get few days off from
civil army.. We asked our publisher to write us some letter in which he is declaring that he's sending us on
tour in France to expend culture bla, bla.. Pera gave that to the army people and they said ‘you have to get
invitation letter’.. WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU SAID THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE???
But on it it must be a stamp of legal organization, signature, all the info about people who
are inviting us.. Also they gave him few days to get that.. So we thought fuck it we’ll write it our selves,
translate it in French, we just took the contact info from our French friends..
Offcourse that letter didn’t satisfied them and there was no more time left. So that was it.
Pera isn’t going.
Ok, we have backup line up in that case, our friend Vanja is playing bass and our original bassist Nikola (who is actually a guitarist)
will play guitar and that's it!
Second thing was to get the vizas for Ivan, Vanja and me. And i know that a lot of you will say
‘why didn’t you started getting vizas earlier’..
Whell, the thing about Hungarian consulat is that they
don’t let you to apply for viza in let’s say, March, if you're going on a trip in October. You can max
apply in Septembar. So you can apply ONLY when they let you and when they do, you don’t have much time..
And to get the viza for a whole year is practically
impossible.. We asked visa for 14 days and with only ONE entrance in EU and that’s it.
Now i will write the list of things you need in order to get the viza
(which doesn’t even guarantee you are getting them).
One more thing, we applied for Hungarian vizas because we already had three vizas
in passports and we never had any problems with them before.
We had to tell them that we are going to Budapest 'cause they would never even consider us for vizas
if we told them that we are going throughout Europe..
'Cause for some reason, Hungary is in eu (shengen) and they are all connected but they will not give you Hungarian
viza if you want to go to France, Germany, Belgium.. How dumb is that, as if we are to blame they all are connected and
there are no borders, so if we get Hungarian shengen viza, we can legaly go in any country in EU..
You need to give them:
One picture.
Your old passport if you have some old vizas that would help.. We had three Hungarian vizas and that didn’t help.
Photocopies of those vizas and first pages of the passports (old and new).
Your new passport,
If you are working, form on which it stand your salary in last three months, form of your social security payments, your bank account form. That’s Ivan.
If you are a student, form that clarifies in which faculty you are and then assuming you’re not working anywhere, forms from one of your
parents on which it stand his salary in last three months, form of his
social security payments, his bank account form. That’s Vanja
If you are not registered in any firm and work at home than it's best to gave them your parents forms on
which it stand their salary in last three months, form of their social security payments, their bank
account form. Also a photocopy of your parents working book, id card. That's me.
So, they need to know you have some stabile money income in Serbia.
Than, you need to justify the purpose of your trip. That can be done by giving them hostel reservation or by guarant letter.
And the reservation MUST BE original, with signature, stamp and everything, so reservations sent by e mail are not valid.
So, we booked a hostel in Budapest, pay our reservation deposit (35 euros total), and the reservations was sent by ordinaty mail to us, stamped and signed.
Than you must have travel insurance for evry day you are applying for, so that cost us another
1.300 din (which is about 13 euros)..
Also we’ve heard from a friend that Hungarian embassy won't give you the viza except you pay total
amount for reservation (which is in our case 400 euros) so, naturally, i called the consulat
in Subotica and ask them ‘must i have full reservation payed or is it enough if i payed only the first night’?
And the woman told me that if we can, we could pay the whole amount but if we can't,
deposit is enough!
Also, In March this year, Ivan and me got our Hungarian vizas only with that deposit payed!
So we went to Subotica consulat, gave them all the papers (needles to say that there were a lot of questions
like 'where are you going, where did you go with your last viza, arrent you old that your parent pays
you the trip'.. pretty standard humiliation).
They took the papers and told us to come back for the results
in 5 days. So we were quite happy 'cause the fact that they tooked your papers is very good at start..
If anything is missing, they don't even take the papers.
Oh, did i mention that the viza costs 35 euros?
So, if they returned us the papers right away we wouldn’t pay them 35 euros each..
You see where i am going with this..
After five days, we went to Subotica again for the results (for every trip to Subotica i had to take
a day off from work, on which i am on trial period so i
was risking to get fired, and right now in Serbia that is quite stupid thing to do)..
And pay the gas of course.
So we went there, i was first in line and the woman said ‘you didn’t get the viza’..
No explanation!
And i was stunned for a couple of seconds..
Then i asked - 'WHY'???
She said - 'you didn’t justified the purpose of your trip'.
What?????
You do that by reservation or by invitation letter and we had reservation!!!! Original from Budapest!!
Signed, stamped..
So i told her -'i have reservation, look it up ('you stupid fucking whore' - i thought).
She looked through my papers, found reservation
and pointed in it with her finger and asked me - 'is this it'?
'Yes'- i said.
'That’s not it’- she sez.
That was the moment i turned my back and walk outside
'cause i pretty much wanted to kill her.. Or anybody else.
So, i sat outside thinking i got declined 'cause im not
employed.. but Ivan who is employed and Vanja who is a student will get the vizas for sure!
And out goes Ivan and Vanja saying that NEITHER OF THEM GOT VIZA!!! WOOOOOWW!!!
That's something else.
So we sat outside consulat cursing outloud everything and everyone..
May i say that the date was 29.septembar..
So we went home thinking what to do..
And i was so pissed off 'cause i knew we had all the papers!!!!
And that fact drove me crazy!! Bottom line, it was just no fair!
So, tomorrow, i rang ministry of foreign affairs of Serbia and told them the whole story..
Then i wrote email to ministry of foreign affairs of Hungary and told them the story.
The woman from Serbian ministry has been so supportive that she actually rang Hungarian embassy in Belgrade and menage to book us another
appointment there. The Hungarian consul from Belgrade said ‘if they have all the papers we need, they will get the viza’..
After a couple of hours the girl from our hostel send me email and told me that Hungarian embassy from Belgrade
rang her to check if we are really booked there!! So our emotions are jumping from total bummer and
wanting to kill everyone to happiness and the filling that all is not lost yet and that we menage to make some comotion!
I got that beautfull feeling thtat if you are willing you could actualy make the system say sorry..
Also, in Hungarian consulat in Subotica we didn’t get any of our
paperwork back (i'm not sure if that is legal), so naturally, we needed to get all of those papers AGAIN.
Pay the travel insurance AGAIN (13 euros), email the hostel and ask if they can send the reservations AGAIN, collect
every fucking piece of paper AGAIN..
We didn’t mind as long as there are chances that we are getting the viza!
In the meantime i've got the letter from Subotica consulat answering me the question i asked Hungarian ministry of foreign affairs - why i got declined,
'cause the consulat got contacted by Hungarian ministry of foreign affairs and needed to write me explanation.
Oh how thoughtfull that is of them isn’t it?
Off course, they didn’t say they’re sorry for the inconvenience or anything.
They said that i didn’t payed full reservation in
hostel, also that my mothers salary is to little to sponsor my trip to Hungary for 14 days, and that
i didn’t write how big is my family, like, how many people lives from that salary. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT THE FUCK!!!???? Maybe i've been saving money for the trip for a while you fucking idiots?
Where does that stand? They have on their web site list of papers you need and there it doesn’t sez
anything about minimal wages or the number of people in the family or that you need to pay full reservation..
And like i said i asked them and they told me we don't have to pay the whole amount..
Maybe you would like to know what size of shoes i am wearing, or my blood group?
Anyhow, we though fuck that, ministry of foreign affairs in Serbia book us new apointment (in Belgrade)so that must
means something. After all, that is a public institution..
So we went to Belgrade, we gave them all the papers, AGAIN, and the guy is like ‘you have to pay 35 euros each for the viza’ AGAIN, so, we did..
And the guy sez, come in 5 days for the results.
So we went home.. Kinda pleased with our selves..
Tomorrow the guy from the consulat rang me and say that the consul would like to see my COLLEGE DEGREE and
BANK ACCOUNT info!!! And i already gave them all the papers regarding my mothers financial status..
By the way i had quite a lot of money on bank accout.
So, i got the bank account info, photocopied my fucking college degree and Vanja and our friend went
tomorrow to Belgrade to give them.. Need i say that i have to stay at work 'cause i simply can't take
anymore days off. Also i had to take 9 working days without pay, of work, for the tour..
So they went there, gave the guy the papers and he told them that they come in 4 days for the results.
Also, all this time we couldn’t cancel our van, we couldn’t cancel our shows, we didn’t know what to
do with printing tees.. And there's a week to go.
We couldn’t be happy, we could’t be sad.. We couldn’t do anything, but wait for those 4 days..
At the day of the results, Vanja again went to Belgrade and Ivan and me stayed in Novi Sad working,
waiting for Vanja to call us.. That day i got another email from our hostel and it said (quote): '‘today
a woman has called me from the Embassy in Belgrade and she wanted to know, if you are able to pay
with credit card and, how you have paid for the first night’.
Man..
When i read that email i was getting a bad feeling about all of this..
Not to mention feeling a bit raped over and over again..
Troglodites, give us the vizas or don't, just stop fucking with us already!
So, we waited for the Vanja to call..
Finally he called and said ‘we didn’t get vizas’.
And the reason? ‘We didn’t payed full reservation to hostel’..
That was it.
That was their reason.
They had to tell us something and they grab on that thing.
I didn’t have anymore energy left to be pissed off, or mad, or sad, or wanting to kill someone, or me, or don’t care, or anything..
We were just not believing..
We’re not going,
that was the only thing that’s been going through my head.
All this fucking around and wasting money and nerves was for nothing.
Incredible feeling of helplessness..
And i had 9 fucking days non payed infront of me.
We spend about 140 euros each (fees, transportation, booking, what not), i risk to loose my job,
spend so much time being angry and helpless..
We'll now concentrate on recording new 4 tracks ep 'till new year, release it, and we'll fucking try to come one way or another next year on
20-30 days tour so, we won't stop!
I'd like to say sorry and we love you to all the people who had been so cool and supportive..
In the first place Guiton, Marion, Paaya, Lee, Mateus, Jaki, Nelson.. all the bands and the people who wrote to us..
I hope this blog explained what happened at least a little bit..
Aleksandar
ROIR"
Accueil 
Sam 26 Sep - 3:20
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