Finally!!!!

First the good news - after 2 months of waiting, sending my passport back and forth from Manila to Bangkok, and enduring the "mag-T-TNT ka no?" stares at the embassy, I finally managed to get all my required Visas. Here's the Polish one:

And here's the Schengen one (from the Dutch embassy):

Both allow multiple entries, and are valid until July 31, 2007. The funny thing is that my Polish visa only allows me to stay for 30 days per entry. This means that I have to exit Poland and enter again every 30 days. In case you're wondering, Poland is a member of the EU - but they have not signed the Schengen treaty yet, so I had to get both a Polish Visa and a Schengen Visa to avoid going home to Manila every 30 days. Imagine, the Polish government is forcing me to go on vacation (and around Europe) once a month - how nice of them.

If you are applying for any type of Visa and are using a Philippine passport, get ready. I still remember submitting a bookload of documents when I was applying for a Japanese visa, and people crying in the embassy when they learned that they got denied. I suppose you can't really blame these Consuls - a big percentage of Pinoys going abroad start as tourists and end up as TNTs.

I guess I just got lucky this time. Very lucky.

Next stop - Amsterdam. I am leaving next week on Feb. 14 - will be back in May. See you around!