Visas, Czech Rep. & Poland #3of3

The Czechoslovakian, the East German, and the Polish consulates are all in the same portion of Vienna, all near the Schonbrunn Palace.

When we arrived at the Czechoslovakian Consulate, a few blocks from the Palace, the crowds extended out into the street. We took our place in the very hot, crowded, smelly line, filled out four copies of a form, cut and attached our photos, and waited some more. People in the line were pushing and shoving, but they were helpful whenever we needed help or had a question. We handed in the documents along with our passports, waited in the camper for an hour, then picked up the Czechoslovakian Visa. Cost 420 Austrian Schillings, and two hours of our time.

In spite of, or because of all we had gone through these past couple of days, we now had the Czechoslovakian and Polish Visas. We had been told at the East German Consultant to get these Visa’s before they would issue a Visa for us to cross their country to West Germany, but now that we had them, the East German Consultant was closed for the day. Aw well, we tried to get it all done, but we could get the DDR Visa at their border.

At the Wienzeile, the flea market area in Vienna, I paid $2 for a picture book of Prague. I planned to place the book on the camper table while we are crossing the Czechoslovakian border (the Berlin Wall still stood), hoping to make an impression on the border people — and it worked. The book is a very nice picture book, with descriptions of each picture in four languages.

We decided not to use the main border crossing near Vienna, and crossed from Gmund, Austria, to Ceské-Vele, Czechoslovakia. Two gun-toting uniformed men opened a steel gate, a tall man who spoke English greeted us, and there was a pleasant older man who was in charge. After 20 minutes of filling out forms etc., the gate opened, we were on our way. They were friendly, and treated us nicely. No problems at all.

A few days later there were several people and vehicles in line at the Czech-Polish border, so we sat and waited until a man came and inspected the camper. Our Visa was in order, our passports were returned. At an office just inside Poland we obtained Polish Zloties, and the “daily” and gasoline coupons.