Wednesday, March 11, 2009

HI-Boston is upgrading

The Boston Globe has an article about them moving to a new location. They are abandoning their 208 bed location by Berkeley, which leaves a lot to be desired, for a new location with 375 beds. Hopefully, this one will be rebuilt as a hostel, unlike the old building which feels like bathrooms were shoe-horned into closets.
They also mentioned not renting the building from BU that they set up a summer hostel in Boston. I have never stayed there, but I was surprised to read the average bed is $30. I paid $40 the last time I was there.

Visa on order

I made it to the Brazillian consulate in Boston at 9 am, in time to be #10 in line for a tourist visa. The visa costs $130, by money order, and signs posted in the consulate say it is only that high because the US charges the same for Brazil. All of the other countries listed were MUCH lower, usually below $50. I had my itinerary to go with the tour guide into Brazil, but not my itinerary to fly to Argentina. Apparently, this wasn't acceptable, and I had to go across the building to print these. (another $5 gone) After waiting for about 2.5 hours total, I think in the future I will do this by mail. I still have to go pick up my passport and visa up on monday. Brazil better be awesome for all of this running around.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Brazilian Consulate

I am hoping to visit Brazil on my trip next week, but I still need a visa to cross into the country. The consulate offers 20 visas a day at their offices, but I was a few people past that limit when they gave out the numbers. I plan to arrive much earlier tomorrow in an attempt to be further up in line. The place felt like a stuffy meat market, and there were a bunch of other people waiting, apparently not for visas.