Does anyone know about Visa rules for non-EU citizens (Indian passport holders) with a Dutch resident for the following countries:
a) Czech republic
Slovakia
c) Hungary

Firstly do the above 3 countries have a consulate in Den Haag?

Is it difficult to get a visit visa for a week? Has anyone has had experiences (good or bad)? How long does it take to get a visa processed by one of these countries?

Please do post something to let me know.

Czech Republic embassy in The Hague (plus visa information)
<a href="http://www.czechembassy.org/wwwo/default.asp?ido=7207&idj=2&amb=31" Target="_BLANK">http://www.czechembassy.org/wwwo/default.a...2&amb=31</a>

Slovakia embassy in the UK (with visa information)
<a href="http://www.slovakembassy.co.uk" Target="_BLANK">http://www.slovakembassy.co.uk</a>/

Hungarian Embassy website and visa information <a href="http://www.hungarianembassy.nl" Target="_BLANK">http://www.hungarianembassy.nl</a>/

Why do you want to bother with Eastern Europe for ?

The people in these countries have done nothing except prove that there a load of untrustworthy thieves.

If you travel there you will see nothing but scams, big time scams, theft, rip off's to 'westerners' etc etc.

Watch your belongings wherever you go.
These people would literally fight over a 5 euro note found on the floor !

Never under any circumstances put trust in these people, thats asking for trouble.

The police in these countries will stop you for something, and try & invent a story so they can 'on the spot fine' you.

These countries may be (unfortunately) EU, but there still cultrally Communist bloc !!!
And will be for a long, long time.
I dont think there worth the time of day.

mani dont listen to Paranoia he makes a credit for his nick indeed. How easy to generalise over whole Eastern Europe in that way.

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mani dont listen to Paranoia he makes a credit for his nick indeed. How easy to generalise over whole Eastern Europe in that way.



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OK, Then here is a couple of classic examples and its 2 of probably thousands.

Re: TOURIST-SCAMS IN EASTERN EUROPE
Hello,

The Ukrainian Immigration Officer who tried to arrest me (read: get a bribe) for possesion of the camera was horrible. I was riding a night train from Warsaw to Kiyv and he entered my compartment, asked for my passport, looked around, saw a camera on the shelf (I was doing some repacking of my luggage) and said: "So, you have a camera. So, you could have taken a picture of the KGB Officer" - I did not - I replied. "well, I do not know..."
I was nearly able to give him a film, but he insisted on leaving a train for future interrogation at their office. It took over an hour when he agreed he can forget he had ever seen me and my camera for 20 DM.

My Ukrainian friends told me later I did very well - at the office I would pay 100 DM or they would confiscate a camera and keep me up to 48 hours (without food - you are only detained, not arrested), and they would maybe say sorry to the consul later, but not to me.

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The most frustrating scam I’ve encountered in Romania involves the the smartass official ticket inspectors working for the local transport company (RATC). This is how it works: a foreigner on a tram (or bus) stamps his ticket in the machines that punch three holes in them. The inspectors (yes, actual real ones!) board the tram incognito, put on their badges and immediately check the foreigners. Then they quickly exchange your ticket for one they have hidden in their hand, with four holes punched in it. Then they point at the rules posted in the bus (in Romanian only) which state the ticket should have three holes, and will let you try for yourself with a blank ticket, explaining that you probably stamped the ticket twice. In case you have used one ticket on both sides for two people (which is legal), they will ask you first if it’s for both of you, and then produce a prepared one that’s stamped wrong on both ends.
In any case, they will demand you pay a 150,000 lei (US$8) fine on the spot, or come along to the end station. You will have nothing to prove your innocence. When the robbed the In Your Pocket editor, he asked for a receipt, which was ripped up in front of him as he got off the tram. The money went in their pockets of course. When they tried to rob the editor of the Rough Guide Romania (they’re not so good at picking their victims!), he managed to talk them into getting off the tram, and (being in a healthy condition) ran for it. Do not count on any compassion from the driver (in on the plot?) or other passengers (‘didn’t they do this to you in Bucharest too?’), it’s you versus a corrupt system.

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I can post loads more examples if you want ?
The stories can get much nastier also, these are nothing.

Of course these countries have issues. Everybody would after such a long time of socialism, but things are getting way better and your statement was just not fair to all the people who come from these countries.
These countries also have lots to offer. I just spent a holiday in Croatia and it was a blast <img src="../images/emoticons/ysmile.gif">
yes picpocketing, double pricing, corruption all that existed and sometimes still exist in these coutnries, but nothing is black&white and you should learn that. For ex. is a favourite place to go for ppl from west because its relatively cheap. You should see the amount of Dutch ppl who come to Czech rep. every year for skiing or camping in summer and they come over and over again now they would not come if it would be such an disaster right? Further I know a lot of foreigners living in Prague who of course criticise things as well but would never say such a statement as you did and they live there for bit longer time than you did.

Still disagree with your original statement as yo generalise over whole group of countries there. Btw. I have a dutch friend who lived in Poland and Romania and loved it there, go figure.

Hi,

I think I agrree a little with Paranoia.

I went to Russia last year and I have been to Romania & Ukraine.
I have to say that I hated Russia, every bit of that trip was pretty horrible, its a beurocratic nightmare.

In Moscow I was stopped 5 times in a week by 'policemen' wanting to see my passport to see if I had the right stamps, all demanding money.
Well I didnt pay them anything.

Ukraine was pretty much the same and Romania was nothing but people comming up to me asking for money, begging and just being a pain.

Another common eastern europe scam is when paying by credit card, you must be very carefull that they dont put an extra naught/zero at the end of the bill.

Its like that the people in Eastern Europe think that those in 'Western Europe' are all stupid and easy to rip-off, well thats the impression I got.

I wont travel to estern europe again, I have seen enough.
But another thing, I have a business here in Amsterdam, and I have to say that all the people that I have dealt with who were the most awkward & difficult and basicly 'trying it on'
Were, Suprise !! Eastern Europeans !!

So now I dont knowingly do any business with these people any more.

They bring it on themselves.

In Italy for example, 95% of the robberies, rapes & kidnappings are not by the Italian mafia, but by gangs of Romanians & Albanians who are now everywhere.

Read Dutch news and you will hear about the shootings etc, and about 85% are by gangs from Yugslavia, Romania, Bulgaria and the like.
More Eastern Europeans !!!

Another example of a rip-off
About 3 months ago I purchased a used Camera from a classic dealer from Prague, He states the post to europe is 25 $, now I thought that was high, but it could be by insured courier.
When the packet arrived, it had come by TPG post and the sender had foolishly had the czech stamps on it,
It was 128.00 Koruna, I did a check to see what thats worth,and suprise suprise?
Came to $5 !!!!!!!!
So he pocketted $20
I complained about this, and all I got was lies and excusses.

So thats it for me now.
No more dealings with Eastern Europeans.
And thats final.

I would like to encourage others to put here any bad expiriences with Eastern Europe.

At least in Russia, I came away with a groovy little 'fake Leica' camera that works great and cost $20 !!
And I did manage to purchase Valium from a pharmacy with no 'script and no questions asked for $10
They probably pocketted that also !!




Cheers !!

maybe the 20 USD were administratie en verpacking kosten <img src="../images/emoticons/ywink.gif">
j/k, he was a jerk really. My point was that not everybody is like that and not everybody wants to screw foreigners in any of these countries.

As for beging for money in Romania, well I dont think its the only place on earth where it happens. If you dont feel for it, dont give them anything, its your choice. But dont judge imediatelly over people just because they ask for money as you have perhaps no idea what these people went through.

anyway I am not here to defend Eastern Europe and I am not the only one in the forum to do that, but as I said things are not black & white and as there are quite some ppl who want to screw western foreigners /unfortunatelly/ there are also more than enough of nice and intelligent people. Its just that you dont see that.

Above all of that these countries have great nature, history and culture.
for ppl who are interested read <a href="http://www.inyourpocket.com" Target="_BLANK">www.inyourpocket.com</a> thats a guide made by ppl who actually live in these countries and point out the good and the bad.

Furthermore its unfortunatelly true with the gangs, something quite scary.

Btw. my money was stolen in a tram in Prague and I am not a rich foreigner <img src="../images/emoticons/ywink.gif"> Though that can happen in any city with such an amount of tourists, same as if a car gets stolen.

Quote:

Furthermore its unfortunatelly true with the gangs, something quite scary.

Btw. my money was stolen in a tram in Prague and I am not a rich foreigner Though that can happen in any city with such an amount of tourists, same as if a car gets stolen.



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but as I said things are not black & white

Ok, How about 100 shades of grey instead ?

Like the Trabant cars came in.

You say the gangs are scary ?

The gangs rule these countries ! and at every level right to the top, and its no joke.
Many of these gang personel are ex KGB or the other former secret services.

There was once a story I read on the net about some Russian doctors somewhere way out in Russia, and they had not been paid for ages, but this time they got there wages but it was not in money,
Its was 5 tons of Horse manure !!
Serously.

Even Putin is ex KGB !

I think all the officials are in on the scam

That problem with the post cost where he pocketed 20$ in Prague, I wouldnt be suprised if he gave it to some scummy mafia!

You also mention about these countries have wonderfull history ?

Yes they do, how about we start with the the death & murder & enslavent of virtually a whole nation ?
The only history with these places is about Brutality, Terror, Miserery, Desperation, Horror, it goes on & on and streched right up to Berlin.

The reason why the Soviets never publisised hardly any of the Sputnik programe was because the spacecraft were crashing or many Cosmonauts were being killed very frequently & in space !
An air leak in a space capsule about to re-enter. Guess the outcome ?


Something else that disturbing about russia is its current Prison system.
Read about it on yahoo search etc.

Want to holiday in Russia ?
Thats why they kept that so secret

I think all the bus & train conductors are in on the scam to rip off tourists.

gee why are you so agressive? When I said history I meant there are many nice old cities to visit.
And there is much more than that but has no sence to explain you as you seem to be def.

Well I guess you dont have to tell me about the socialistic history, my grandfther was prisoned in the 50s and lost everything he had u know. Again easy talking for someone who never had to experience such situation.

What I tried to point out is that you cant judge the whole nation or couple of nations on the base of that and discourage people visit these countries /they visit anyway, like it or not/

About the conductors on trams..well they check anyone does not matter if foreigners or locals. As for the remark about the shop it could be, but I doubt it, pretty much he was just a jerk and ripped you off.

Eventhough some of the things you say could be truth lots of corruption still exists, you are very one-sided thus you can not see the positive things in these countries. Such a one-sided view I have not heard from anyone since the socialism ended.

Well Guys,

I have been living in different countries in South America, eastern and Western europe, and let me tell you in all of them you find problems. Especially when you are tourist you have to follow some basic rules to avoid being scammed.

To make a long story short, I had never was robbed until.... yes, when I came to Netherlands... My notebook, passport, mobile etc they all were taken from the train to Schiphol. So I think nowadays there is no a safe place and you have to be vigilant all the time.

Cheers

Um, forgive me for butting in but get back to topic! 'mani246' only wanted to know about how to get visas to countries in Eastern Europe and you're jumping down his throat.

lol yeah sorry, got carried away

Actually I didn't really mean you... <img src="../images/emoticons/ysmile.gif">

yes I know, I have just continued to hijack the thread, should just leave them alone

Anyway while we are hijacking already something that was hijacked long ago, where are you from?

yes Czech republic, actually Central Europe but often refered to as Eastern Europe, not that I mind.

Where do you live in Holland?

Cesi jsou nekdy tak naivni....<img src="../images/emoticons/ysmile.gif">

I love yelling a Dutch people in Czech. They always look, so, impotent to respond, yet knowing that they have been insulted.

"Cesi jsou nekdy tak naivni" What does that mean?

Czechs are sometimes so naive.
(I speak Polish and a little Croatian--Czech is almost an interpolation of the two)

BTW: yes, corruption and screwing over of tourists is commonplace in many Eastern European countries, because of the enormous difference in income, and because illegal activity was the only way you could get ahead under a communist system.

(I'm not excusing the behavior, just explaining it...and like Candy said, even if you're native, they'll rip you off too)

well its truth, in Prague they wanted to introduce tourist police to protect the tourists, that would actually check some places how fair they are. Not sure if it went truth.

I think Dutch cant really place Czech as a language, not sure.
We get attention sometimes when we speak Czech.

Dutch people are clueless... and certainly when it comes to Central and Eastern European languages. It kind of flips their wigs when I talk. I also find it very useful to cuss at them in Moravian dialect; works every time.

Czech is related to other Slavic languages, but it's hardly an extension of them. Czech is more complex, generally, than other Slavic languages and it's harder for others to understand them than for Czechs to understand others. As a rule, if you speak Czech, Polish or Slovak well enough, you can read and understand things on a basic level.

I would agree.
I speak Polish and can usually understand Slovak a bit better than Czech. Your pronunciation is a bit more different, and I think you have a lot of German loan-words.
Czechs can almost understand me when I speak Polish, but they don't like Poles, so I try to use English if they'll understand me. <img src="../images/emoticons/ysmile.gif">

Well I usually speak English with Polish people, thats just because its easier to understand exactly. It can be quite misleading to have two similar languages, because then you think you know what that is and in real it means something totally different as "strasny" means horrible in Czech and "strastnyj" means devout in Russian.

Wdomu funny that you say that about how Czechs dont like Polish, I heard it so many times and I try to discuss it anytime I meet Polish people. An American guy was telling me how Czechs hate Polish so much and when he saw me with a Polish friend, he told me that I am not a typical Czech? Whatever that means.

I think we can assume that's a cold-war mentality. If you are interested in (re)learning Russian, as you mentioned before, then you're obviously not of the mentality that also hates Poles.

You're a good exception to the rule. <img src="../images/emoticons/ysmile.gif">

I am also kind of oblivious to these sorts of "hostilities", since I've spent most of my life in the US and am under 30.

BTW straszny in Polish means horrible too. Russian's quite a bit different from Czech or Polish.
I also heard that the word in Polish for "to look for" szukac, means something quite obscene in Czech. Another reason to be safe and just use English. <img src="../images/emoticons/ywink.gif">

exactly Wdomu
I remember a Polish girl telling me that one of her activities was Chodze po sklepach or so..I was like..what are you doing, walking through the caves? That would be the closest interpretation

Where in Poland did you live? I still should go there, there are some great places as Wroclaw, Krakow, Zakopanie and I guess many others. I grew up in a small place close to Krkonose, while walking at Snezka, there were many Poles coming from the other side.


I hope I am not exception in viewing Poles and Russians and there are more of us like that, dont forget to mention it to your family in Poland so they have nicer image of us <img src="../images/emoticons/ywink.gif">

How can you generalize about all Eastern European countries?, It's like comparing Holland to Germany, yes alot of things are the same, but also twice as many things are different.


Czech Republic is not an extention to other Eastern European countries. I am a Czech and I used to travel every year to Eastern Europe including the three countries that were mentioned. May I remind you that I traveled as a Canadian, speaking in English even though I speak Czech/Slovak experiencing travelling as a Westerner because I had to write about it. Every country has a flaw, how dare you say that there is no reason to travel to those countries. I don't think you have ever even read a book on any of the countries. There is corruption everywhere. Have you ever been to Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa?, I just named four different countries in four completely different parts of the globe, all of which I've travelled, and you know what?, There is great corruption within all those countries, so what!, we should never step outside and leave our house?. That's BS. You can do that with your "paranoia-club", but do not give others advice when clearly you have no idea what you are talking about.

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Why do you want to bother with Eastern Europe for ?

The people in these countries have done nothing except prove that there a load of untrustworthy thieves.

If you travel there you will see nothing but scams, big time scams, theft, rip off's to 'westerners' etc etc.

Watch your belongings wherever you go.
These people would literally fight over a 5 euro note found on the floor !

Never under any circumstances put trust in these people, thats asking for trouble.

The police in these countries will stop you for something, and try & invent a story so they can 'on the spot fine' you.

These countries may be (unfortunately) EU, but there still cultrally Communist bloc !!!
And will be for a long, long time.
I dont think there worth the time of day.

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How funny. It always amuses me to listen to west europens ( dutch) complaining about the corruption in East EuropeI moved here from US four years ago and I have never encountered so widespread corruption and accepted coruption as in Holland . One scandal emerges after the other .I think the only difference is that is so much more is accepted here and nobody seems to get prosecuted (bouwfraude,albert heijn, woningcorporatie ) My wallet and personal belongings have been stolen twice here and I was cheated few times in the store. I do not know a lot of Eastern Europe , One time holiday in Poland , 2 x in Hungry,had only one problem with parking fees in Hungry, overall v.positive , one negative thing: lots of dutch ( Hungry) assuming things should be much cheaper that in Holland and getting angry when it is not the fact and german ( Poland) , just too loud....