Crossing The Border

everyday life, travel 1 Minute

I wrote this post yesterday and forgot to post it. I am not pretending I didn’t suspect what was going to happen, but still, what happened today, didn’t happen yet….

A very disturbing thing happened when I went through the border control in Helsinki on my way back. First, I was happy to see they now have the same machines as in London, where you can scan your chipped passport. Then I saw that I still had to present the passport to the officer. On my way back, I never ever encountered any questions. This time, the office started to scroll through my passport pages and asked me which countries I had visited and whether I was in Russia. Just to be clear, since I am a naturalized citizen, my country of origin is indicated in my US passport, but still!

The office kept scrolling, found the stamps from 2019, and looked at me inquisitively. I said – I haven’t been there since 2019. He kept scrolling and finally said: good; I see your entrance stamp. Because if you visited Russia at that time, we would have to question you (and he waved in an unspecified direction).

It was very disturbing but understandable. I know I have my share of guilt with everything happening, and it’s in Finland where I feel it even more.

And since I am posting it today, not yesterday, I want to reiterate – we stand with Ukraine! I saw these flags in the Southern part of State Street, quite unexpectedly:

Published by Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

Published

7 thoughts on “Crossing The Border”

  1. These are odd times. My nephew and his wife visited us from Russia and they returned back on Monday, travelling by car. They spent 30 minutes on the Finnish side of the border and then 3,5 h in the Russian check point. 3,5 h!! As my niece-in-law said, “they immediately showed us the difference and reminded where we come”.

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    1. I am so glad they were able to come! For all the rest – sigh. And this all dialog was pretty short, so god only knows what it would be if I would decided to travel to the other side of good and evil.

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      1. They were fast to apply for visas in summer and they got 2 year visas. Now I only hope they will be alle to travel (ny nephew was relieved from conscription for health reasons, so I hope he is not eligible now either).

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            1. I know! And we already agreed that overall, this tourism is unacceptable, although the refugees will suffer. I was just told that there is 35 km line from the Russian side to cross the Finnish border

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