How Much Would it Have Cost Without the Mirror Writing?

I take back everything I said about the Russian consulate. $100 is a lot of money, but the Russian visa is worth every kopek. It’s a two-page thing of beauty. The main visa is a full-page sticker, with a hologram, multi-colored stamps, and lots of writing I can’t read. What lifts it into the realm of bureaucratic art (and nearly justifies the two-week wait) is the paper stapled onto the next page. It’s so large it had to be folded and still sticks out a little. It’s got two parts, an arrival card and a departure card. Both halves are bi-lingual. The English is a little shaky, but I think it might actually give me license to kill. I’ll have to double-check with someone who reads Cyrillic, but even if I’m wrong on that, my passport is still 10 times cooler than it was when I last saw it.