Forget about the money part... you can't imagine how much paperwork and arrangements this Nomad has to do to get to Lisbon and attend the SF2.

_{Yeah, this one was made by me, pretty bad picture huh? It is like 9 years old, but you get the point of being drowned in paperwork, right?}

As a Mexican, it is not easy nor simple to enter Europe, especially into the Schengen area. Western European countries under the Schengen agreement have a "no-border" policy between them; this means that moving from Germany to France - for instance - is as simple as a Finish getting drunk with tequila (so pretty easy); the tricky part is entering the Schengen area, due to the no-border policy, the immigration control is very strict, as it should.

_{So long story short, if you want to move across one of these countries, you can just drive or take a bus but, in order to access to the area from the outside well, that is another story. Image Source}

So, first things first. If you want to enter the Schengen area, you have to prove you are planning to leave at some point. I get this, Europe doesn´t want a horde of illegal mexicans entering your continent and staying there for good.

You have to show the immigration office the plane ticket you bought in advance which you will use to get out of the Country.

I am arrriving to Brussels on the 25th, here is the ticket!

But, as you can see, I am leaving from Cancún, México, but I live in Mexico city, so I need a plane ticket from México city to Cancún... here it is!

Yeah... I am going to spend 15 hours in Cancun´s airport, but I save a few tens of dollars by waiting...

Then, I am leaving the Schengen area on December 5th and I am going to Romania to visit a fellow OCD curator, @guyfawkes4-20.

So I have to show to the Belgian immigration officer my plane ticket from Dusseldorf to Oradea, here it is the confirmation for the ticket.

This proves I am not planning to stay forever in Europe and I am just a tourist planning to do some tourist stuff, not someone looking for a job or a wife in Europe.

But that is not it. As you can see on both plane tickets, I am going to stay in the Schengen area for 50 days, so I need to provide a travel agenda. If you are European maybe you didn't even know this policy exists but, for a Mexican, this is a must:

• Hotel reservations for your whole stay in Europe
  or
• An invitation letter from a European citizen

Well, you know I´ve been traveling for more than a year, I met a lot of people from every part of the world, a lot of them are European so I decided to pay them a visit while I am there. Some people wrote invitation letters so I can show the immigration office I am going to stay with them, and that is the reason I am not required to reserve hotels neither in Brussels, Lisbon, Spain, Germany and Romania.

An invitation letter looks like this one:

_{This invitation letter was given to my by @roelandp, so as you can see, the general idea is to prove the reason I am visiting Europe thus helping me be clear of my intentions in Europe.}

I´ve heard so many horror stories of fellow mexicans being denied entry and having to go back to México without even touching Europe´s floor. So yeah, I am kind of nervous and tried to be prepared for everything.

There is something else...

Imagine, as I tend to, that I get injured while I am in Europe. Well, I don´t want to be an economic burden to the social security or having to pay a lot of money for medical attention, so to be allowed entry into Belgium - or any other Schengen country - it is required that I have medical insurance from the first day I enter until the day I leave to Romania.

I acquired insurance with a European company called AXA - I´m sure you´ve heard of it -, I guess it will be accepted by European authorities since every fellow mexibro I asked, used this one when they went to the old continent.

Ok, so far I have:

• Plane tickets (3)
• Invitation letters from friends (5)
• Official Invitation letter for SF2
• Medical Insurance

I feel like I´m missing something...?

Oh yeah, the SF2 ticket! I have to print this also:

_{Thank you @blueorgy! You were the one who started this dream rolling by giving me this ticket when I won your contest.}

Well, you would think this is enough to be allowed into Europe, right?

Nope, think again! I need one last thing, a very important thing...

As we all non-europeans know, the cost of life in Europe is not low, there is a minimum amount of money you have to spend every day to cover you basic needs, and you need to prove to the immigration officer that you have the green ones to sustain yourself for as long as you stay there.

If you read my blog, you know I am not rich and that I travel on a budget, but still I have to prove I have the means, so I am bringing some cash and my credit cards. I went to the embassy and they told me that by bringing two of them I should be fine.

Naah, I´m not uploading pictures of them, what do you think I am? A fool? Haha well, I´m bringing them, let´s hope that is enough.

_Source

There is also the minor things, like having your passport up to date. A passport in México costs around one month´s minimun salary so I consider myself very lucky to be able to have one.

Oh damn, I almost forgot!

There is one more thing the embassy told me to bring, this is not mandatory but they said it would help me a lot and will definitely help my case - I know, it sounds soo dramatic but hey, I don´t want to be left out of the SF2 and I am taking every precaution.

You must provide proof you have a reason to come back to your country . It could be family ties, pending studies, a good career or proof you are making money from a normal job, something like that.

But well, I am not married, I already finished my studies and I stopped working for a normal company a year ago so I don´t really have something to come back to. Except my house, the house where I used to live with my brother is under our name, so I am bringing a photo of the paperwork that proves I own a property in México to come back to.

It looks like this one over here:

_{It is in spanish, but you get the point}

So that´s it, I really hope this is enought for me to get into Belgium and then start my ground journey to Lisbon.

If you don´t hear from me on October 25th, it means I got sent back to Mexico :(

But there is a positive side on this one, if I don´t go, I´ll donate my ticket to another eager Steemian who can make it in time to the Fest!

Steemfest, here I go!