Finland, Russia, Russia and Switzerland… "96
tea bags and 2 pedal bins"!
Day 14
My room was a
bit warm so I left two windows open a bit. Big mistake in the centre of
Barcelona! Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars don't care who they
wake up, which brings me to an interesting thought… one of the only things that
Spanish men do quickly is drive. Quite why they grow horns when they get
behind the wheel is a mystery to me but they all feel compelled to drive faster
than necessary no matter where they are.
I went to
Barcelona airport a bit early for my flight back to Moscow and I am glad I did.
When I arrived at the check-in desks there were already five or six people lined
up and long lines quickly built up behind us.
Two lines for
economy and one for business class. Lots of people lined up in the
business class line and I wondered if they were, in fact, travelling on business
class tickets…..
At exactly two
hours before the flight was due to leave the check-in desks opened and that was
when the folks in the business class line found out that they could not check in
there. So they just took a look at the really long lines we were in and decided
to try and simply come to the front of our line. I don't know where people get
the balls to do this but they did and several heated arguments ensued which I
thought might actually come to blows. People were trying all kinds of way
to jump the queues and it was generally a very unpleasant experience… worse was
yet to come.
The promoter
of this tour leg was there to meet me and to pay me some expenses which he
didn't pay when I was in Moscow last time. But of course he brought rubles
instead of Euros and continued to lie pathologically, deny agreements he had
made etc. etc. Fortunately we had our tour manager with us and he sorted
it out while I checked into the grubby 3-star hotel (it says 4-stars in the
contract) and, by Russian standards, that ain't luxury!
The lobby was
full of basketball players, drunks and a few hookers so I just ran and hid in my
room to grab a few hours sleep. Oh, and the wireless internet was broken
though the front desk people were blissfully unaware of this.
Playing
concerts in Russia is always fun but it is precisely this kind of pig ignorance
and lack of respect that makes it such hard work.
I won't get
much sleep tonight. The promoter booked me on an 8 am flight… on a show day!
But that was nothing compared to what he did to the band who were already in
Krasnodar.
