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Tuesday - April 8th 2003
A new feature of the tour diary…… Travel
Tips!!
If you ever go to provincial Russia be sure and take a blindfold
with you and some earplugs because they are not big on curtains
and the hotels are mostly situated next to noisy roads!!
After not enough sleep we headed to the airport for our trip to
Rostov. After the usual VIP treatment (which I must admit
is nice but I won't get used to it!) we boarded our YAK 40 (no…
not a herd of Tibetan furry things!) for what was to be a 2-hour
flight but which, because of strong headwinds became a 3-hour flight.
Rostov is quite a bit south in Russia and is the second of its "unofficial"
capitols! (Of course, Moscow is the official one and St. Petersburg
the second unofficial one). It's quite a large city and obviously
a little more prosperous than Samara and it has a distinct cosmopolitan
feel to it. Mango is here and so is Hugo Boss which usually means
there is money around and the people seem busy and well-dressed.
There is a "buzz" to the town and it's contageous. We
are here for 3 days (the show is on the 10th) so we'll have a chance
to look around a bit later but we headed off to lunch at a very
nice restaurant where, once again, we were treated very well and
the food was delicious.
Then it was the inevitable press conference (which was mercifully
short) and time to relax a bit before dinner. We went to the same
restaurant and I quickly found out why… the owner is a big
fan (which is nice) and he had booked a band which played three
or four Heep songs (which is kinda nice) but he was also expecting
me to get up and jam (which I hate!). MTV had a camera there but
I really don't like being "trapped" into things so everyone
had to make it with pictures and autographs!!
Anyway the food was amazing, including locally caught crayfish,
caviar and the sturgeon from which it came!! Everyone seemed to
have a good time but it was soon time to get back to the hotel and
take advantage of the rare opportunity to sleep in. The later part
of this schedule is pretty gruelling so we (or at least I) need
to make the most of chances like this. Good night!
Next
day...
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