Well, now I'm here in Novosibirsk!! The flight from Oslo to Moscow was pretty uneventful. Sat next to a Norwegian guy who retired from the military, now in his early 40's and has been on a backpacking journey for the past 3 years. He was heading to Nepal and Kathmandu! Sometimes you meet truly interesting people on flights and sometimes you sit next to wakadoodles. It's a toss of the dice, really.
I had some hours in the Moscow airport so I wandered around in the shops and people watched. I love to people watch. It helps pass the time in airports. I sat in a cafe had a delicious Russian pastry, a great cup of coffee and 2 excellent Russian vodkas! Best ever.
When it was time to go to the gate for the flight to Novosibirsk there was some sort of mixup with another flight's gate that was leaving at the same time. One lady began to shout at the lady behind the check-in desk and she yelled back. Then 3 other passengers joined in yelling. This turned into straight up pandemonium! There was a big crowd of people shouting and she continued to shout back. Hilarious!! She swung open the gate next to her leading outside to the awaiting bus to take passengers to the plane and yelled out, "NOVOSIBIRSK!!" Most of the people who weren't shouting were standing there looking confused. I walked past the angry mob and went to the agitated lady and handed her my ticket and asked, "Novosibirsk?" She said yes, took my ticket and scanned it. I gave her a big smile and said, "thank you, sweetheart!" She gave me a big smile, touched me on the arm and then promptly resumed yelling at the grumpy crowd. Priceless! I didn't know that Russians could be so fantastically Ghetto Fabulous. I love it!
I arrived in Novosiberisk
at 5:50am. It was dark and covered with freshly fallen snow. Natalia from the Novosibirsk Philharmonic was there to meet me and when she saw me she came over and gave me a big hug. Awesome. She informed me that we were going straight to the hotel where I could get some rest and food before the events of the day. On the ride she gave me some of the history of the town. It was an industrial town that was growing and then almost completely abandoned after the Second World War. Once the Transsiberian Railway came to be, joining this vast area, it began to reimerge quickly. It became big in industry and also a large transportation hub connecting Russia with other Asian countries. Novosibirsk had the first subway system in Russia. Westeners have this image of Siberia as some empty, vast, cold wasteland. Some of it may be, but Novosibirsk is not. It is a large and active town with lots of beautiful theaters and stately public buildings. The streets are busy and bustling with people walking about dressed quite fashionably but appropriately for the very cold weather. Most Americans would shit a brick if they saw the multitudes of beautiful fur coats and hats all around, but these people are keeping warm. Sorry y'all but fur is WARM!!! Get over it and move on.
I got to the hotel and took a shower and then headed down to the breakfast room. This was a beatiful spread. The places with the most beautiful breakfast spreads, keeping in mind, these places have proper breakfast included with the price of the hotel room (unlike the dreaded "Continental Breakfast"...) Brazil, Angola and now Novosibirsk! They serve a lovely buffet of local and international breakfast dishes. Love it! After my wonderful meal I got some rest and then prepared myself for the press conference to officially open the festival. It was pretty cool. All of the newspapers and television stations for Siberia were in attendance. They asked me lots of questions and Natalia is an awesome translator. They wondered if it was too cold for me and I let them know that living in Norway had me well prepared for the winter so it was no problem. They also seemed pretty fascinated by my ornate nails, which is something to which I've grown accustomed, but usually not with the press. It was kinda funny. They also came to film some of the rehearsal with the band. A lovely group of guys who are also excellent musicians. The highlight was the drummer, Vladimir Kirpichev, who studies Brazilian music, so he has a great groove. We get together again for one more rehearsal before the festival performance. I'll be getting some photos with the guys and posting them soon.
Today, I have to do a tv interview, rehearsal, site seeing and then I'll head out to the festival's first concert featuring the great John McLaughlin. I'm am really enjoying this latest adventure. More to come as life unfolds.
Travel, see the world! It makes for a well rounded human being.
Later fa you!
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