St. Petersburg, Russia – Day 2

Stage Manager’s Log
M.S. Prinsendam
Friday, June 30, 2006
St. Petersburg, Russia – Day 2

Today was a much better day. We moved rehearsal up to 1030 so that we all could have time to get off the ship. After rehearsal, Elena, the pianist who is performing tonight invited Celina and I to go out with her and Tom Sutton. It was certainly a good thing to hook up with Elena, as she is Russian, and it is never bad to hang around with someone who speaks the language.

We took a cab into town, right down to the center of the town. We were dropped off right behind one of the big cathedrals. It was built after the Napoleonic wars. Then we walked down beside the canal to see the Church Of Spilled Blood, which is pretty magnificent. After walking down and around the church we came back up to the main street, Nevsky Prospekt (I think that is how you spell it) and around to a place where there are artists selling their work. Tom likes to buy the paintings and drawings, and he takes them back to England and frames them and sells them. Apparently he makes some good money like that.

So after browsing the paintings we decided to walk over to the Hermitage. We didn’t go in the museum because of time, but just walking around the outside is very beautiful. So I took lots of pictures, and had a lot of fun wandering around. It is a very crowded city, it is kind of like walking around new York City except that the streets don’t all go in a grid. One of the other interesting things is that there is an ice cream stand every 100 yards or so. Elena says they are even out there selling ice cream in the winter.

We got back to the ship a little after 1630 and had some time off before dinner and the shows. Celina went to work on the lights for tonight’s show, so that she gets some better hands on experience. I tried to get online because I noticed that on the ship’s computer we had received some outside emails, but I couldn’t get on with me laptop. Then after dinner I tried again and it seemed to work so I sent off some emails that I had written earlier.

After dinner we had showtime as usual. Elena’s show is interesting because unlike some of the other solo musicians, she gives the background of the composers and the pieces that she is playing. She also plays very well. After showtime I went and hung out with the few people who did not get off the ship to go clubbing. We just chilled for a while and then went off to bed.