The Red Arrow

St. Petersburg was great. The sound mixed by Alain Courieux (the front-of-house sound engineer) was amazing. The audience was really hot in spite of the security guys being quite heavy each time somebody started dancing or moving too much. We left right after the gig to go back to Moscow.

On the way to the Railway station, we crossed the city and admired its fantastic buildings beautifully lit and under the snow. So many different styles of architectures make you understand that Peter the Great commissioned a lot of different architects, french, italian, german, swedish, spanish... to make Europe consider Russia as a civilised country at last.
So St. Petersburg conceived artificially, became with time one of the most beautiful town.
Then we arrived at the station.

The Red Arrow:

The Red Arrow is the legendary train that the bolsheviks used to go from St. Petersburgh to Moscow.
It is an amazing train all red of course, with real bed rooms in first class. They are playing the St. Petersburg anthem at the departure and the Moscow one at the arrival.
I am in the train now. A rather scary woman is insisting that I choose amongst 4 types of meat and sausages which she will bring over to me at 6AM precise. After having tried to explain to the dragon lady that I really want to sleep, I had to give up in the end and she will bring me this strange mix in the middle of the night..
The decor of the train is really great. Each cabin looks like a small granny's bed room. Everything is beige and red. Through the window you can see the russian countryside by night, covered with snow under the moonlight, like in Doctor Zhivago's movie.
The restaurant is also quite decadent, very 30's, where you can eat from sausage to caviar and drink all kinds of possible Vodkas...

At six o'clock, dragon lady is knocking at my door with a military enthusiasm. Fortunately, she does not force me to eat what she left.

We arrived later in the morning and we left Moscow station while they were playing the city anthem..

Today is a day off for everybody. I had a few meetings near the red square and dinner with friends at Petrovitch, a cool place totally decorated in Soviet Union style. A rockabilly band was playing live some classics of the 50's and 60's sounding like a Tarantino soundtrack..
Tomorrow is showday, the 2nd Moscow concert at the Kremlin.
Good night!

Smolny Cathedral

Thanks to all the fans waiting in the snow after the concert



Saint Petersburg Hall

Self portrait in the St Petersburg Hall

The corridor of the Red Arrow

My bedroom

Very posh

The restaurant
The Red Arrow and the dragon lady (not our dear danish friend!)

The Arts Square

New russian food product with soviet-style packaging





The KGB building

Petrovitch Restaurant





Crossing the Red Square in russian winter

(posted on a mobile phone with cold fingers)