Patricia, with Eddie and Yours Truly in tow, travelled out to St Petersburg on Monday this week, to begin final preparations for the Rally start today. We arrived safely and after a stressful (on the wallet and the nerves) taxi ride through town, arrived at the hotel where everything would happen for the preparations.
First impressions of St Petersburg included:
1. The taxi drivers all wear suits (although the jackets and trousers/pants do not always match)
2. No-one smiles as they serve you in bar, restaurants, taxis etc
3. No-one serves you if they can possibly avoid it !
4. Ladies spend a lot of time putting on make-up before going out in the morning; men do not and usually carry a beer can !
5. It is a beautiful city, but the speed of industrialisation is evident in many ways, the better side of which is the renovation of many old buildings.
6. Roman Abramovich was in town for the World Economic Forum last weekend. Unable to afford the escallating hotel prices, he bought his own digs - an understated little number - a 200 foot motorised floating palace. When I first saw it, I thought a cruise ship had arrived !
On Monday, Patricia's Dad (her mechanic for the Rally), her bike and the ensemble of people in her Rally posse all arrived safely, although the bike and van had been held at the border for 5 hours. It was late by the time headcount was confirmed and stories recounted (much tut-tutting) of "russian driving skills" observed on the way to St Petersburg. The irony of this seemed somewhat lost on the Rally participants, who were about to drive like lunatics for 10,000km across an entire continent, at speeds and on terrain that is, shall we say, just "not sensible" !! Most of them were bigger than me, and I was out-numbered 500 to 1, so I kept my mouth shut at this point.
We then spent 2 days unpacking the van, emptying boxes, filling boxes, repacking the van, unpacking the van, emptying boxes, filling boxes, repacking the van..... and so on. It can only be a matter of time before Pickfords form a rally team - as their core business competence is well suited to this stage of a rally.
Two days passed in no time. At one point the rebacking frequency was making me dizzy, so Ed and I shot off to the Hermitage Museum - for 2 hours of cultural input - Monets, Gaugins, Reynolds, Picassos, Prehistoric, Pre-Modern, Modern, Asian, African, European, paintings, sculpures, statues, jewellery, 117 staircases, 1700 doors, 5 million works of art. I know how Father Christmas feels on Christmas Eve now - so much to do, so little time.
Last night - everything was ready and all the bikes, cars and trucks for the Rally went to the centre of the City for a "parade" and lots of razzmatazz. Fireworks, music, TV cameras, roaring engines, dancing girls, excited commentators - suddenly the pace quickened and the excitement grew - Transoriental 2008 really was about to happen.
Back to the hotel, quick eats and grab some sleep.......
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