Travel day.  Moscow - Vienna.

The band and entourage did a runner back to Nice after the show last night, but I stayed in Moscow and today joined the crew party on their charter flight to Vienna.  This involved my making my way from the Hotel Fabulous to Mrs Miggins B&B where the crew was staying.  Theoretically there should have been a car waiting to take me over there at 8.30am, but by now I'm sure it will come as no surprise to learn that there was no vehicle to be found.  I'll spare you the details of the hour I spent sorting out a ride, as hailing a taxi in Moscow is not entirely straightforward - if you stand at the side of a busy street and stick your hand out, every other car will pull over and offer you a lift.

Having joined the crew we bussed out to the airport and found our charter flight.  I had to laugh because I arrived in Moscow on the band /  entourage plane and when the wheels touched the ground at our landing, everyone on board cheered and applauded.  Leaving on the crew charter, everyone cheered and applauded when the plane took off.  There are no hard feelings - Moscow is an extraordinary, and in a great many ways a wonderful city, but when you come here to work they certainly don't make it easy for you.

It€™s nearly a three-hour flight form Moscow to Vienna, so I sat next to Alex and we watched The Third Man on his laptop to get us in Viennese mood ('I never knew the old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm...')  Our arrival and transfer to Mrs. Miggins€™ B&B was straightforward enough.  After a last night's load-out and an early start this morning, the crew guys were pretty wiped out, but with promises of an early night most people headed out to eat.  It turned out that a dozen of us were heading to the same place (a little Italian I discovered when I lived here briefly, but more on that anon).  It was a fun and sociable dinner, which turned into a bar stop-off on the way home, which turned into 'one last one' in the hotel bar which got very messy and turned into 'let€™s go to Greg's room', which turned into 5am.  'Welcome to the crew', says Stef.