Dan had a little too much vodka last night, so he decided to take it easy today.
Brad and I took off early to do some more sightseeing. We went to the Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood.
We had lunch at the Jazz Fan Club, then I had to get back for my rehearsal with the St. Petersburg Jazz Orchestra.
The rehearsal was at a military academy which was a little weird. I had to be escorted in, and walking through the facility, I was wondering if I would get out again. You hear about the lack of funding for the Russian military and it was very apparent here.
After the rehearsal, I was going to meet up with the rest of the guys at Shostakovich Hall for a concert by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Rehearsal went long, so I was a little late for the concert, and didn't see the guys till intermission.
Brad comes running up to me and say's, "You gotta hear this!" He goes on to tell me what happened on their way to the concert. They had just exchanged some Dollars into Rubles, and were walking through a cross-walk when an old woman with several kids around her bumps into him. She was stooped over holding a sweater, and looked up at him with one gold tooth and said something intelligible. Brad's hand instinctively went down to his cargo pants to make sure his money was still there, and he pulled back up the old woman's hand with HIS money in it! He grabs the money from her, throws her sweater at her, and say's "!@#$%". I ask, what did she do then? She and her distractions (kids) just scurried off. He was proud of himself for not falling victim to a second pick-pocket.
Anyway, the concert was fantastic. And, what did we do afterwards? You guessed it -- more vodka and comradeship.
