Everyone but Dan put on the same clothes that we had worn for the previous two days, including socks and underwear! This is a bed and breakfast, so our choices for breakfast was pancakes, or sausages, or cereal. By the way, a pancake means something else in Russia. Basically, a pastry with ground beef stuffed inside with butter on top. Also had some yogurt and bread.
And we're off to sightsee before our concert. We start walking towards the Neva river down the main drag, called Nevsky Prospect, looking like a bunch of tourists. We hadn't gotten four-blocks when Brad says, "Hey David, did you mean to leave the zipper open on your fanny-pack?" Just before, I had noticed a guy that felt a little too close, and had moved left then right to get him out of my personal space. I checked, and sure enough, my digital camera was gone. We look back and see the guy round the corner. So, we all go chasing him. We turn the corner, but don't see him anywhere. Brad goes straight, I check store entrances at the corner. Brad sees the guy ahead and catch's up to him, and he's like, "what me? no, no, I'm just tourist, etc. blah, blah, blah..." Well he's got nothing on him, so obviously he has at least one, probably two partners. We notice him look across the street at another guy who was probably his partner, but he had nothing on him either. I check around the corner from where the other guy came, and there is an open door with some moffia looking dude sitting in front. At this point, we figure we better not push our luck any further. So, just like that, the camera was gone! Hey, these guys are good -- I never even felt a thing!
Well, we're not going to let a little thing like pick-pocketing ruin a perfectly good walk of the city on a beautiful, sunny day. So we continued on and had a great time.
By early-afternoon, we were back at the hotel resting and getting ready for our first performance at Glinka Hall. Actually, getting ready is not quite accurate because WE STILL DIDN'T HAVE ANY CLOTHES OR TUBA!
Irena had been calling all over St. Petersburg looking for C-Tuba to borrow, and the airlines were still tracking our lost luggage and Mike's Tuba. They had some leads, so Irena and Alan left to hopefully pick-up our luggage and the only C-Tuba in all of St. Petersburg, and were going to meet the rest of us at Glinka Hall.
We were scheduled for a sound-check at 6:00, and still no Alan, clothes, or Tuba. Waiting... waiting...
