Back in St.Pete and meeting Jan!
Next morning, waking up at 7am Moscow time as usual (6am local time, making it only 2,5 hrs of sleep), having breakfast, packing bags and falling asleep for a half an hour more, I made my way to the station and got on the Allegro train to St.Petersburg, hoping to get some well deserved sleep on the road. Like hell I got any! Every few minutes there were some announcements on 3 or 4 languages, in front of me sat quite noisy Japanese family, and there were lots of checks - tickets, passports, visas, Finnish customs, Russian customs and so on :) Even the iPod with Maiden and classics didn't help :) But at least I gave my eyes a rest for 3,5 hours, but I couldn't keep from looking out of the window every once in a while. What a contrast there is in the outside view once you enter the Russian side of the border. And I'm the one who's used to it. I wonder what foreigners think when they see shitty roads and crumbling houses. 'Why the hell did I come here' is my guess :)
But it was my country, so I didn't waste time when I arrived and got on the subway train to the center of the city where my hotel was. The hotel was situated in the inner yard of one of the buildings on Nevsky Prospect, the main avenue of St.Petersburg. The room was small, a double bed occupied most of it, the window faced another part of this inner yard, but it had the nicest shower cabin I've ever seen! Having refreshed myself quickly, I went to get some proper food (I had only a coupla sandwiches the day before and didn't want almost any breakfast in the morning) and wifi :) Yeah, this is one great thing about Russia's major cities - nearly every cafe has free wifi in it. I ordered some food, logged on to the forum and checked my PMs - and there was one about FTTB in St.Pete! I made the winning gesture and probably said 'hell yes' quite loud, because a few people turned around :) But I didn't care - I got the fttb!!! The rest didn't matter! Happy, I called Nika, my friend and fellow Maiden fan in St.Pete to tell her the great news, 'coz I promised to take her with me - and it turned out she didn't need it anymore - someone else invited her to come along. Oh well, whatever. Nothing could spoil my mood that day. Still we arranged to meet shortly in the center of the city - she was already on the way with one of her friends, called Yana.
Nika wanted to go look for Maiden at a few likely hotels or touristic places - the thing many Russian fans like doing... I didn't like the idea much, but I had nothing better to do, and they were touristic places after all - and I was a tourist with a camera on my shoulder, so I went along. Every 5 star hotel had a few people in Maiden shirts standing not far from the entrance, as did a few parks in the center and the main square. Ridiculous sight. I refused to stop anywhere near them - yes, I'd like to meet the guys from Maiden, but not that way, not by stalking them! So I just tagged along snapping pics with my camera of this and that :)
After a while, seeing how pointless it was, Nika's friend wanted to go to some shop, so I tagged along again. At that moment I received a text message from Adam and so I was looking at the screen of my phone and not around me. Then I heard Nika say: "Fuck me, it's Janick!" And she was right, he was walking towards us across the zebra crossing. I was completely shocked, so I just said 'Hi Janick!', to which he answered 'Hi' and walked further.
Jan passing us on a zebra crossing after saying ‘Hi’ :)
I didn't have a heart to disturb him - he didn't seem to be in the mood, but Nika's friend was the most active of our bunch - probably 'coz she wasn't a Maiden fan and just wanted to help - so she run after him, stopped him, told that we, meaning Nika and me, were his fans. Well, what's done is done, so I thanked him for the gig the day before in Helsinki and asked for a photo - me and Nika are both on it with Jan (and she's got her hand on Jan's shoulder - I can't intrude people's privacy like that:)) and got one of my drawings signed. And even gave him one of mine prints as a gift :) And then he went along his way.
Now I think I should have acted differently - and I would have if I was alone, though in that case I probably wouldn't see him with my shitty eyesight. Before we approached him he actually stopped and was checking out the coffee shop, probably wanting to buy something refreshing there. If only we let him enter it and order smth, and maybe help paying, like Lisa did when she first met him :) It was such a great chance for a longer chat, but it happened differently. I'm still happy about the meeting of course! I was so hoping for it in Helsinki, and got a bit disappointed when nothing of the sort happened, and I didn't have much hope for anything of the sort in St.Pete, which is a much much bigger city. I knew I wouldn't wait by the hotels or near the sights just waiting for someone to appear, like so many Russian fans do. Anyways I'm still chuffed to bits and can't really believe I met him!
Another proof that it was real :D
After that I couldn't help following him for a while in the distance :o After all I'm a tourist too and also wanna check out the sights :lol: Just love taking pics of everything! That's what DSLR is for :D And that's what Jan did as well - walked a bit, sat on the curbstone, took a sip of water, then crossed the wide road without bothering to find the proper place with traffic lights for it :D Baaad Jan!
My Paparazzi shots of Jan
Janick went onto the Palace square, one of the main attractions of St.Pete - and got ambushed by fans, who were specifically waiting for the Maiden guys there. They ran towards him, a dozen or so of them. Looked a bit scary. Poor Janick! He signed a couple of things, posed for one pic, and then hurried away in the other direction, again across the street without the proper crossing. I stopped following him after that and just walked around with a stupid smile on my face just taking pics of whatever caught my attention :) Well, just like Janick himself, though I doubt he was that happy at that moment :D.
I went in the direction of other St.Pete landmarks, hoping that maybe I catch a glimpse of him again, but no such luck. Or maybe I did, but my eyesight is fucked, and I just didn't recognize him. I remember how my heart skipped a beat when I saw gorgeous blonde hair in the distance, but on the second look it always was just some woman, usually in a dress :D Doesn't matter, instead I watched a boat race around the Peter and Paul fortress and then some Latino dancing near the Alexander Column. Good touristy stuff :)
After a while I called Nika, who didn't come with me but wanted to check out a few hotels in hopes of finding where Maiden were staying. And she, or rather a wide network of spotters, did! Turned out it was nothing that everyone initially thought, but a hotel on the other side of the city center. Quite a walk Jan had by the time we met him! :D Nika, her friend and a bunch of other fans hurried there, and wanted me to come along - but to what purpose? I walked with them for a bit, trying to convince them, that hanging around hotels is ridiculous and real fans shouldn't be bothering the band in their 'home away from home', but of course no one paid any attention to it, so I gave up on them and found a nice cafe with WiFi, so I could share my excitement about meeting Mr.Gers with my friends from the IMOC :)
After that, I decided to call it a night - I haven't slept for more than a few hours for the past 4 nights, so I really needed it. So I returned to my hotel, called Nika - she was still hanging around the hotel entrance or rather the nearby restaurant, where some fans spotted Nicko and Adrian having a quiet dinner. Some of the bravest ones went inside, got an autograph and got kicked out :) The security then announced it was a private party and didn't let anyone else in. Serves them right for being so annoying! And I had a very good sleep that night, no doubt, it was Janick's influence :)
Next morning I woke up at 7am, as usual. It was a gig day, how could I sleep more than that being so excited?! :) The hotel breakfast was quite terrible, so I decided to go to another cafe with WiFi and have a cup of cappuccino. The weather was good, so I walked for a bit until I saw a cafe I liked with an outside terrace. That's where I decided to have my breakfast watching the Nevsky avenue and wifiying a bit :) Once I sat down and glanced across the street, I saw a bunch of metal-type kids probably in Maiden shirts, though I couldn't tell from such distance hanging around the entrance to what looked like an expensive hotel. I checked the name - right, it was the one the band was using, from what Nika told me. So without knowing it I joined the band stalkers :D While I had my breakfast, I watched the guys getting excited whenever someone walked out of the hotel :) I couldn't see the entrance itself behind an advertisement board, but from what I've seen, they didn't meet anyone from the band while I was there :)
While in the cafe, I used wifi to find a few Irish pubs in the area around the hotel, so we could check them out after the gig. Yep, maybe that's stalking too, but what if I just wanna have a pint in one of them? :) After this and watching the fans for a while, I went for another sightseeing stroll over the parks and across Neva to the Peter and Paul Fortress. I also wanted to walk to the Aurora, but it was too far away and I didn't want to be too tired just before the gig.
Another lunch in a cafe with wifi (for the last quick chat on the IMOC forum - I'm really addicted to it :)), a short walk to my hotel - during which a couple of kids in Maiden shirt stopped me, seeing my custom made white t-shirt with Janick on it, and asked me if I knew which hotel Maiden guys were staying at. As you know, I knew that, but refused to tell :D As if there wasn't enough stalkers already :) Leave them alone! Short rest in my hotel, during which I couldn't stay still anyway - so excited I was! - and on to the venue to get the FTTB wristbands!
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