Iron Maiden Trip'2011. Part 5. Coming home.

Part 5.
A few more days in St.Pete and Coming Home.
Not as interesting as the previous ones :)

After the gig I reunited with Nika who stood at Adrian's side during the gig and we went to get some water to wet our extremely dry throats in the nearby store... As did a coupla hundreds other Maiden fans :) Chants 'Maiden Maiden' could be heard in all the queues :) I love when this happens :) It wasn't the same feeling of camaraderie as in the center of Helsinki after the gig, but as close as it could get here :)


On the way from the gig I took out my phone and noticed this on the step counter :D Nice catch! And very fitting for the Iron Maiden gig – The Number of The Beast :D


Then we went to the center of the city, for a quick refreshment in my hotel and then to try and guess, which pub Maiden guys might be using :) No, we're not stalkers, I was ravenous hungry :) We settled on one place not far from the Maiden hotel, but we didn't guess the right one :) Apart from one English-speaking guy in Tampa t-shirt there was no sign of Maiden there :) But the ham-and-eggs was great! Nika was really disappointed, but I wasn't. "Always look on the bright side of life", remember? ;) It was one amazing weekend, no need to spoil it with negative impressions.

At about 2 or 3 we decided to call it a night. I went back to my hotel, Nika attempted to return to her apartment on the outskirts of the city, but met some Maiden fans on the way and didn't return until 7 am. That's some partying :D



The last two and a half days weren’t interesting at all. I woke up at 7, as usual, checked out of my hotel and went to Nika’s place, ‘coz we planned to do a lot together. But we didn’t. Different habits and sleeping and waking made sure of that. On Monday we didn’t leave her place until about 2 pm – more than half a day wasted! Nika wanted to check out the Maiden hotel again, maybe to see them leaving. I agreed if we sat in the cafe across the road, so we did for a while. No sign of Maiden or any of the other fans. Suspicious! Later I found out that at 2pm they were already in Portugal, so they must've left at 7am or smth like that. That's a lesson to those who sleep half of the day - you miss out on everything!

After that Nika’s mood gradually got worse, ‘coz she didn’t get to meet Adrian. And I didn’t need it influencing my mood as well and spoiling good memories from the gig. So for the last coupla days I preferred to stay on my own and do the touristy stuff myself :D Pity that the storm broke my plans and I got my feet very wet :) However I still met with that girl I got acquainted at the gig and gave her a couple of my drawings. And on the last day I took a boat trip on St.Pete’s canals with my suitcase for a company :D



Then I got to the airport and boarded the plane with the idea that in an hour and a half I'll be already entering my apartment and greeting my cats. Like hell I was :) Instead of 1 hour, the plane was in the air for nearly 2 making circles 0_0. And when we finally landed, we waited for about 40 minutes for our luggage. Damn it!

But still, even a few hours later than I expected I was finally home and the last disappointing impressions of St.Pete were quite hazy in my head and didn't spoil my general excitement about what happened during the weekend and before that :) 'twas a great trip, albeit a very short one. But I met so many great people, including Janick himself, saw lots of interesting places and had the greatest of times at the gigs! But next tour I'm definitely going to more shows! Now I gotta find a way to hibernate for a few months with my good memories until the next tour is announced and I can start planning my part of it :)

But what's really amazing is that more than 3 weeks after my journey I'm still in an excellent mood most of the time and the excitement just doesn't subside. Incredible that :D I'm a total Maiden convert!

Iron Maiden Trip'2011. Part 3. Meeting Jan!

Part 3.
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!

Iron Maiden Trip'2011. Part 2. Helsinki gig.

Part 2.
Iron Maiden gig in Helsinki, 2011-07-08.

After a long wait in the sun in a perfectly organized queue I finally got inside the stadium to find that everything in front was already packed - I wasn't even close to the beginning of the line when I got there. I took a place in the 2nd row to the far right, but soon realised that I wouldn't be able to see Janick from there when he played the acoustic or just walked away from the front a bit, so I abandoned this place, bought a bottle of water and took a place somewhere in the middle of the 1st zone.



At 7 the opening act started - Alice Cooper! That's some opening! I haven't been to his concerts before, so I enjoyed it very much, even though I don't know his material very well. Alice is coming to Moscow this autumn as a headliner, so I guess, I'll come to watch the whole show. His stage act is a bit silly for my liking - all the killing bits, but the atmosphere is great. And he his songs are very catchy :) But he played only his greatest hits during the short set, most of which even I knew and could sing along during choruses.



After Cooper IM crew started to prepare the stage and tuning the instruments, talking quite a lot to fans in the first rows. Now, how cool is that? :)

At approx. 8:45, while it was still sunny, 'Doctor doctor' started playing from the speakers, and after - the long intro to The Final Frontier. The crowd gone crazy, and everyone moved a couple meters closer to the stage :) I didn't mind :D At first :) But then I realized that I wouldn't see anything here either behind the tall Finnish guys, who stood exactly in the direction of Janick. Oh well, the show was still great! I sang along every song (unlike most of the people around me, who knew older songs and the choruses, but not the entire lyrics). I also tried to snap some pics, even though I didn't think anything good would result from it. But by raising my camera I at least could see what was going on on its screen :) In the middle of the set I moved a bit further back hoping to find a spot without tall guys in Janick's direction :) Found it, but it was so far away that taking any pics with 4x zoom camera was pointless :) And my eyesight is very bad.






The 1st thing I noticed about my favourite man onstage was tan marks on his arms :D And of course, he was as amazing to watch live as always. How much energy does Jan have? :D But he was so far away!... Yes, closer than at the Moscow gig, when he impressed me so much that I immediately became a Maiden convert, but still far!







All in all it was the worst concert from the viewing point of view :), but one of the best if you consider the vibe and atmosphere. It was my first gig outside of Russia, and our people seem to be much calmer and less active and participative at the gigs. Not always but as a rule. And here everyone around me jumped up and down during FotD – amazing experience! And one more thing - since the gig was outdoors, half of my face and one arm got a bit sunburnt afterwards :) 'coz it wasn't dark, and during the first half of the gig sun was still up :) Bruce even sang during FotD "Helsinki *not* in the dark" :)






The new big Eddie looked fantastic!





The Maiden guys were great, as much as I could see :) Playing big arenas is always exciting, I bet. But on the other hand big stadiums always bring people who aren't exactly fans - not many people around me knew all the lyrics. But I lost my voice after singing along every line :) When the gig ended and 'always look on the bright side of life' started playing, I felt so elated that I was dancing to it and singing and whistling along not caring what others thought of me :) But I noticed that some others were doing the same, so it was totally ok :)



Then I wanted to buy a Nordic event shirt for Meghan and myself, but naturally they were all sold out on such a big arena. So I bought just the usual TFF tour shirt - my first one, 'coz I had no official merchandise before that. It's even not that big, I can almost wear it without looking completely ridiculous, as if I stole it from my dad or older brother (especially since I don’t have either :D)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v653/Windfreak/photos/july2011-1.jpg



Afterwards I realised that I had so much energy that I could run a marathon if I wanted, so I decided not to go with the rest of the crowd towards the tram stops, but in the other direction along the route I memorized back when I booked the hotel a few months ago. It took me through the Helsinki sleeping districts, which were very tranquil, though once in a while groups of teens were seen. But it was still just twilight even though it was nearing 12am. During the walk I spotted a red Nissan Micra, the car I have back at home, and I regretted very much that it wasn't mine :D Not that I was tired or anything, but it would've topped off the perfect night - I love driving :)



Half an hour later I was in the hotel, getting ready to get out again and do some partying with Adam, Elfi and Celia. The whole city center was in Iron Maiden colours! What a fantastic atmosphere! Not much chance to spot the band in such circumstances, but it didn't matter - I had a great company even without Janick :D We checked out a few pubs, though I was drinking only coke, as is normal for me :) Adam surprised everyone by ordering beer both times (and acting quite funny afterwards :)), and Celia downed half a pint of stout. Then when I noticed that we were just half a minute from my hotel, I decided to finally give the guys some souvenirs I brought from Moscow, because they let me join their company and because they weren't going to visit Russia any time soon :) Besides Celia also gave me some small souvenirs from Mexico, which was quite unexpected and very pleasant :D



We had a great time, laughed a lot, drank a bit... Well, the others did, I just observed, but still was as happy as the others. But soon it was 3am and the next morning I had a relatively early train to St.Petersburg, so I just had to leave and get a little bit of sleep. It wasn't easy - the guys just didn't want to let me go, and I didn't want to go either, but I just knew I had to if I didn't want to collapse the next day, so after exchanging the last very warm hugs, I left for the hotel :) What an amazing 2 days it were! But it was about to get even better!