Servus! I can’t quite bring myself to use the more formal Gruß Gott, what with the lack of divide between church and cheerful greeting round these parts, but an uncontroversial Guten Morgen to you OnEuropeans nonetheless, and welcome to me in Vienna. And you’re welcome to me, frankly. We’re up and at ’em and ready for our first day of rehearsals with the entirety of semi final one. It’s the less, erm, engaging of the two, so we might all be back asleep by lunchtime, which wouldn’t be a bad thing as I’m already knackered!
We arrived yesterday afternoon as That Jody has filled you in, and first impressions of the city and the organisation are incredibly favourable. There’s a calm vibe of organisation about it all and everything is impressively central after last year’s three-day cattle class ride out to Refhalsleøn in the outer outskirts of Copenhagen. Five stops on the U-Bahn to the venue and the press centre just around the corner, as opposed to being just around that 20 minutes walk around the corner to travel 30 metres around the perimeter fence last year.
I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed at reaching the press centre yesterday, not with emotion, but just with the sheer industry of it all. I was suffering from lack of sleep and walking into a huge room, even with so many friends I knew, was rather full-on so I didn’t manage to get anything done at all except sit and rock slightly with some Manner waffles (a message from our sponsors) and think about my dinner. It was all remedied later by a plate of lovely pasta Arrabiata and a couple of beers in one of the local whoopsie hostelries, and we were home at a respectable 1.30.
So press activity for day one was limited to a quick glimpse of Slovenia and Poland (underwhelming and quite charming respectively, but more of that properly tomorrow); a piece of camera for ESCToday; and a hello to Christer Bjorkmann. I’m holding out more hope for today: I’m much more refreshed!
In other news I’m expecting to be about 25 kilos lighter by a week on Sunday as there’s over 100 steps up to our apartment. Jody might have to push me some nights…
Monty x