St Petersburg, Russia - Part 7

Monday was our first day of business discussions so we were duly picked up by Alex and then had to pick up Cyrus on our way to meet with the JT people - way out in an industrial district. There office is in an old building opposite a power station. Interestingly the owner of the building keeps a couple of Russian classic cars in the yard - one of them a Zin.

The JT team - Sergey, August, Alex, and their US manager, Dan, proved to be easy to get on with and we had several good sessions with them. For lunch they took us to an Italian restaurant where Pizza proved to be popular. Getting to and from in the St Petersburg lunch hour took a while but it provided opportunities for conversations in the car.

Asking Sergey and August their thoughts about global warming they are very definite that it is a highly visible trend in their part of the world. There is an up side for them though in that it is bringing warmer summers and winters. A downside for the Siberian and northern Russia regions though is that the permafrost area is retreating with consequent massive ecological change that is not necessarily good.

After a fruitful afternoon of discussions is back to the hotel and then on to the Hermitage Theatre to see Swan Lake which had been organised for us by our Russian hosts. On arrival back at the hotel I was just refreshing in my room when a knock at the door came. It was a room service girl bringing me, on behalf of the hotel, a bottle of champagne, a card, and a cake for my birthday - a very nice gesture. Sandra and Mike came by later with a card and three very attractively wrapped chocolate bars, which was also much appreciated.

With little time to spare it was off to the Hermitage Theatre with Alex and Cyrus. The Theatre is fairly small and is in the rear of the main Hermitage - entered from the embankment side. Dan and his wife Veronika, and August and his wife Anna were to meet us there. We waited around outside for a while but it was cold and raining so we went inside to wait. As well we did because they don't have allocated seating - its first in best seated. We managed to score a long bench at the top right with good views of the stage so we were all able to be together when the others arrived. The extra warm clothing we had to wear came in handy for reserving seating space for the late arrivals in our group.

Cyrus, August, Anna, Mike and Sandra

After the inevitable wait for everyone to settle down etc the ballet started and I took a photo of the opening scene, just as the dancers had come onto the stage. I was severely chastised by an attendant but later on there were many more people taking photos without getting any attention from the attendants.

The ballet turned out to be quite entertaining, despite earlier misgivings I'd voiced to Mike. After the ballet we all made our way across Dvortsovaya Place to the Hermitage Restaurant which is just under the arch in the general staff buildings. Dinner was very sumptuous and entertaining. again they celebrated my birthday with a little cake bringing a great day close to its end.

Mike, Sandra, Cyrus, Veronika and Dan at the Hermitage Restaurant