My European World Tour

I had a great week of shooting at the Hyatt in Kiev. They rented a scissor lift for me and I shot the exterior at dusk from four stories in the air. It was an hour before I was off to the airport and I had arranged to show my hotel contact some of the images. My laptop would not turn on. It wasn't the battery. It wasn't the power supply. I calmly assured her that the info is there. She said, "I must have broken it?" so we left it at that. My work tried to send me a new one to Scotland but UPS changed their service so I didn't get it. We tried again in London but it was another near miss. All my travel photos are on there so I'll post some when I can.

Here's my schedule. I'm currently on the Carnival Splendor in the Baltics heading towards Russia. I'm not sure how many of the ports I'll actually get to see as that is when I'll do most of my work. But I've been to most of these places anyways, including St.Petersburg. In Russia, you can't just get off the ship and walk around like when I was there in 1992, you have to be part of an official tour.

July
7 fly to London
8 shoot Hyatt Churchill, London
12 fly to Scotland
13 shoot Fairmont, St.Andrews
19 paid rest day - free golf at the Fairmont!
20 fly to Venice
21 sit day in Venice
22 shoot Emerald Princess
23 fly to Paris
24 shoot Hotel Westminster, Paris
25 shoot Hotel Warwick, Paris
26 fly to Hamburg, Germany
27 shoot Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten, Hamburg
Aug
3 fly from Hamburg to Murcia, Spain
4 shoot Hyatt La Manga, Spain
7 fly from Spain to Birmingham, England
8 shoot Hyatt Birmingham
9 travel to London, shoot Hyatt Andaz Liverpool
11 fly from London to Kiev, Ukraine
12 shoot Hyatt Kyiv, Ukraine
19 fly from Kiev to Edinburgh, Scotland for vacation
20 stay Fairmont St.Andrews with my dad
21 golf - Old Course St.Andrews - parred four holes! cost $260
22 golf - Carnoustie - parred two holes! cost $300
23 golf - New Course St.Andrews - birdied first hole! cost $160
only lost one ball all three days and was only in four sandtraps!
24 travel to Aberdeen, Scotland - visit with friends Vicki and Steve
25 Speyside Whisky distillery tours. Macallan, Cardhu, lunch in Aberlour
My most expensive drink ever, a 40 year old Aberlour, cost ... $70!
26 Edinburg, Scotland - tried a 32 year old Oban for $15, amazing
28 fly to London, stay in May Fair hotel, paparazzi everywhere
29 paid rest day in London
Tate Modern, Borough Market, Vinopolis, British Film Institute
30 transfer to Dover to Carnival Splendor - 3000 passangers, new ship
31 at sea
Sept
1 Copenhagen, Denmark
2 Berlin
3 at sea
4 Tallin, Estonia
5 St.Petersburg, Russia (overnight)
7 Helsinki, Finland
8 at sea
9 at sea
10 Amsterdam, Netherlands
11 Dover - transfer to London, stay at May Fair Hotel
12 fly home to Vancouver

I'll be home for probably a week and then off again!

Vareniki

I tried to explain to my hotel contact that I wanted perogies. She had know idea what I was talking about. After a Goolge search I found out that in Ukraine they are called vareniki. Luckily they have them for room service! I got potatoe and mushroom. Porcini actually, well it is a Hyatt after all. I inhaled them in like thirty seconds they were so good!

Venice good times

Kiev, Ukraine

Yesterday I arrived in sunny and warm Kiev from rainy and miserable London. The Hyatt where I’m staying is in the city center and has about thirty BMW’s, Lexus’ and the odd Porche valet parked out front. I had a fine complimentary meal in one of the restaurants here at the Hyatt including oysters from France, the best I’ve ever had. Afterwards I went to their outdoor patio bar at the top of the hotel which overlooks a Russian looking square. I sat and sipped a twenty-year old glass of port and smoked half of a Cuban cigar. At the table next to me, a well groomed middle-aged man with silver hair was making out with this Paris Hilton-esque girlfriend who looked like she could be younger than his daughter. They have put me in a room with access to the Regency Club which means complimentary cocktails and continental breakfast. It was a joy to do my computer work while sipping on a glass of white wine. The morning croissants are baked fresh in the hotel and they were better than the three I had in Paris. Before I left the patio again tonight after sampling duck procioutto and some other tasty treats I wondered what I’d do if I saw tanks rolling in down the street? I don’t know, I’m glad that I can crawl into my comfy bed and get some sleep. My hotel contact has agreed to cover the costs of doing some laundry. As you know it costs about eight bucks to wash some socks in a place like this. I’m grateful that I don’t have to do my laundry in the bathtub at this hotel!

Workin'

Lost in La Manga

Last night I went to the Noble House Ice Bar in Hamburg. (The photos above are not mine but I do have some shots on my cel phone) Basically it’s a bar made out of ice inside of a large meat locker freezer. They give you a jacket and cap to endure the minus ten degree temperature. Shots of vodka are given to you in shooter glasses made out of ice. I wanted a flaming sambuca but the place is sponsored by Absolute so alas I had champagne and a couple of flavoured vodka shots instead. Some of the ice sculptures are a bit racy, but it is Hamburg after all. One is of a stripper swinging around a pole with rather phallic looking objects surrounding her. I think I recall having my photo taken while touching the sculpture inappropriately. A few unlucky souls were wearing flip-flops. A couple of girls dragged me into their cab and we went to an outdoor patio bar in the Reeperbahn. The hot one was take but it was fun to hang out with some people even though they were from Minnesota. I had a four hour sleep before my two flights to the Hyatt La Manga in Cartagena, Spain. There was a guy at the airport with dark shades wearing at dress shirt that was orange with pink and green stripes holding a white piece of paper that read, “Dan Hannas.” I tried my best “hola” and that was the extent of our conversation as he spoke no English. While wizzing away in the smooth Mercedes I thought it was great to see palm trees again and the landscape was rustic with more brown than green.

I am fatigued and things are turning into a bit of a blur. I have three nights here and then I’m off to Birmingham and London for three more nights and then off to Kiev, Ukraine for a week. My first impression is that Spain is a little rough around the edges, the people are a bit louder than most, and being situated in a gated resort it’s hard to tell at the moment if it is Jamaica or Spain.

I feel like I’m in some kind of strange experiment that is testing the limits of my endurance but I’m enjoying it in a perverse way. My work schedule is a bit lighter here so the top thing on my to do list when I'm finished shooting is to head to the ocean. I’ve never swam in the Mediterranean before so I am stoked for that. I’m also glad to be in a hotel that has a pool again. After unpacking I caught the last rays of the warm summer sun there and afterwards sat down for a fine steak meal at the pool patio with the setting sun in my eyes. I read my book, an autobiography on Iggy Pop, the “Godfather” of punk rock with a glass of Rioas and wondered what to write about in my blog.