Sunday 2nd September
Well we had our last training in St. Petersburg (rather rainy, see below) and we have finally arrived in Kazan. The flights here were relatively short; Two 1 hr 1/2 flights but travel time was about 8h30m travel due to airport waits, traffic jams, bus trips and a long wait in the accreditation offices at our venue. Kazan is about 2,000kms South East of St. Petersburg and it is here that we will race against the other countries at the World University Rowing Championships.
We were welcomed straight off the plane by the Kazan Rowing 2012 Officials who had flags and signs and were waiting for us on the tarmac. They were transportation officials and they spoke English! What's pleasant surprise! They also organised our baggage for us while we waited in the VIP lounge. The venue where we are staying looks pretty awesome so far, it is at a huge tennis complex and our regatta is a part of three warm-up events for the Universiade here next year. Universiade is the event that hosts all the University Games in one location and it occurs every second year. Kazan will be the host country in 2013. The other warm up sports here are shooting and canoe sprinting.
We went up to the dining hall which was great, a buffet dinner including huge salads and a nice selection of meats and rice dishes. Dessert was particularly interesting, we took what was labelled as a 'triangle' assuming it to be an apple pastry or the like. It was filled with onion and mushroom, not quite as we expected but very nice all the same. The free bottled drinks and endless tea and coffee are a bonus too. We drink a lot of tea! They will help us to stay hydrated through out the week. One of the best parts in the athlete dining hall is seeing all the other athletes from all over the world here too. France, Italy, Sweden and Kazakhstan were a few we saw while we were at dinner tonight.
After dinner we were asked to board a bus that would be taking us to our rooms, we waited on the bus for about twenty minutes for our assistant Kirill to take us. Once on the bus we drove for about 30 seconds and arrived at the village. We couldn't believe they drove us such a short distance! Esthie mentioned "look I can still see the tennis ball!", in regard to the very large display on the front of the tennis centre where we just drove from. We were literally about 100m away.
I asked Kirill, our helper how he learned to speak English. He said English was a specialised subjectt at his school. Kirill's school has 1,000 co-ed students and its name is "School Number 18". How strange! - I asked him if he was student number #958 and he laughed.
Well, it's nearly 10:00pm now so it's off to bed and up in the morning for a paddle on the lake. It will be good to get our boats set up and to test the waters here in Kazan. With only four sleeps until our first race we are very excited and very proud to be representing New Zealand on the other side of the world.
Well we had our last training in St. Petersburg (rather rainy, see below) and we have finally arrived in Kazan. The flights here were relatively short; Two 1 hr 1/2 flights but travel time was about 8h30m travel due to airport waits, traffic jams, bus trips and a long wait in the accreditation offices at our venue. Kazan is about 2,000kms South East of St. Petersburg and it is here that we will race against the other countries at the World University Rowing Championships.
We were welcomed straight off the plane by the Kazan Rowing 2012 Officials who had flags and signs and were waiting for us on the tarmac. They were transportation officials and they spoke English! What's pleasant surprise! They also organised our baggage for us while we waited in the VIP lounge. The venue where we are staying looks pretty awesome so far, it is at a huge tennis complex and our regatta is a part of three warm-up events for the Universiade here next year. Universiade is the event that hosts all the University Games in one location and it occurs every second year. Kazan will be the host country in 2013. The other warm up sports here are shooting and canoe sprinting.
We went up to the dining hall which was great, a buffet dinner including huge salads and a nice selection of meats and rice dishes. Dessert was particularly interesting, we took what was labelled as a 'triangle' assuming it to be an apple pastry or the like. It was filled with onion and mushroom, not quite as we expected but very nice all the same. The free bottled drinks and endless tea and coffee are a bonus too. We drink a lot of tea! They will help us to stay hydrated through out the week. One of the best parts in the athlete dining hall is seeing all the other athletes from all over the world here too. France, Italy, Sweden and Kazakhstan were a few we saw while we were at dinner tonight.
After dinner we were asked to board a bus that would be taking us to our rooms, we waited on the bus for about twenty minutes for our assistant Kirill to take us. Once on the bus we drove for about 30 seconds and arrived at the village. We couldn't believe they drove us such a short distance! Esthie mentioned "look I can still see the tennis ball!", in regard to the very large display on the front of the tennis centre where we just drove from. We were literally about 100m away.
I asked Kirill, our helper how he learned to speak English. He said English was a specialised subjectt at his school. Kirill's school has 1,000 co-ed students and its name is "School Number 18". How strange! - I asked him if he was student number #958 and he laughed.
Well, it's nearly 10:00pm now so it's off to bed and up in the morning for a paddle on the lake. It will be good to get our boats set up and to test the waters here in Kazan. With only four sleeps until our first race we are very excited and very proud to be representing New Zealand on the other side of the world.
Rain Storm!
St Petersburg Airport
Aeroflot - Russian Air to Moscow and Kazan
Lunch!
Arrival in Kazan
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