Austria

From the airport a taxi takes approx 25 minutes and costs around €50 but there was an awful lot of traffic

You can purchase train tickets while waiting for your luggage....no idea how much they cost....sorry!

The arena is about 5-8 minutes walk from the main train station.....our apartment is en route, stop and say hi!!

I like these non-scandi prices!!!!

Start as we mean to go on I say!!!!

So after a mad dash to the apartment from the airport in time to get to accreditation centre before 6pm it all went horribly wrong

We have now been informed that the accreditations may not be collected before Sunday, despite knowing for a fact that some F's and some overseas press have already collected theirs today

Will try again tomorrow and see how far that get's us.....

Oh Well

On the plus side the apartment is fantastic we are very happy, 3 minutes walk to arena, 5 minutes walk to supermarket for wine and crisps, and simply tonnes of very nice looking bars, cafes and restaurants in the local area.....

Off out to dinner tonight, with wine, sightseeing tomorrow carnage begins on Sunday:-)

The first team members have arrived in Vienna, expect tourist photos, cake eating and maybe even a beer or two for the first few days....

We leave for Vienna early on Friday morning and the BIG news this year is that we will not now be missing the final in Vienna. Semi two is gone, we miss that completely and will be watching it at home, but now, thanks to some mad flight booking this week, we will at least be back in time for the Final on Saturday in a few weeks time...

It's been a great year so far with all the usual promo party thing's going on, but for me this year was the very prividleged opportunity to attend the press day at the Eurovision Greatest Hits show in London back at the beginning of March.

Playlist here from that event;

First time we met Electro Velvet too....they have come a very long way since then and I know for a fact that both of them are looking forward to Vienna now with eager anticipation.....

Last interview before they leave for Austria with us can be found here;

This time next week we will have seen all of semi one and half of semi two of this year's contestants live from the press centre in Vienna. The staging secrets will be out there, the dramas will be in full swing and Team Kaz (all being well) should be delivering video clips of interviews, various bits round Vienna and other news from the first few days of live rehearsals

So can't wait that long????

Well then check out the following playlists on youtube which contain live clips and interviews from all four of the major promo parties in the last few weeks. Aside from one other website that we know of, wiwibloggs.com, ESCKAZ.com was the only web site that had teams on the spot at all four parties.

Reports from all four can be found here http://esckaz.com/2015/promotour.htm and playlists are as here;

Riga

Amsterdam

Moscow

And last but by no means least London

Also you can see the farewell party for Belarus here;

It's been a tough few months with an increased promo tour, including 4 stops in Riga, Amsterdam, Moscow and London, with the team being on site at each of these stops....

But now we are ready, all set to bring the news as fast as we can get it, to fill up those long days waiting for the semi finals to kick off....

Some real highlights though over the last few days were meeting the Australian singer Guy Sebastian, catching up with some old friends and having a MOMENT when Norway performed a few days ago at the London Eurovision Party

So the countdown starts here, rehearsals kick off on 11th May and I don't know about you but we are just a tiny bit excited....