All countries

Yesterday, after the first dress rehearsal for semi-final one, Chris and I sat down to discuss our views on each song in this semi-final.. here's the result!

My qualifiers are based on the first dress rehearsal, as I saw/heard nothing of the jury final:

(In running order - prediction)
Sweden
Georgia
Australia
Finland
Azerbaijan
Portugal
Greece
Moldova
Armenia
Latvia

First dress rehearsal semi one is good to go....

Today the Kyiv City State Administration organised a boat trip for the attending press the Dnipro. So this morning I went to the Kyiv River Port, just outside the metro station Poshtova Ploshcha (on the blue line, one stop from the Maidan Nezalezhnoshti metro station). It was very early in the morning, especially after last night's Red Carpet event and afterparty in the Euroclub, but I'm very glad I went as the weather was too good to stay in the hotel.

Already when I came out of the metro station I was treated with a beautiful view on the river. The Riverside station itself is also quite an impressive building, but it's currently being renovated so I haven't got a chance to see how it looks inside. Along the river and on the square you have some nice terraces so I can really recommend this spot for a drink and something to eat if you want to relax.

It didn't take me long to find the pier from where the boat would leave. As soon as all the gathered press was on board, it was time to take off. First we went past the St. Nicholas Wondermaker on the Water Church, the only church on Europe to be on the water. A beautiful and incredibly small church. From the same place we also had a view on the much higher located St Andrew's Church. This is all situated on the right bank of the city.

Then we took a U-turn and got to see the earlier mentioned Riverside station from the bank, which has a very long Ukrainian flag on it. The backside it not as impressive as the front, but clearly recognizable.
Next we see a lot of green which is the Marinskiy Park where yesterday's red carpet took place.
Past that we see the Friendship of Nations Arch, for the occasion renamed as the Arch of Diversity. Behind it is the huge statue of a woman, the Motherland Monument that was built in 1981 and that you can almost see standing outside the International Exhibition Centre.

After another U-turn, this time around the Hidropark Island - which is more or less a huge relax area with beaches - nudist included - it didn't take long until we saw a very familiar few - the IEC and the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ - the church many of you will have seen in the press centre and that turns out to be only opened in 2011.

Before heading to the press centre where the first dress rehearsal will start in a few minutes, it was time to enjoy the sun for a bit more on the riverside. Thanks to the organization of this boat trip that let us see a bit more of the city!

You can see all the photos here:

So my mornings here are always way better than the afternoons, as I really have very little to do until around lunchtime when the press conferences and interviews start - I'm not really live blogging, as others on the team do that....

But some comments on this morning;
Security - this has been beefed up today - all laptops and phones must be switched on before entering the press centre. I guess this is a good thing
The massed hordes- still quite quiet here, not many seems to have made the trek to Kyiv. As I look around there are only about 100-150 people here max!
The Weather - ugh. It went cold :-/

Oh and we has a bus from our hotel - yay. And travel passes now. Double yay

And one final comment from me - it's amazing just how hard some people can work when they want to...just sayin!!!

Day one done.
Vodka on the way
With some food maybe

So expect drunk blogging a bit later on :-)

Troyitskaya Square, one of the fan zones of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, has opened and represents basically the Operetta Theater program, which is situated very close to the location. It is planned that there will be performing the artists of the theater, as well as Ukrainian performers in particular and those who took part in the Ukrainian national selection in different years. The opening was held on April 30, and it will close on May 14. The fan zone itself is rather small, but its proximity to the city center and the Olympic stadium will be very convenient for residents and visitors of the city. There is a small playground for children's entertainment, as well as a fair with souvenirs.

Or maybe not - meet and greets have started **sigh**

The press would never be able to function without the workers that give their precious time for the next two weeks

Say hi....

So it really does begin now - the carnage of the press centre queue - when your's truly managed to get them to make two queues for the different accreditation badges.....so in the end we were in before the opening time of 9.00 a.m.

The press centre is pretty impressive, not heard anyone say anything negative about it yet at all....we are a bit spoilt so far by Kyiv and their Swedish helpers ;-)

So a short clip around the centre is here and some photos underneath, coffee time :-0