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Day 1: Oct. 5,6. - Fly Croatia
Left home 2:30 pm for 7pm flight to Warsaw. Arrived in the morning to a three hour layover, not much to look at in the airport but the many kinds of vodka in duty free. In wood bottles, in plastic bottles,
kosher vodka, oak flavored vodka, one called "Rasputin"...
too early in the day to try it for sure - could buy some, but then I'd have to lug it through the whole tour, including to Russia - not much sense in
bringing Vodka to Russia!
Couple hours at the gate for my next flight, kept asking if I could get a boarding pass, they said not open yet. Finally they opened, only to start the boarding, everyone got up and in line.
My turn, just a ticket, of course, no boarding pass. "Where is your boarding pass" they asked... "well, I've been trying to get one for hours"... held up the line as they made phone calls. I suspected that my bags -
3 instruments and suitcase full of pedals - might not have been transferred yet. Finally got onto a bus with the other passengers, headed for the plane. Creeping around the fringes of the airport stuck behind an old guy
pulling a cart with his tractor.
We rushed passed him, and I saw, on the cart, my instruments and bags - nothing else on it. Seemed like miles to the plane, and I lost sight of the old guy... felt sure he wouldn't make it to the plane before takeoff.
But I was much relieved to find the bags were indeed there when I landed in Zagreb. (The flight from Warsaw to Zagreb had, in the bathroom, an ashtray, under the "no smoking" sign
- first I've seen of those in a while.)
Here in Croatia to record with my friend, Gibonni, who's quite popular here. Found that I'd be going to his home town to record, a city called Split (that's home of 5 NBA players!)
The 4 hours drive from Zagreb were more travelling than I'd counted on - saw a lot of Croatia though - I'd toured here a little, but hadn't seen much of it - this time went through mountains and valleys, and a beautiful coast line.
Split is an ancient city - founded 1700 years ago - and Gibonni has me staying in a hotel formed amid the old Roman structures in the center - they say that one of the Caesars stayed in this room
(I wonder if HE could get the DSL internet line going - I couldn't!)
Nice meal, good company - 22 hrs travel, can't get online, so I'm ready for bed!
Day 3, Oct. 7 - Recording in Split, Croatia
Recording at a small studio in town. Nice people, very good music. This morning it was too rainy to get good photos - I'll try tomw. (got a shot of a flower in the lobby - at least
it's dry!) 
(I may have a photo exhibition coming up, just before my band's show in Neuchatel, Switzerland - I've got a large collection of flower close-ups, from the last Peter Gabriel tour, so I guess that was on my
mind as I saw some flowers in the hotel lobby.)
Day 4, Oct. 8 - Recording in Split
More rain, still no photos. Rough night of little sleep. I'm staying very near a historic Roman structure - at about 1am somebody started playing saxophone in the echoing
alleys - woke me up, and time-lag kicked in, I was up for the rest of the night. Aargh, he played real badly too!
Day 5, Oct. 9 - Recording in Split, travel to Zagreb
Finally, no rain this morning. I was out early, got some photos of the alleys before they fill up with tourists.
Recording with Gibonni has been going really well. The music is excellent (Manu Katche on drums) and maybe when the album comes out, I'll be coming back to tour here!
Checking out of hotel now, to head to the studio, then Zagreb overnight.
Day 5: Oct. 9 continued - Change of plans - I split from Split
The plan was for me to record today, then drive (4 hours) back to Zagreb, to be ready to fly out in the morning, to Rome (with layover in Milan.) Hey, somebody
realized, here in Split we're as close to Rome as to Zagreb - so it'd be much easier to fly from here. Luckily, the only direct flight of the week is this afternoon. So, we're working hard in the studio,
trying to finish up quicker than planned, and hopefully I'll make that flight - should put me in Rome tonight, will find a hotel then.
And, of course, I'll have the ticket receipt to prove that I have split from Split.
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