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Alla's folkloric evening concert, Prinsendam Baltic, June 2013

After our comfort tour we were dropped off to meet up with a sub group from the Grand Tour to wait in the Shoko Mokko cafe (Google maps) before our evening treat of a Folkloric show at the Nikolayevsky Palace.   We found Jacqui, Jose, Joseph, Mary and Rob already ensconced and joined them for some light refreshment.   The restaurant was very western, Carol had a panini and I had a tongue salad.   The caramel latte was delicious.   At 18:30, we set off for the palace just across the road and the show started at 19:00.   It was excellent.   The 4 men who sang "Midnight in Moscow" unacompanied were exceptionally good and we bought a CD from one of them (and spent all our roubles!).   Not being a Russian speaker I am not sure if they are singing the current Moscow version or the original Leningrad version.   There were lots of cossack dances and men & women dancing.   We both thouroughly enjoyed it, in particular a novelty turn where two small men wrestled all around the stage, at one point falling off it and ending up in the audience still wrestling.   We thought at first it was one person, but then convinced ourselves that there had to be two, it was too involved for just one person.   At the end he stood up threw back his costume and revealed it was the lead dancer.   It was a polished professional performance, however we did agree that we prefered the family singing folk show at Murmansk, that was something special.   The show finished around 20:45 and there was a driver from Alla to take us back to the ship.   There was nobody at Immigration control when we got there so we had to wait.   Back on board it was an early night ready for the second day, though I was in two minds.

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