18 Aug Worldskills Kazan 2019

Posted at 19:53h in Worldskills by

Four flights in 48 hours and Team Australia have arrived in Kazan, Russia.

It starts slow. We walked to enjoy an impassioned farewell function at the Sydney Cricket Ground and several flights later arrived in another country, climate and timezone. C-6 and C-5 has seen swift accreditation, plenty of young people helping point the way and we have been awestruck by the bloated Kazan Expo site. Feels four times bigger than Abu Dhabi. On a whim, we have held an informal Team Australia Beer Hall dinner date, which developed quickly into Salt Bar dance off after a spot of table tennis – Now an old haunt.

Today, officially on site for lunch followed by well organised Kremlin tour with amazing local guide. High energy, perfect English. Proud, well informed and a natural storyteller. It included yet another Tartar village tour — after an impromptu walking tour yesterday with a different guide we met on the train. Equally impressive English who showed bonus confidence to take on 12 Aussie men with short attention spans.

Pulling the pin early before the fireworks at tonight’s welcome reception after a few horse races and before tomorrow on site first expert meeting.

Random assortment of images of our acclimatisation and team travel. It is great to be back in Russia.