Wiebe Wakker
August 18, 2016
Day 154 | Monday August 16
Today was an important day. A few weeks ago I received a message from Evgeni at the Polytech University in St. Petersburg. They are working on their own solar car and thought we should share experiences. They set up an press conference and invited journalists from all over Russia.
Around 10 in the morning I was welcomed by some people of the University who showed me around the complex. An impressive university which was build in 1899. Some famous people studies here and even some Nobel prize winners!
Before 11 the first journalists arrived and already had to give some interviews. I did many for newspapers and radio but this was my debut on television. We went inside were all the press was waiting in a room, an interesting experience to have all those cameras pointed at you. A professor of the uni introduced me and told about the their solar car in which they are going to compete next year in the Australian Solar Challenge. Than all the attention went to me, first they showed the trailer and I gave a short update about the past months, my plans for Russia and the coming months. Than the journo’s started me all kinds of questions. I think it took about 30 minutes before it ended. Funny experience and interesting that they expect me to be some kind of all-knower about electric cars and sustainability. Maybe in a few months I will get to that point.
There was even a live broadcast on one of St Pete’s TV channels and I was featured in Russia’s Metro newspaper, here are some links:
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RTR (link expired)
After the pressco there were even more interviews outside and I took some journalists for a testride in the car. Than we went for some food with the team and they showed me one of their cars they are working on.
Kirill and Anastasia, team members of the uni showed me around the city, we went to an old caste in the middle of town.
To thank the team for their efforts I arranged that we could go to an escape room. It’s a room where you get locked inside and by solving puzzles and riddles you need to escape in one hour. In Amsterdam I played many and it has become an addiction. This room from Questrooms was a very exciting one. It had a horror team and there were many crazy scary elements inside the room!
If you want to play there I have good news because if you book now and use the code “wakker” you get 10% discount! Thanks again to Questrooms for offering this experience!
Pictures of today
