Nearly a thousand excited people crammed the auditorium, a record sellout for Sydney Morning Herald Dymock Literary Lunch. The mainly elderly, bespectacled audience Sat enthusiastic, their veal fillets only side dish for main course, English adventurer and RACONTEUR, Michael Palin.With New Europe, argues Michael to fill what has been a void in his own experience and that many of his own generation. In all he is visiting 20 countries, beginning high in the Julian Alps on the border between Slovenia and Italy, where the Iron Curtain once ran, he traveled through the Balkans and the countries bordering the Black Sea before turning north through the heart of the old Eastern Europe to the Baltic States , sit nearly as far north as St. Petersburg.I diligently listening and taking notes, preparing for scarce fifteen minutes I may ask him my questions, when he answers one, unprompted by podium.It 's day 86 Estonia, and Michael a meeting with a hirudotherapist. "After a little striptease is Ms. Agajeva, a woman in her fifties and mellow in a generous, motherly sort of way to apply leeches on my torso Why Because Roger cameraman thought it would be painful and uncomfortable -.?. And therefore mandatory Apparently the application of leeches is an old and proven way to treat impotence, high blood pressure and a myriad other problems. "After fifteen minutes the little buggers are swollen and satisfied and have delivered enough discomfort to please Roger. Lyudmilla, we are on first name terms by now, until the dresses my wounds with a thick, industrial plasters warned me that the additional blood loss is likely to anticoagulant-absorbed. Back in Tallinn, I feel like a celebration is in order and I end up with more than one glass of wine or two at the excellent restaurant in Tallinn's Hotel St. Petersburg. "Next morning I wake up to a replay of the Godfather, the bed and my shirt is drenched in blood and I look around for the horse's head, which thankfully is not. I rip off Lyudmilla military rank bandage to a deafening noise and the promised 300 ml of blood spurting around in the bathroom. Now it's like a scene from M * A * S * H. I clean up, check out and is well on its way to Latvia before anyone discovers the terrifying scene I have left behind. It was a charming hotel anyway. "The lunch will continue my intermittent waves of laughter and applause, and yes, someone calls Michael to sing the Lumberjack Song, which he obligingly does, only in German, to a rapturous ovation.After 200 meter queue for book signings disperses, I prepare for my introduction. "Hi Michael, I Roderick" as he looks at me with a hint of annoyance reserved for such a weak attempt at humor. "No, really," I say, handing him my card. He looks at it and then at me with a revised, apologetic eyes, "Oh, you poor man." My copy of New Europe has been signed by an official apology from Pontius Pilate. But I am forgiving, after all I have to thank him for my freedom. (If you have not seen Life of Brian, the joke is lost and you're probably not reading this anyway). My turn. Michael, was your experience at the Hotel St. Petersburg us in stitches, that was your worst hotel experience? "Well, to be fair it was I who spoiled it, the hotel was excellent. But several places in China was rather strange and that comes to mind: the Rongbuk Guest House was a stand out "This is how Michael describes it .. Day 60, the Himalayas. "From the dirty, littered yard to the soulless concrete rooms with broken windows and foul, door fed toilets, the Rongbuk Guesthouse pretty much a hell hole." Michael adds flavor that was missing in the book. "It's run by a bunch of monks, whose minds are clearly elsewhere. The toilet was down for a freezing alleyway, only a slit in the floor. So many people had used it over the years that it was this stalactite of frozen feces sticking out of it. A shame, such a spectacular spot right next to Mount Everest "Your favorite hotel?" Our lodge in Torres del Paine National Park with views of the glacier was just the most magnificent location, "Day 161 from Full Circle:" .. Few souls have ventured far into the park at this time of year and we have Hosteria almost to ourselves. sit by the stove, playing dominoes and drinking seven years old Scotch with seven thousand year old glacier ice. Sometimes the work. almost bearable "On a more serious note, I ask Michael - with all his experience in branded City Hotel - what's the one thing a hotel needs to get right" Well I think that, just like the good restaurants, manager or person the authority should be around all the time. When a manager says "Call me anytime if you need something" they should mean it, not only between 10 and 12 or after ninth It is a service after all. "" Hilton, I think. is particularly good name really stands for something and they have a standard of service I can rely on "Day 80 pole to pole. Addis Ababa. "Culture shock when we arrive at the Addis Hilton, to a world of white faces, blond hair, thick legs, full stomachs. Curfew 01:00 to 06:00, but telephones and minibars. Gorgeous, sensational and wonderful shower. dust runs away in muddy channels. My eyes are red-rimmed and sore, and I've picked up a cluster of flea bites from somewhere but I guess it's a small price to pay for what we have gone through. "At 65, Michael Palin seems so bright and spritely like a man half his age, or just a bit older than me. For a guy who has been round the globe in both horizontal and vertical limits, climbed mountains, crossed deserts and stood in front of a camera (two takes) to minus 50 degrees at the South Pole, he is in pretty fair nick. I need not ask him the next question because it's written all over him. Travel is obviously a great tonic. Drink your fill! Palin trivia Palin was Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television in 2000.Along with each member of the Monty Python Palin has an asteroid named after him. His is Asteroid 9621 Michaelpalin.In recognition of his many train trips are Palin's two British train named after him. In 2002, Virgin's new £ 5 million high-speed Super Voyager train number 221 130 named "Michael Palin". Michael Palin is chair of the campaign for better transport, whose motto is "transportation that improves our quality of life and reduce our environmental footprint." In 1993, after his award-winning performance in A Fish Called Wanda went to Michael (yes, he had to) the naming of Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children.
