I saw a friend’s photo on Facebook from his trip to Sochi and asked to write a small note about as far as everything is ready, what is done and what is not. I myself I was going to go and see if it does not work out a trip to Thailand, so I was doubly interested to watch it status in the social network and photos.
Somewhat spontaneously, my wife and I decided to go for a couple of days to Sochi. The goal is banal: take a walk at the surf, admire the mountains, drink some wine at sunset and also learn how the city looks like a month before the start of the Winter Olympics 2014.
Immediately make a reservation – the task to make a report for the blog in front of us It did not stand, they saw (and from what they saw they filmed) we are not all. The story does not claim to be complete, but claims to be honest.
The content of the article
- 1 Hotel
- 2 Spacewalk
- 3 Gigantomania
- 4 window dressing
- 5 Mountain Cluster
- 6 Oh good
- 7 Sochi residents
- 8 Does not fit in my head
- 9 The bottom line
Contents
Hotel
We settled in Adler (in this area of Sochi and will be held Olympiad) in a hotel near the train station. Hotel representative met us by car at the airport (transfer included numbers). The first impression is the road. We got to the hotel by smooth free road without a single traffic light in five minutes, I did not really have time to see outside the window. The second impression is hotel. Friendly staff, new comfortable, albeit small, room, balcony overlooking the sea, rooftop pool. Room rate (4200 / night) no longer seemed unreal high.
Room at the Diana Palace Hotel in Adler
Spacewalk
It was worth to leave the hotel, as the more prosaic opened picture-
The city around the central highway looks like a huge construction site, filled with construction and household waste. Quality of work – by three with a minus in a good mood, a solid “unsuccessful” with a bad one. Such the feeling that they are building from the cheapest materials at the cheapest projects involving the cheapest labor. As a result the finished object looks like an old shabby time: concrete crumbles, tiles break off, paint peels off, and the railing are covered by corrosion.
The transition under construction over the main street of Sochi a month before Olympic games
Recently laid out markings for disabled people on the bridge over the river Mzymta
The slab has already fallen off, and the station building is missing half glasses
Gigantomania
Another impression: the unreal size of freshly built objects. Adler Station is more like an airport, despite the fact that far from the central station.
Old and new stations Adler
A huge multi-level interchange in the city center, but in fact only the intersection connecting Krasnaya Polyana, the airport and Olympic Park. Huge spaces in the Olympic Park itself, built up with structures with an unclear purpose.
Construction in the Olympic Park a month before the start of the Olympics
A question that kept turning in my head all the time: what is it for? everything? Why much of the most famous resort location Russia now resembles Moscow in the area of the Third Transport rings? When seven years ago they decided to hold the Olympics in Sochi, I imagined such a southern comfort, where under the shade of magnolias and surrounded by palm trees and fountains, athletes walk along with fans and hang out in numerous cafes and disco bars. This would really be the highlight of the “Olympiad in subtropics “-
Window dressing
I am convinced that the main objective of what is now in a hurry finish in Sochi, – make the correct picture on the TV. From above, with a panoramic shot, all objects probably look impressively. And below – the complex of stadiums reminds a jumble several storage hangars surrounded by a security zone.
Architectural masterpieces of the Olympic Park
Green Lands Around Masterpieces
And why is the dirt around painted in green? Right, because on TV you need to show green grass around, it does not matter that in order for the grass to grow, it needs to be planted in the warm season of the year.
Mountain cluster
Honestly, we are prepared for the trip badly, and, leaving for one day in Krasnaya Polyana, poorly represented where and what Olympic facilities in it are. Therefore, I share my impression of places in general.
1. The road. The notorious road for astronomical money, judging by the result is still not worth it. If it was not a pity lay a new railway through all the mountains then it is wise to make the train to the maximum speed. Well, at least 150 km / h (as they are now building even in developing countries). In fact, the path from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana less than 50 km long takes more than 50 minutes.
2. Rosa Khutor. A pretty ski resort, however, is not calculated number of visitors per day our visit. We were lucky, we arrived early. In the afternoon so to get a ticket to the lift, would have to defend at least an hour, and also to knock when transferring.
Rosa Khutor at the foot (morning)
Rosa Khutor – hotel complex along the river Mzymta
3. Trails. Snow, apparently, enough for everyone (if anything, cannons will finish). But now it is quickly melting, in the daytime when the weather is clear sunny sites snow turns to slush, because temperature stable plus. On the opposite slope, on the sunny side, snow remained only on the tops, so if it is not podnapyplet (or the slopes are not painted white), we will see on TV not a winter picture at all. For the rest, though I am not a skier, but I could Check out the great variety and length of the tracks. Ride here should be interesting. Let’s hope the weather is lucky.
Training meadow, view from the cable car
View from the top, from where all the great tracks
4. Service. Restaurants and cafes are few and expected roads. AT the largest and as conceived budget cafe with a shocking name “Cho? Kharcho!” you can wait twenty minutes until they come to you, and the hall manager is convinced that four tables for one waiter is “already many”. Do not go there, and if hunger does not return quietly on the coast, it is better to eat in one of the hotels. Us a good lunch buffet cost 800 rubles per person. In the cafe will be more expensive. In addition to cafes, no “entertainment” in the public domain. not found.
Oh good
After all, you need to write about the positive. Moreover, it really present. I liked that almost restored A new embankment that was destroyed by an autumn storm (for how long, find out after the next storm, as long as it passes after Olympiad).
Away from the Olympic Park, almost all the facilities are directly on coast remained intact (although it was possible on the sly and their lay hands on). So now there you can eat in a cafe delicious barbecue for 150 rubles.
Cute reception center with recreational area
New, comfortable and quiet electric trains, made by Siemens along coast at a price cheaper minibuses
The Olympic Village is built, only the embankment is apparently not just have time to finish. There is a true reason to believe that Olympic village was given special attention, because this residential the complex will be further implemented as luxury housing.
Inside the Olympic Village
Especially liked the positioning of Sochi as a city free from smoking. Everywhere social advertising and relevant nameplates. Local and true in public places do not smoke.
Advertising intolerance to smoking in Sochi
Sochi residents
Among them are two categories: “Olympians” – involved in the preparation of the Games, they go dressed in Olympic symbolism and drive around in Volkswagen (official sponsor), and “local business” – those who have a special regime introduced in city, seriously limited opportunities to earn. Recent naturally, unhappy and ready to talk about it for a long time. Them prohibit travel to the main road by private transport, someone trade is already covered, someone else is going. Many do not know whether work during the Olympics, or they will have to rest for their score.
Does not fit in the head
Some things, by their illogicality, have opened up new ones. horizons in my picture of the world. For example, duplicated plates for the blind in Krasnaya Polyana (do many blind travelers ride go skiing)? Or simple bottle openers with symbols and alyapistym design for 850 rubles. Fly until you have disassembled!
Opener-record holder with the symbols of the Olympic Games in Sochi for 850 rubles
So, if you think about it, and the hotel room is quite inexpensive. – literally 5 openers 
Especially surprised security measures. Police outfits assigned to each intersection and stop. So much militia I I did not even see Spartak-CSKA. And with all this we managed unhindered access to the empty Olympic Village, where we are from They were not even going to drive out.
The route of the Big Sochi – Adler is guarded by some kind of paranoid methods. Often the route runs along the overpasses, so here each support is equipped with four cameras and four more cameras watch cameras on a pedestal. How many people serve this multidimensional broadcasting (and whether it serves at all) remains a mystery.
Trestle support cameras
The bottom line
In the place of ordinary Sochi citizens, I could make only two complaints the organizers of the Games: misuse of huge areas resort town and poor quality work, which will soon will require additional money, already from the city budget. Well some temporary inconveniences do not count. However, the city got the infrastructure that never was and which can enjoy a long time.
If you think about the fact that for the upcoming event all the global community will judge how effectively the Russian the business is able to use the investments, then the claims will be released more serious. Investor, after all, is not important as the result of their attachments will look from a helicopter, and how much really will justify its costs. And here the organizers games so far show a rather negative example.
But if you put yourself in the place of the investor himself (this is not difficult: if you ever bought something in Russia and paid the tax, you already are), then the contractor will want to demand penalty – both for the project, and for implementation. Unless, of course, you it’s important what your money went to.
P.S. The network is now a lot of criticism of the Olympics, in my opinion, completely out of business: “Winter Olympics in the subtropics!” (as if Nagano was located in a different climate zone), ” irreparable damage to the environment! “(as if the current track Moscow-Petersburg does not pass to the once picturesque places), “In Sochi there is no place for the spectators to live! “(in the high season Sochi is easily located Millions of holidaymakers, and at the Games so much and not collect). I call everyone to objectivity, in the end, to see where our money goes, stands in a sober mind.
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