I thought I would escape Sochi madness altogether, but at the beginning of the Paralympics, I was asked to go down and help out in our temporary office over a long weekend, so on relatively short notice, I got tickets and headed down. It was an interesting first hand look at the Olympic city even thought I didn't have much in the way of free time.
The first thing I did was drop off my bags at the hotel -- which was far from being worth the $700+/night they charged during the Olypmics - although there were posters all over the place detailing the upgrades they were planning with the money they got by overcharging visitors to the Games. Still, it was comfortable and had a good breakfast.
I then headed out to the train station to visit downtown Sochi - the Games were actually held in Adler, about 40 minutes away. Security was very heavy so I ended up just emptying my pockets into my bag like I do at the airport and had little trouble after that.
The biggest impression I had was that it's like any modern city in Russia, but with palm trees...
Of course, Olympic fever was prominently displayed.
In Sochi, I picked up the tickets I had purchased to the Wheelchair Curling event on Monday. Tickets had to be bought in advance so that I could apply for a spectator pass, which required another trip to the other side of Moscow to pick it up before I left. It was supposedly a security feature. I needed to have both a ticket and a spectator pass to visit the Olympic venue and then could only visit on the day of the event. During the Olympics, you could buy a pass just to see the Olympic Park, but they didn't offer that option for the Paralympics.
With the rest of my time there, I did a little sightseeing. The dendrarium - sort of a botanical garden/park, was highly recommended and actually pretty nice. The nicest thing was that down in Sochi, Spring was already well underway, so it was a nice change from the dreary gray that's been plaguing Moscow all winter.
They even had ostriches and a rabbit sitting under the shade of a palm.
After that, I made my way back into town to take in the Riviera Park, which is nothing like any other riviera I've ever heard of, but still interesting. I was welcomed by Comrade Lenin on my approach and even though I couldn't frame it right in the picture, there were enough palm trees nearby to be thoroughly incongruous. It is next to impossible to imagine Lenin on a beach.
Outside the park, there was also a "Taxophone" stand, which I thought was very clever - a place where you can just pick up the phone and order a taxi. I've never seen anything like it before. This may be the only one.
The park itself was another odd collection of incongruity. From dilapidated childrens' parks, to figures from Avatar overlooking the aquarium, to signs showing the locations of all the other Winter Olympic Games, to a ride called Colorado that featured scenes of Mount Rushmore and surfing - neither of which, I'm fairly sure, are accessibly in Colorado. There was also a double copyright infringement called "Pizza House" that used the trademark Disney "D".
I made my way back into town to see the Seaport, but there wasn't much going on since all the boats were forbidden from sailing due to security measures.
That evening, I met up with some colleagues for dinner at a place inside the seaport building where they showed the opening ceremonies before catching the train back to Adler.
The next two days were spent working. Our office was in a great location with views of both the mountains and the ocean. Unfortunately, the weather was either hazy or cloudy and I didn't get to enjoy the views much. I did get to do some exploring on my lunch break. I found the local market and a small restaurant serving delicious Caucasian food, like Kharcho (below). The food was definitely my favorite part of the trip - so much more flavor than you normally find in Russian cuisine, but I guess that's because it isn't really Russian.
The market provided other attractions like traditional Georgian fruit treats, pre-made spice mixes in souvenir configurations, and of course, cheap Olympic Souvenirs.
The souvenirs were actually pretty disappointing - overpriced as expected, but very low in quality and variety. I found the same things wherever I looked, but eventually found a small memento that wasn't too outrageously priced.
That afternoon after work, the weather cleared a bit and I got to appreciate the view from my hotel, which was rather nice. I found that in general, things in Sochi look better from a distance.
For dinner I enjoyed some grilled local trout (amazingly good) and then spent some time on the very rocky beach enjoying a beer. The beaches aren't very accessible because the rail line between Adler and Sochi runs right along it, and it isn't particularly nice because it's broken every hundred feet or so by crumbling cement breakwaters, but once I found the underpass to get there and got settled, the sound of the surf on the pebbles was relaxing enough.
The next day at lunch, I branched out and had a soup called Khash, which is a cow foot boiled until the connective tissue becomes tender along with some tripe. It comes with garlic, salt, and pepper because it is unseasoned. Once I got the seasoning right, it was really quite good.
And of course, I should mention, I had khachipuri po adjarski with almost every single meal - a delicious cheesy bread with a fried egg and melted butter. It really doesn't get much better than that!
I didn't have to work on my last day, so I headed out early to the Olympic Park to watch some of the wheelchair curling. It was much more interesting than I expected, and I think I actually understand it a bit now. The U.S. was holding it's own and there were even a small group of other American spectators cheering them on. Unfortunately, the Russian spectators far overwhelmed everyone else and this one woman in particular was so loud and shrill that I couldn't stand it and left to take in the other sights at the park before it was time to head to the airport.
Generally speaking, I didn't find the park all that impressive, although other people have told me that it's much nicer at night. Overall, the venues were very far apart and between them was basically area of asphalt with no trees or places to sit. It takes almost 30 minutes to walk from one end to the other and there isn't much to see, but let's focus on the positives.
There was a neat Russian "folk" show that started while I was there, but when the lead singer kept stopping to shout "Russia Forward!" (something of a nationalist sentiment), I got tired of it, particular giving the goings-on in not too distant Crimea.
The Olympic flame, was of course, worth seeing. Just to be there in person was very cool. I was amazed by how loud it was - it really is an enormous structure.
I had just enough time to breeze through a large exhibit showcasing the different federal districts of Russia, which was fairly lacking in depth. But they had a chunk of the meteorite from Chelyabinsk on display and that was worth seeing all by itself.
