Sochi's readiness for the 2014 Olympics - eyewitness reviews

I saw my friend's Facebook photos from his trip to Sochi and asked him to write a short note about how everything was ready there, what was done and what was not. I myself was going to go and see it in case the trip to Thailand does not work out, so it was doubly interesting for me to watch his statuses on the social network and photos.

Somewhat spontaneously, my wife and I decided to go to Sochi for a couple of days. The goal is banal: to walk by the surf, admire the mountains, drink wine at sunset, and at the same time find out what the city looks like a month before the start of the Winter Olympics 2014.

I will make a reservation right away - we were not faced with the task of making a report for a blog, we saw (and filmed from what we saw) far from all of us. The story does not pretend to be complete, but it pretends to be honest.

The content of the article

Hotel

We settled in Adler (this Sochi region will host the Olympics) in a hotel not far from the train station. The hotel representative met us by car at the airport (transfer is included in the room rate). The first impression is the road. We got to the hotel on a flat free road without a single traffic light in five minutes, I really didn't have time to see anything outside the window. The second impression is the hotel. Friendly staff, new cozy, albeit small, room, balcony overlooking the sea, rooftop pool. The cost of the room (4200 / night) no longer seemed unrealistically high.

Room at the Diana Palace hotel in Adler

Spacewalk

As soon as we left the hotel, a more prosaic picture opened up ...

The city around the central highway looks like a huge construction site filled with construction and household waste. The quality of work - three-minus with a good mood, solid «bad» with bad. It seems that they are building from the cheapest materials for the cheapest projects with the involvement of the cheapest labor. As a result, the finished object looks like a time-worn old one: concrete crumbles, tiles break off, paint peels off, and the railings are covered with corrosion..

Crossing under construction over the central street of Sochi a month before the Olympic Games

Newly laid markings for disabled people on the bridge over the Mzymta river

The stove has already fallen off, and half of the glass is missing in the working station building

Gigantomania

Another impression: the unrealistic dimensions of the newly built objects. Adler station resembles rather an airport, despite the fact that it is far from the central station.

Old and new railway stations of Adler

A huge multi-level interchange in the center of the city, but in fact only an intersection connecting Krasnaya Polyana, the airport and the Olympic Park. Huge spaces in the Olympic Park itself, built up with structures with an incomprehensible purpose.

Construction in the Olympic Park a month before the start of the Olympics

The question that kept revolving in my head: what is it all for? Why a significant part of the most famous resort place in Russia now resembles Moscow in the area of ​​the Third Transport Ring?
When we decided to hold the Olympics in Sochi seven years ago, I imagined such southern comfort, where under the shade of magnolias and surrounded by palm trees and fountains, athletes walk with fans and hang out in numerous cafes and disco bars. This would really be the highlight «Olympiads in the subtropics»...

Window dressing

I am convinced that the main task of what is now being completed in a hurry in Sochi is to make the right picture on TV. From above, when taking panoramic shots, all the objects must look impressive. And below - the complex of stadiums resembles a pile of several warehouse hangars surrounded by a security zone.

Architectural masterpieces of the Olympic Park

Green earth around masterpieces

Why is the dirt around it painted green? That's right, because on TV you need to show green grass around, it doesn't matter that in order for the grass to grow, it needs to be planted in the warm season.

Mountain cluster

To be honest, we prepared poorly for the trip, and, leaving for one day to Krasnaya Polyana, we had little idea where and what Olympic facilities were located there. Therefore, I share my impression of the place as a whole..

1. The road. The proverbial road for astronomical money, judging by the result, is still not worth it. If it was not a pity to lay a new railway through all the mountains, then it would be wise to make the train go at maximum speed. Well, at least 150 km / h (as they are now building even in developing countries). In fact, the journey from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana less than 50 km long takes more than 50 minutes..

2. Rosa Khutor. Nice ski resort, however, not designed for the number of visitors that was on the day of our visit. We were lucky we arrived early. In the afternoon, in order to get a ticket for the lift, you would have to defend at least an hour, as well as knock about when transferring.

Rosa Khutor at the foot (morning)

Rosa Khutor - a hotel complex along the Mzymta river

3. Trails. Apparently, there will be enough snow for everyone (if anything, they will finish off with cannons). But now it is melting quickly, in the daytime, in clear weather, in sunny areas, the snow turns into slush, because the temperature is stable above zero. On the opposite slope, on the sunny side, the snow remained only on the tops, therefore, if it is not covered with snow (or the slopes are not painted with white paint), on TV we will see a picture that is not at all wintery. Otherwise, although I am not a skier, I was able to check out the great variety and length of the slopes. It should be interesting to ride here. Let's hope the weather is lucky.

Training glade, view from the cable car

View from the top, from where all the great trails descend

4. Service. Restaurants and cafes are few and far between. In the largest and by design budget cafe with a shocking name «Cho? Kharcho!» you can wait twenty minutes for someone to approach 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 allow you to return peacefully to the coast, it is better to eat at one of the hotels. A good buffet lunch cost us 800 rubles per person. The cafe will be more expensive. Except for a cafe, no «entertainment» not found in the public domain.

About good

After all, you need to write about the positive. Moreover, it is really present. I liked that they almost restored the new embankment, which was destroyed by an autumn storm (for how long, we will find out after the next storm, the main thing is that it passes after the Olympics).

Far from the Olympic Park, almost all the objects directly on the shore remained untouched (although it was possible to get their hands on them on the sly). So even now you can eat there in a cafe with a delicious barbecue for 150 rubles..

Nice spectator registration center with recreational area

New, comfortable and quiet electric trains produced by Siemens along the coast at a price cheaper than minibuses

The Olympic village has been built, only the embankment will probably not be completed in time. There is really reason to believe that the Olympic village was given special attention, because this residential complex will be further sold as elite housing.

Inside the Olympic Village

I especially liked the positioning of Sochi as a smoke-free city. Social advertising and related signs are everywhere. Locals really do not smoke in public places.

Advertising of intolerance to smoking in Sochi

Sochi

Among them, two categories can be distinguished: «Olympians» - involved in the preparation of the Games, they wear Olympic symbols and drive around in Volkswagens (official sponsor), and «local business» - those for whom the special regime introduced in the city seriously limited their opportunities to earn. The latter, naturally, are unhappy and ready to talk about it for a long time. They are forbidden to go to the main highway by personal transport, someone's trade has already been shut down, someone is going to. Many do not know if they will work during the Olympics, or they will have to rest at their own expense..

Doesn't fit in my head

Some things, by their illogicality, opened up new horizons in my picture of the world. For example, duplicated signs for the blind in Krasnaya Polyana (how many blind travelers go there to ski there)? Or simple openers with symbols and lurid design for 850 rubles. Swoop in before you take it apart!

Opener-record holder with the symbols of the Sochi Olympics for 850 rubles

So, if you think about it, a hotel room is quite inexpensive - literally 5 openers :)

The security measures were especially surprising. Police squads are assigned to every intersection and stop. I have not seen so many police even at the Spartak-CSKA match. And with all this, we managed to freely get into the empty Olympic village, from where they did not even intend to expel us.

The Greater Sochi - Adler track is guarded by some very paranoid methods. Often the track runs along overpasses, so each support is equipped with four cameras and four more cameras monitor the cameras on the support. How many people serve such multidimensional broadcasting (if at all) remains a mystery..

Cameras protecting flyover supports

In the dry residue

In the place of ordinary Sochi residents, I could present only two complaints to the organizers of the Games: misuse of huge areas of the resort town and poor-quality work, which will soon require additional money, already from the city budget. Well, some temporary inconveniences do not count. Nevertheless, the city received an infrastructure that never existed and which can be used for a long time..

If you think about the fact that according to the upcoming event the entire world community will judge how effectively Russian business is able to use the invested investments, then the claims will come out more serious. After all, it is important for an investor not how the result of their investments will look from a helicopter, but how much it will really justify its costs. And here the organizers of the games are still showing a rather negative example..

But if you put yourself in the place of the investor himself (it's not difficult: if you bought something in Russia and paid tax at least once, you already are), then the contractor will want to demand a forfeit - both for the project and for the implementation ... If, of course, it is important to you what your money was spent on.

P.S. The network is now criticizing the Olympics a lot, in my opinion, completely irrelevant: «Winter Olympics in the subtropics!» (as if Nagano was in a different climatic zone), «Caused irreparable damage to the environment!» (as if the current Moscow-Petersburg highway does not pass through the once picturesque places), «Spectators have nowhere to live in Sochi!» (in the high season of Sochi, a million tourists can be accommodated without problems, and so many cannot be collected for the Games).
I urge everyone to be objective, in the end, to watch where our money goes is in a sober mind.

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