The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia will begin this Friday with the Opening Ceremonies. Journalists from all over the world have already started to arrive in Sochi, and were surprised by the conditions just days before the games start. Accommodations are not complete, and the bathroom facilities are bizarre, along with a warning not to use the yellowish-orange colored water on your face.
Construction is still well under way, as if they didn’t know when the Olympics started. A man was seen still laying down bricks on Tuesday. Hotel rooms are not finished, missing everything from shower curtains down to even light bulbs. Apparently shower curtains are really hard to find. Some rooms were equipped with 5 foot long beds, and with the reportedly extremely loud techno music playing, who could sleep on the small beds anyway? Even at this archaic state of rooms, they still don’t have enough rooms presently available.
The bathrooms are comical and disturbing at the same time. Don’t be bashful if you’re going to Sochi. I guess the popularity of private bathroom stalls hasn’t made it over to Russia yet. They actually have two toilets in the same stall, that’s if you’re lucky enough to find a stall at all.
However, they were nice enough to show an acceptable bathroom etiquette sign. Fishing in toilets is frowned upon, as well as various other activities, a few that I’m not clear on what they are from the sign. Another sign instructs visitors not to flush toilet paper, but to put it in the provided bin.
Stacy St. Clair of the Chicago Tribune reported to the front desk of her hotel that she had no water, and she received this response – “If restored, do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous.” Well that’s comforting. The water was restored, and St. Clair tweeted this picture of that “very dangerous” water.
I’m no expert on the subject, but I don’t think all of this sounds like most people’s vision of the Olympic Experience. It is also reported that the high number of stray cats and dogs will be rounded up and killed in the next few days. This city, and maybe the whole country should never have another Olympic Games.
Olympic athletes from all over the world will descend shortly on Sochi and be met with these barbaric conditions. Needless to say, these superb athletes deserve much better treatment. I hope the International Olympic Committee will remember this, and if they ever consider awarding Russia with another Olympics, they should have everything ready, and up to normal Olympic accommodation standards, long before anyone begins to arrive for the games.
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