Winter Olympics Journey - Day 14
Today provided a fair bit of adventure, which was great. I probably won't be able to finish this tonight though, which you can blame my parents for - I spent some time video chatting to them to catch up, and I'm quite tired now... I don't regret that decision though, it was really nice to talk to them properly again, as I haven't had much of a chance over the last two weeks.
I knew that I would have to do at least some work today, but was determined to let the other guys have a rest day, particularly the colleague who flew in last night, as he has had to do a considerable amount of travelling over the past few weeks, and I'm pretty certain that there's no chance of having a day off any time over the remaining four weeks, and it's about to become fairly crazy busy. I arranged to work for a bit in the morning, and then meet the guys at around 12:30pm at the IBC where I would then take them to Sochi to explore the city. For the remainder of the afternoon, if I needed to do any further work, I just made sure to have as much information/documents downloaded onto my phone so that I would be able to answer any questions remotely, and then start early tomorrow to make sure I get it finished before the next day starts.
I saw my boss during breakfast and ended up managing to get a lift in, which was great. A few days ago I mentioned to him a fact that I had found fascinating. Upon looking at a map, where we are currently based, we are actually closer to the border of country 'Georgia' than we are to the IBC, the nearest Russian town (Adler), and definitely much closer than we are to Sochi. He later went on to look this up, and realised just how close we were. He gave me a lift into work on that morning, but before we set off, he said he wanted to quickly try to find the border for Georgia, so that he could try to take a photo with any signs that there may be.
Firstly, we found the coast (which we are right next to) so stopped briefly to take a couple of photos - mainly so that he could send a photo back to his wife holding something that would have meant a lot to the both of them. Next we took a drive and found a border line that was effectively protecting the line between both countries with a wall which wasn't too dissimilar to a part of the Berlin wall, just less graffitied and smaller. There were also two big-ass radars the other side of the wall. Yes, I just said big-ass… when I eventually get photos up of them, you will surely see why.
We then drove further round so that we could find the entry point. As we drove up we saw a line of Russian guards, all standing to attention, looking as menacing as they could physically look. Naturally, we realised there would be no way of being able to get any closer to the border (and if we tried we would likely be arrested) so we did the classic 'tourist turned in the wrong direction, "oh, I don't think this is the way we were meant to turn, maybe it's over that way"' bit, so that they didn't think we were intentionally trying to approach the border. They relaxed a little then as we drove away.
I then got all of the work that I needed to do done, and met with the other guys at 12:30 and went forth to the train station.
On the train we saw pretty much the same sights that I saw on my way there last week, except I don't think I really went into it. Simply, it was very run-down buildings most of the way. It was how I would expect the entire area to have been before they began building for the Olympics. Then, as you get closer to the coast you begin to see ships out to the distance, and the pebble beaches. This is where you see the locals showing off… but by showing off, I mean stripping down to their skivvies and jumping into the water. Keep in mind that the water is probably about -10 degrees (Celcius). That's mental, and certainly not something I would be willing to try, as I quite like breathing and being alive…
We arrived into Sochi and it wasn't a bad day. The sun had started to come out, which was really nice. I mentioned before that it was much warmer than expected here, but haven't really discussed it much since (bad, British boy, bad.) It was nice weather last weekend, but since then it was rained again constantly. Towards the end of last week it began to be really cold. The actual temperature isn't that bad, and especially in the sun it's quite nice, but the wind is bitter cold. The mountains yesterday had been seriously cold, but luckily a few smart investments before I came out proved to be absolutely fundamental. It has started reaching the point of needing them on the coast too, but a day in the mountains without them would have been pure torture - especially because they wouldn't give us any ski trousers with our uniforms, because we're not permanently based in the mountains, and our uniform trousers are great for in the rain, but cold temperatures you almost feel naked.
The first thing we wanted to do in Sochi was find something to eat - we were starving. Last time I was here there was almost too much choice for restaurants. This time, however, it was almost as if the restaurants had all disappeared! I know what the difference was, last time we were by the sea already, and there is a lot down there, whereas this time we were looking for food in the central city where there is apparently a lot less - or there was where we were walking! We managed to find a couple of places, but they didn't look particularly great, so we kept on looking to see 'what the next place was'. By the time we realised there weren't really any 'next places', we were too far to go back to the first, which had clearly been the best one.
Walking around at this point, I realised that over the past two weeks, I have pretty much accidentally learnt how to read Russian. The colleague that has just joined us is multi-lingual, so he speaks a variety of different languages. Although he doesn't speak Russian, it's reasonably similar to one he has studied in the past, so pointed out a few things. As he was pointing them out, in my head I kept realising that I had already worked out what he had been saying previous to that. As soon as this had clicked in my head, I then started looking at signs around the city and realising that I could read what most of them would say, as the translation (although pronounced very differently) is a very similar spelling to the English equivalents.
I saw a place which I knew was a restaurant of some sort, based on the name that I could now read. We went closer and saw the Russian word for Sushi, which was then accompanied by the English translation as we drew closer. The next thing I know we had entered the twilight zone… All of the signs outside stated that it was a restaurant, that it was open 10am until 1am, and there were pictures of food (sushi) outside. On the inside, however, we were greeted by a stern looking man who didn't seem to want to welcome us. As I then focussed around the room, I realised we were in some sort of Jewellery store. WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
We were then discussing how we could actually find food in this place, and I explained how close we were to the sea by now, that we might as well just go to eat there.
We found pretty much exactly the same restaurant that we didn't go in the first time (same chain) except this restaurant looked a lot more inviting and we could actually see people sitting inside there, unlike any of the restaurants before, so that seemed promising. We walked in and got a seat at a table near the door straight away, so I hadn't really looked to see how many people were in there. It was only just after we had ordered that I realised they were turning people away at the door, and the place was actually packed.
A few of my friends from back in Leeds could tell you that I have a special gift for this, we often go to places where they are often fully booked, or have a long wait, etc, and whenever they go with me we never have any issue of getting in. It is literally as though they know I'm coming, or the universe understands that if I go for too long without food, I turn into the Hulk out of hunger and frustration… It seems my gift also works in Russia! Hopefully I don't accidentally leave it here.
Like many restaurants in Russia, the food came out as soon as it was cooked, instead of all together. In terms of the food itself, this is great, as at least it isn't sat going cold! But, when you have long finished your meal before half of the party even has their meal just makes it feel like you're constantly waiting. At least when you're all waiting, you can have a drink and put your mind away from the food, but when some have it and others don't, you're constantly thinking about food and can't really converse as well.
During the meal, my phone went a few times - I had downloaded the most important documents onto my phone and had my computer on me, so I could still do any work that was necessary while I was out and about, and still show the guys around Sochi, allowing them to still have their day off. For one phone call, I went outside of the restaurant and was on the phone outside of the door. After I had finished I opened the door just as two Russian girls were leaving, so I held the door open for them. The second girl, whilst walking past, looked at my accreditation (which we pretty much have to wear 24/7, as it's needed so often while we're out and about, and also means that we don't lose it) so naturally knew my name, and knew that I was foreign. Out of courtesy, she said 'спасибо', which means 'Thank you', but of course probably didn't expect me to understand. I waited a brief moment as she walked past and replied to her 'пожалуйста', which in this context means 'you're welcome'. I heard her giggle, followed by turning back around to smile at me. It just shows how much people appreciate the effort that you make to learn their native language - after all, it's only a common courtesy, a standard that everyone should make the effort to do when visiting a new country.
After the meal we went into an Olympic 'Official Merchandise' Store that had opened this weekend so that the guys could take a look around. It was flipping expensive in there, unbelievably expensive, even considering tourist prices. Found out, though, the uniforms that had been given to the volunteers who are here to help show people around, and who have been (mostly) helping us over the past few weeks, are now on sale to tourists and the general public. Great! It was hard enough to find someone who could help before, now John and Jane Doe visiting the Olympics are going to be wearing the same clothes! I guess it will be more important to look out for Accreditation these days - it's not too much of an inconvenience, we just need the people to turn around first! I guess if we speak to them in Russian first, and then English, we'll know from their reaction whether they're a student Volunteer, or General Public… if they understand both languages, we're all good!
We stopped by the outdoor art square that I mentioned last week, so that I could take a couple of photos… particularly of the bear that I mentioned, which was a health and safety hazard. Definitely want to show you that soon. Then went back to a couple of shops and went into a Ski shop so that my colleague to arrived yesterday could get a few things - he hadn't been able to get them before, and upon arrival, I think he realised how important a few of the extra fundamentals would be (Ski Trousers, Boots, yet to find decent gloves…) especially with how strong and cold the breeze has been this weekend. It was quite fun doing shopping in that way in a Russian store, where there was an obvious language barrier. I think we did pretty damn well though, between us trying Russian, and the shop assistants being extremely helpful and using whatever English they could.
That is something I have noticed - especially around the City, there are a lot of people who are fascinated by the different cultures and languages that are around. There are still some people around, who I have mentioned before, who really don't want to help - and perhaps that's because of how much we have changed what would have been such a small Russian village. It must be difficult for some people to see such a dramatic change, especially with how much we are pretty much taking over - unintentionally, but it is happening. Closer to the City, however, you get many more people who embrace culture as much as everyone else does. I would love to learn even more about the Russian culture, but at the moment I haven't had much of an opportunity to speak one-on-one to an English speaking Russian native. Doing so would help me to improve my Russian much quicker, too.
After the store we went for a walk along the (pebble) beach. The sun was beginning to set, so it was very low and made for both some very difficult photos (due to light differences) but also some beautiful photos of the sunset. I'm hoping I have at least a few that I will be really happy with. We took a casual walk, by the end of which we ended up near the french restaurant I went to last time, and at dinner time. Being as though my colleague who arrived yesterday is from Paris, it made sense to take him to Sochi's best French Restaurant, to see what he thought. It really was amazing food, and again, really helpful staff. Great experience there.
We took a walk back to the train station. I was pretty happy with my sense of direction, as last week the company I was with got us a little lost, and we had to ask for directions - I had to get a taxi to meet them, so didn't have a clue where I was, or where we were going… this time, however, I knew where we were, where we wanted to go, and the basic structure of the city. This meant navigating was pretty easy, and I didn't have an issue. Considering the company from last week had been to Sochi three times previous, and went again during last week and got lost again, it proved I have a pretty good sense in general.
On the train journey back we were discussing where to get off. Olympic Village and bus, or Olympic Park and walk. Before they changed the bus route, it would certainly have been (or felt) quicker to do the park and walk, but we couldn't decide how it would work with the new route, so we decided to test it out.
Two of us walked, the other two got off a stop earlier and got the bus. The train seemed to take forever to leave the station after they got off, and getting into the next station (final stop) really took forever - it went at about 5km/h for ages along the platform. We then started walking out of the station and realised about half of the 3.5km journey was still inside the station, because of how big the car park/bus station part was - and this was the quickest way to our direction. Before we had even managed to get out of the car park we received a phone call to say the others had arrived home.
We tried to tell them we were already back, had put on the kettle, been in the shower (separately, of course…) and stepped back outside for a breath of fresh air. I don't think they believed us, somehow.
It was pretty obvious that it was much quicker to get off at the village and get the bus - we got back about 20 minutes later - but our journey was definitely the more pleasant… so I guess it depends what sort of mood you're in, and exactly how quickly you want to get home.
As soon as I got in, I video-called the folks to have a bit of a catch up. It was great to see their faces again, and also be able to hear about the things that are happening in their day-to-day lives. The only issue with a blog like this is that it's very one sided - I would love to be able to hear more about what some of you guys are up to, too, not just talk about me… We did discuss the blog, actually, and we came to an interesting point.
I mostly write these after I am back from a long day, and it is generally quite late. Most commonly, I'm writing between midnight and 2am. Because of this, I often have no idea what I'm writing. I often go into autopilot and just write whatever is in my mind, no filters, possibly no structure. Sometimes I then fall asleep and continue in the morning - this could do all sorts of crazy things to my writing. I also never re-read what I write, so I will never actually know what I wrote. If it doesn't make any sense, I can only really say 'whoops, sorry!'. All the same, I hope some of you can find this interesting. At the least, it's a great way for me to remember my adventures.
