Sochi Winter Olmypics...

[yebocan]

Sochi - It’s two days to go to the start of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and, well, it doesn’t seem like the Russian city is prepared.

Actually, scrap that.

It doesn’t, in fact, seem like the city realised it was hosting the games until last week, if dismayed journalists’ tweets are anything to go by.

The Washington Post reports that newsmakers arriving in the city are becoming news themselves, as they have been sharing their horrendous hotel room experiences via social media.

The Sochi Olympic Committee had promised to have nine hotels set aside for media, however only six are ready… and that’s an overstatement.

One photographer even described a scene where stray dogs, building rubble and construction men were a common sight in the hotel he would be staying in for the duration of the games.

As the Olympic Village has been filling up, #SochiProblems has gained steam on Twitter. While the athletes have been largely unaffected, they have also shared some pretty wacky sights and experiences.

Use link to view images:


http://www.news24.com/Travel/International/Sochi-journos-tweet-gross-hotel-experiences-20140205

 

[Polish]

Very surprizing that the Russians are so unprepared.

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

The shambles behind the scenes at Sochi

Not really surprising I guess. It is Russia after all...

Despite having more than seven years to prepare, four-star hotels such as the Hyatt Regency, which were meant to open in late 2013, are still full of workers cutting stone for the forecourt.

Meanwhile furniture still wrapped in plastic remains stacked in the lobby.



Honey served in Sochi includes the bee

It is not clear how investors, contractors and organisers all fell so far behind, but the delay has meant many guests have been told to stay in one of the five cruise ships moored in the harbour until their rooms have finished being built.

A two-minute walk down the road, small independent hotels are trying to cash in on some of the bigger hotels' failure. Built on a patch of former waste ground behind an office block, one is charging up to £175 a night for bizarrely furnished rooms with no internet, patchy electricity, and a view of a blank wall.

The rule is money up-front and in cash. “We don’t take cards - its on the website,” the frowning manager informed one non-plussed guest who was asked to hand over 70,000 rubles - the equivalent of over £1,200 - for his week’s stay in hard currency. Failure to settle up immediately, he warned, would result in them revoking your local registration: an essential document in ring-of-steel Sochi.



Late to the party but this light fixture crashed a foot from my bed on second night in #Sochi media hotel.





Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered



Not-so-private business



Sochi hotel not quite finished, & has no record of my reservation. I'll go to the bar while they try to sort it. Oh.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor.../The-shambles-behind-the-scenes-at-Sochi.html

 

[daveza]

And you are not even allowed to go fishing.

 

[Space_Chief]

Not really surprising I guess. It is Russia after all...

So is that a xenophobic statement too?

 

[satanboy]

Boycott the sexist regime/games.

 

[satanboy]

no captions to the pics?

two glasses of urine?

 

[daveza]

no captions to the pics?

two glasses of urine?

Drug testing department ?

 

[Azbubu]

No sitting in fridges?

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

no captions to the pics?

two glasses of urine?

Pasted the captions. Had to copy them from the Twitter feeds underneath the pictures.

 

[2026]

Some of those pictures are fake, I've seen them well before Sochi...



For some reason, I just feel like replying "first world problems" to most of those...