#7 : The Olympics

The Winter Olympics

While we have had a couple of other trips since arriving (St Pete, Dubai, India, Chamonix), I know that you are all most interested in the Olympics -  So I will get straight to it!

Since Andrew and I were hosting his clients, we were working the event. This meant that we stayed in the same hotel as Visa employees and all of their clients and board members from all over the world. But this also meant that we had to find someone else to take Izzy and Natasha. I mean, that was one of the cards that we played when trying to convince them that leaving their friends, family, activities and school and moving to Russia was going to be worth all the sadness. Andrew's parents kindly offered to combine a visit to Moscow with a trip to the Olympics back in the fall. No one could have anticipated what they signed up for, both in the build up to the Olympics as well as the work it required of them during the event!

With much speculation about everything being finished and secure, we were impressed with what was accomplished. Only once we arrived could I understand the extent of the new construction that took place in the Sochi region in order for these Olympics to take place. Sochi is a small seaside town and the ski area about 1.5 hours from it was quite small. Russia took a smaller town about 40 miles away from Sochi (Adler) and built this enormous Olympic park (both on the coast with stadiums and in the mountains for snow), new road system and new hotels and apartments - essentially creating a completely new town. This part of it, at least upon arrival, was pretty surreal. If all you did was go from the airport to our hotel to the Olympic park and to the mountains, you would only see new construction - that was our experience. The new highways were walled off from the old (still some existing) town so literally you almost couldn't see anything beyond the road (onto which, btw, only Olympic-approved vehicles were allowed). It felt like 95 percent of the buildings around the sea-based Olympic park were new (and yes, some empty and some not finished).

The mountain area was a brand spankin' new town - nothing old as far as I could tell. Since one mountain region was hosting such an extensive offering of events, a complex maze of gondolas was created to take you to your venue. It was quite confusing but overall very well executed.

Andrew and I have been to one other Olympics (Vancouver) - we were the clients during that one and taken care of at every turn. Much like that, even though working and hosting clients this time, Visa arranged everything and lead us from event to event without us having to plan anything or deal with logistics. Around any part of an Olympic venue, whether inside the stadium, around the exists, heading to transportation, etc, you see a line-up of a company's logo held high in the air by employees on a round plaque = the "lollipop." The moment you leave an event, you go from one lollipop to another and it eventually leads you to the next destination. This made keeping up with the busy schedule quite easy and we often could turn our brains off when dealing with logistics  The last night we stayed too late at a venue and all the lollipops were gone - we had to actually think for a moment how to get back to the hotel.

In order to maximize your experience at the event, almost every moment is scheduled, from a 7:45am departure for Curling to the return to the hospitality lounge at midnight for more snacks and drinks. We had lunches with Olympic athletes on two occasions, a Russian cultural event, a Curling lesson with current Olympians (a real highlight) and then went to about 7 events including the closing ceremonies.

Izzy and Tash with their grandparents, well... They had a much different experience, to say the least! When in November there was much talk about hotels not being finished and those we called had no availability, we were told that they were bringing in cruise ships especially to host spectators for the games. Knowing that the Olympic park was on the water I thought, perfect, they'll be able to walk to most of the events and, how fun, to stay on a cruise ship! I researched the ship and saw an indoor pool, basketball court, teen club... I was getting jealous!

Well, it turns out the boat was in the port of Sochi (40 miles from Adler), and on top of that it was not staffed with people who could help with the logistics of transportation or the games. Additionally, the room for 4 people was really more for 2 - three beds across, one bunk, a tiny, tiny bathroom and pretty much no more floor space!!

They had a bit of planes, trains and automobiles to get around. They had to get a taxi from the boat to get to the train to take them to the Olympic Park - about an hour endeavor. And to get to the mountains was even more complicated with the taxi to the train to a bus to the gondola - and about 2.5 hours. With again no one telling you exactly where to go and when to leave (like we had), and with a language barrier until they arrived at the venues, there was room for missing something, and sadly they did.

As my father-in-law said, the Olympics is not for the faint of heart!

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I will update you again soon on other travel experiences, but in the mean time a little update on our apartment, since I know that always is a source of humor for many! When we moved in, there was a plunger under the kitchen sink. I thought, that is not a good sign! Well, yup, as you would expect, we had a couple of weeks where we needed to use it. Apparently every Russian apartment has a plunger under the kitchen sink!