Wine tasting in a forest with 12 Russians? Welcome to Saturday in Sochi!

Saturday was a day off -i.e. no Olympics event to attend :( after another lie-in - I'm on holidays after and another filling breakfast (it's unlimited!), I headed to book an excursion through my hotel. As per many other places, they did not speak a word of English, but thanks to my basic Russian, some pointing and some pictures, I managed to understand and book an excursion to Ахун.
Which basically means that I was going somewhere that was hilly. But where and what to see, I did not have a clue. The clue wasn't given when the booking lady took me to the bus stop and and told me I would be the only foreigner in the group and told the other 2 guys at that stop "she's French and she doesn't speak Russian, please look after her"! Which led me to have my picture taken with those two guys from Siberia as I was "the first person from France they had seen in their life". So if you ever go to Siberia, look for a picture of me!
And nobody spoke a word of English in the bus either! So here I was in a mini-bus full of Russians (they were lovely don't get me wrong), and the guide wouldn't stop talking either! But there was nice things to see on the way and we stopped at Аргунское ущелье to see a 'waterfall'. The walk up to there was quite nice (you can't beat 18 degrees, blue sky and sun in February!)

Vassili our guide

The good thing about not knowing what was happening is the total surprise that came from having a wine tasting in a dacha in the middle of the forest! Wine, red and liquor! Along with a 30 min explanation on how to make wine, en russe dans le texte! The other surprise is that the wine was quite good!

Wine tasting place

Wine tasting guy

We then left on very small roads to go up to Ахун. Up there there was a mini castle with 360 views on the mountains and the coast. What I was not expecting at the top of the hill was a Ferris Wheel!

Old style tea maker

And just like that the excursion was over! I was back in time to the seaside to see the sunset!

Tomorrow we're back to the Olympic Park for more figure skating! The Short Dance should give us a good idea on the final result and whether L'Equipe scoop on a USA-Russia alliance stands!

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Россиа, nous voilà!

Let's take it where we left! Moscow layover went well, if not for our flight to Sochi being delayed - but eh on time flights are not in my vocabulary anymore.
The flight itself was fairly easy with decent food and a first view of the torch a couple of minutes before landing!

Our cab driver was waiting for us and very keen on practising his English so he chatted all the way to the hotel! His music tastes were questionable at the most!
The first 'glitch' happened when we went to check-in at the hotel and the receptionist declared that she only had a booking for me and not for Luke (I had booked for the two of us!)! Bit of a heart stopping moment but she solved it in 2 min checking with her manager!
We had a room! With curtains, twin beds, doorknobs and crystal clear water! We even have a balcony with a (partial) view on the Black Sea and HD tv to follow the event we can't see live!!

No rest for the wicked! We headed to Central Sochi to activate our Spectator passes - 5 min tops! Pick up our tickets - 5 min tops! All under blue skies, sun and 18 degrees Celsius!
While we were at it, we tried to enter the line to get skating training tickets and a ticket to Canada-Norway (hockey) on the evening...
Well, let me just tell you that queuing in Russia could learn a lesson or two from British queue.
This was nothing like it! And it was taking place in stairs with no visibility of how long that would go on!! And since it was obvious I wouldn't make it in time for the game, I gave up 😞
(Canada won - so all was not lost!)

We headed back to the hotel and watched the Men LP from the hotel restaurant, to learn that - OH SURPRISE - Evgeny Plushenko had withdrawn and Russia would not have a Men representative in the competition!

The event itself was very good, Hanyu and Chan the clear leaders and 10 skaters aiming for a bronze medal within 10 points of each other!!

It was overdue bed time after sleeping less then needed in the overnight flights and a 7km walk to Central Sochi and back!!

Friday brought a even better weather and after a filling breakfast we headed for a walk on the promenade (in flip flops!! Welcome to February in Russia!!)

The temptation was too strong, I had to put my feet in the water!!!

It was... uh ... freezing!!!

We then decided to head out the the Olympic Park early to have a look around, try to score tickets and visit the Olympic shop.
The train ride to Adler is easy, but fairly slow 😞 50 min later we were at the entrance of the Olympic Park! Finally!

We were a bit baffled at not having to go through security or having our back scanned - but didn't say anything, we just wanted to get in!!

M

But as some of you naught remember from London 2012, he entrance of the park is nowhere near the venues! Another 30 min walk later, we were able to spot the ticket offices. More lining up in the horizons - and all the events we wanted were sold out! No luck!

XXX PICS OF THE PARK AND TORCH XXX

With an hour to kill, the Olympic Store was our next stop. But not before a nice queue of 1 hour... Which was a waste as the store was not very good and the items were quite expensive. Fruitless trip for both is us!

It was then time to head to the Iceberg Arena, host of short-track and figure skating events for this fortnight!
The category B seats were up on the upper balcony which was a bit disappointing. The upside was that they were on the judges corner so e for to see all programs from the judges sides.

I enjoyed the competition very much and thought that apart from the Top 2 pretty much everyone skated fairly well for their big moment.
The crowd was good even though there was no Russian Man competing and totally adopted Kazakhstan's Denis Ten!
As for every Olympics my French blood comes back running and I, yes I, even took out my French flag to cheer for Brian Joubert (my skating friends will know the important meaning of this, ahah)!! His long program was ok, and maybe the best he's skated at an Olympics. No matter how much I dislike the guy, he has stayed in the game for 12 seasons, and has medaled countless time. He can retire in peace!

10 points ahead after the short, Hanyu and Chan were battling for the Gold. After a poor outing from Hanyu, the gold was Chan to lose. And he did... Kudos to him though as he could have gone the safe route and still went for two quads.

Highlight of the season Jason Brown was skating last. With no quads in his repertoire, the Bronze was out of reach, but nevertheless his Riverdance program is such a feel good moment, I enjoyed it very much!
The cheer joy of making an Olympic top ten on his face was just so nice after all the pouts we had gotten!

With the stupid Medal plaza rule, we were deprived of a medal ceremony and had to settle for a Flower ceremony...

After the train ride back to Sochi, we had an encounter with our first mad Russian taxi driver. He agreed to our rate to the hotel, but man, I thought we were going back in a badly driven F1!! I had my doubts we would ever get there alive!
That's it for the first 2 days in Russia! I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, but eh! Oh, yes, Chinese Pang and Tong are at the same hotel as we are, and I almost walked into Evgeny Platov next to the torch after the Men Short program.

L'ami Nelson!

USA TV

Canadian TV!

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The Road to Sochi

It's with a bit of shame that I steal this Olympic athlete favourite twitter hashtag. Attending the Olympics as a spectator is obviously in a league well under the one all those hard working athletes are in. Yet, it is not a quick Eurostar weekend in Paris to plan either!

While I had lived in Vancouver and London when they hosted the Olympics, moving and living in Russia was never in my plans! (Regardless of the many times I was asked if was 'following' the Olympics)!

While summer Olympics are usually hosted by big touristy city, Winter Olympics tends to take place in remote places that don't exactly make the Expedia Top10 destinations! And Sochi is one of them!

Back at the beginning of 2013, Cosport (the British reseller) sent a tiny innocentI email named "Expression of interest"... They just wanted to now if I would be interested in going to the Winter Olympics... Doh - do you ask a dog if he wants a bone???

So after a chat with my figure skating aficionado friend Luke, we decided to both "express interest" for, well, all the Skating events!!

Since it was pretty much like the lottery for the London Olympics, we were not really expecting to get anything. So that was quite the surprised when we both received emails saying we had been allocated tickets! 

I was the lucky one as I got the Dance Free program (my fave event) and Ladies Long program (Luke's fave)!! We only had 48 hours to decide or we would lose the tickets!!

And while it seems like it was an obvious decision since I'm writing this waiting for my flight to Russia, well, the tickets price were exhorbitant! So, after an hour and a half on the phone, the decision was made - we were indeed going to attend our 3rd Olympics! (I'll pass on how we got more tickets three days later in the general opening! And how nice was Santa to get me a hockey ticket!)

But how does one gets to Sochi, little summer resort for rich Russians on the Black Sea coast?. Well, if you are organised and want to book your flight 10 months before like we were, not easily!

With no surprises, none of the big airlines where even flying close to Sochi... The most (geographically) sensible way was to avoid Moscow and connect before entering Russia. 

This is how we ended up with fairly decent flights via Kiev, landing 19h before our first event and taking us back home at the beginning of the weekend to recuperate before heading back to work. It was all pretty and nice and cheap until ... They got CANCELLED! in November. 

This happened to be a blessing in disguise! We had no choice but to go through Moscow this time, prompting the obvious decision to spend a couple of days in the  Russian capital! My finances were not thrilled, but the occasion was unmissable!

Flights with hindsight happened to be a walk in the park. We had tickets, we had flights, but came October we still had nowhere to stay! The Russian Olympic Committee had been saying for months that once the Olympic family and officials would have been allocated, rooms would be freed for the public... Months went by and nothing was being freed... Around July, the news came out that several cruiseships would be docked in Adler and Sochi ports to accommodate volunteers and public. While most people (in adversity you become attached to the fellow TripAdvisor community) were jumping in joy at the prospect of staying on a cruiseship, well, I was not! Probably my posh side, but I wasn't traveling so far away to be tuck underwater in a no window cabin! After contacting our local Olympic committees (GB, France, Australia, and countless hotels in the Sochi and Adler area, we were still very much homeless in Russia!

In a desperate attempts, and while they were not advertising any 'dry' hotels, we contacted the French reseller - Eventeam - and begged! 

They were able to offer us rooms in a giant hotel in Sochi, that was also hosting the Cosport client at a great price. While we would have preferred to stay in Adler near the Olympic Park, Hotel Zhemchuzhina looked great, prices were under our budget and knowing that Eventeam would be in site to help in case of problems sealed the deal for us! 

I can see how this is all very much #FirstWorldProblems, but the reality of being homeless in the middle of nowhere in Russia is not an appealing one!

With flights, tickets and hotel in hand, the last leg of preparation was still an important and one that could prevent everything to happen: obtaining a Russian visa. (This cannot happen until you book a hotel and receive an invite, hence our fears of not getting a place to stay!).

This was a fairly smooth process if you comply to giving all the info they request... Some I understand, some I still don't (3 months if detailed bank statements - do they need to know I go to Sainsbury every Sunday?) apparently they need to know if you have £100/day on your account to live in Russia... As I told the first dry unhelpful lady at the visa centre, "we are paying extortionate prices to go to the Olympics, do you think we don't have the money to survive there 10 days?" She did not care!

After 5 working days, the message came that my visa had been approved! Yeah! Felt like I graduated again! The Sochi trip was really happening!!

So that's it! I am writing this from Moscow Domodedovo airport, only a couple hours away from my third (and last) Olympics a year to the date from buying our first tickets. 

 I do plan on keeping the blog up to date while I'm there, but bear with me! Pictures will definitely coming even if content is scarce!