Continuing my transition to the night shift, I got home at 12:30am last night, and wasn't due in until 9pm today. I slept fitfully till about 5am, and then got a solid 7 hours of sleep through till noon. Got up did some email, and some blog work, and then tried sleeping again till 3pm.
Overview of the Adler Olympic area...
Knowing I wasn't going back to sleep, I decided to get up and walk around my hotel complex, find out where things are, and take some pictures (that I will share in this post). In the above, you can see my hotel complex in relationship to the Olympic Park and the IBC. Funny that the IBC is nearly as big as my entire hotel complex (12 buildings with 2880 rooms).
As you can see, we are pretty close to the Black Sea (I could walk from my hotel if I can find the one and only path that is not blocked off to find the beach). Amazing that it takes 20 minutes by bus to get from my hotel to the IBC (or about 30-40 minutes to walk, which I have not tried yet).
The view from my balcony...
Every room has a balcony, and mine faces away from the sea towards the mountains. Adler lies on the coast surrounded by small hills, heading off towards the mountains.
Looking south towards the Black Sea...
There are 12 building in the complex, and I am in building 12 which sits in the middle of the complex (and is maybe why it is the least "finished" of them all). We are maybe 1km from the coast.
In case I need a place to play...
Walking around the complex, there are lots of playgrounds and outdoor pools (none of which are actually ready to use). Clearly they expect lots of families to come and stay here after the Olympics are over.
From the bridge over one of the canals...
There are two long waterways that will have boats (probably paddle boats) for guests to use (after the Olympics of course). And there are several restaurants along the waterways.
The Italian restaurant...
I haven't eaten at the hotel yet, but I'm told the Italian and Russian restaurants are very good, if a little expensive. I will probably try them both at some point, just to be able to have eaten outside the NBC commissary (which is also pretty decent).
Landscaping not quite complete...
The entire hotel district (there are several other complexes at least as big as ours) encompasses something like 25,000 new hotel spaces, and was built on what used to be swamp land. Even now, there is still quite a lot of mud, and grass that hasn't quite filled in yet.
The Beer garden... (you know I'll visit here)...
In between our hotel and the Olympic park, they've also built an amusement park that most of us are calling "Putinville". There is a large castle-like building, and several roller coasters and rides. The park is not going to open until after the Olympics (of course).
"Putinville"
You can actually see "Fisht Stadium" on the other side of the park. This is where the Opening Ceremonies will take place tomorrow night.
"Fisht Stadium" in the background
That black fence above is the border of our hotel complex. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from our hotel to the Olympic Park entrance (if you know where you are going, which I don't, yet), and then another 30 minutes to walk across the park to the IBC.
Hope to have some photos of that journey in the next day or too.
As it is, tomorrow is the Opening Ceremonies, hope you are all going to be watching!
I saw "Putinville" on the Today Show the other morning. I think it's so strange how many things aren't finished! I just wonder what the area will look like in 5-10 years!
ReplyDeleteAlicia =0)
The Olympic Park area will become an F1 Grand Prix race course for a race later in 2014. They've built 25,000 new hotel rooms, and the amusement park. Sochi will also host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Clearly they intend to make this a resort destination.
ReplyDeleteMany former Olympic cities have pretty sad histories for how their sites and venues have fallen into disrepair. Hope it doesn't happen here.
Cheers - Sean