My very first look at Sochi was at night after our 29 1/2
hour train ride. Mark's generous boss picked us up and drove us around a bit
before taking us to see our flat for the first time. The first thing I remember
is driving down one of the busy streets and noticing how beautiful this place
is. The amount of trees was surprising. Many of the streets in Sochi center are
covered with tree canopies. They are lit at night and it creates a beautiful
ambiance. Remember, this was my very first impression of Sochi and I hadn't
spent any time here yet.
We have been living in Sochi for almost three months now. It
is a very interesting place. Out of all of the places we have been, we describe
it as a mixture of three: Doha, Thailand and Mexico. Doha because of all of the
ridiculous construction going on and the way it makes everything dirty.
Thailand because of the sub-tropical foliage. There are evergreen trees right
next to palm trees with squirrels running from one to the other. There are also
magnolia trees, fruit trees and bamboo
growing everywhere. And, it's like Mexico because of all of the wares
being sold on the street and the pushy people selling them. You name it, you
can probably buy it on the street. We really thought of Mexico when we passed a
couple of huge outdoor marts off of the side of the road selling ceramic crap.
You could buy anything from garden gnomes and piggy banks to a life-sized horse
or tiger and a gigantic ice cream cone. There is also an element of unsavory
characters that reminds us of Mexico and is the first time we experienced it
since living in Russia. This requires us to be even more aware of our
surroundings than we did in Moscow.
Sochi has little flat ground. You are either going up or
down a hill. This makes for some good work outs walking around town. What makes
this place suitable for the Winter Games is how it goes from the sea to the
hills to the mountains in a matter of 2 or 3 kilometers. This terrain makes it
challenging to get around. We were told that last year there was snow on the
palm trees by the sea. We will see how our first winter in Sochi plays out. So far,
we have just had some rain; just enough rain to still love the rainy days. It
has been quite pleasant so far.
The traffic in Sochi is unbelievable! We thought the driving
and traffic was bad in Doha. It doesn't even compare to what we experience
here. The infrastructure is just not enough to handle the amount of cars on the
road. Plus, the quality of the roads is atrocious. There is a road that leads
out what we call the "back way" from our apartment. We were driving
it the other day and there was a stretch of about 150 meters that was literally
under at least a foot of water and it hadn't rained in days. We were lucky to
make it through. People park and drive wherever they want. If you double park and
block someone in, it's ok; just leave your phone number on the dash. That makes
it fine that you just inconvenienced someone by parking behind them. It is a
free-for-all sometimes. Lanes are merely a suggestion around here.
If we had to choose one thing that we could really do
without, it is the fact that we lose power so often. Some weeks, we are without
power every other day. The longest we have gone without power consecutively is
2 1/2 days. We have been told that occasional power outages are normal.
However, the outages that we are experiencing are not. We live on the
thirteenth floor of our building, so losing power so often becomes very
frustrating. The girls are starting to really hate walking up and down thirteen
flights of stairs. And, so are we.
The people in Sochi seem to mostly be more accepting than
what we experienced in Moscow. With the language barrier, we have had a lot of
people try to help or just laugh at the awkward situation of not understanding
each other. We don't get the attitudes toward us that we did in Moscow and this
is genuinely appreciated.
All in all, Sochi is an interesting place. I am sure it will
bring many adventures while we are here.
