Stray Dogs and Other Tales

“When I came out of the elevator, there was the dog.” Joerg Reuter told the Associated Press. “Right, that’s it,” he said. And with that Reuter had seen enough. He was willing to overlook the construction debris and layers of construction dust covering everything. Even the rooms where, he said, “You actually saw that there are still the construction workers sleeping and living”. But when he saw the stray dog strolling out of one of his potential rooms, Reuter packed up and headed out of the mountains and back down to Sochi to find a suitable room there.

My trip to Russia was smooth and the Olympic volunteers whisked us through the Moscow and Sochi airports. On the shuttle ride up the mountain I thought back to last year’s ride up this same pass. (If you missed that post, it’s here.) I was now speeding along on the new highway, well lighted, and with no brushes with a soggy end. I could see the new rail line running parallel to the highway, taking passengers from Sochi to Krasnaya Polyana, home to the mountain cluster of venues.

This thought crossed my mind: This sure is better than last year, but maybe not so good for the blog!

My room is in the mountains and when I arrived, I knew the blog would live on. I can attest to the debris and the dust and the overall unfinished nature of our accommodations. I have not yet seen any stray dogs in my hotel, or stray construction workers for that matter. Although the construction vehicles outside my window appear to work all night. Those backing-up beeps from the truck are strikingly similar to the sound of my alarm!

The Olympic Organizing Committee says that six of the nine media hotels in the mountains are ready. I am wondering where my hotel falls on the ready-not-ready spectrum. I know where I would place it. But enough whining; I am at the Olympics after all!

And my story pales in comparison to the guy from the U.S.O.C. who had booked a room at a hotel at an even higher elevation. His hotel was to be accessed only by a gondola. He gets to the mountain after midnight and wanders around in the dark for an hour (carrying all his luggage) looking for the gondola. He finds one with a young Russian dude sitting there. Russian dude spoke no English, American dude spoke no Russian. He decides to get on the gondola with all his bags. He gets off at the top to find a mostly empty landscape and another lone Russian sitting in a small building.

Seems that the hotel doesn’t even exist. Never got built. But apparently that didn’t stop them from taking reservations.

In comparison, my digs are gold!

Jason Stallman, NYT sports editor, who arrived Saturday also, sent an email to those who haven’t arrived yet warning them to the state of affairs. That led to a string of responses. Here are excerpts:

Jason’s first sentence:

John Branch: For reasons I can’t quite explain, this makes me smile.

Sarah Lyall: This is actually kind of fantastic, especially when you get to the guy who “discovered that his hotel didn’t really exist.” (We are going to have so much fun, seriously).

Jim Luttrell: The worse it is, the better the tales.

(And it is that kind of thinking that landed Jim in the role of guest blogger for Eatatjoesblog.com). You’ll be hearing from him.

Justin Sablich:
I’d like to steer this conversation back to the stray dogs.
Jason,
1) Does our office have a stray dog?
2) If so, can we keep it?? Pleeeeeze?!
3) I’d like to name it Nikolai Volkoff

Jere Longman:
At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, my lavatory fell off the wall in my hotel room.
“Don’t worry,” the desk clerk said. “It’s not the first time.”
Everything went well from there until they ran out of duck in the media dining room. In my fractured French, I tried to tell the cashier that I’d love to have a little duck.
Instead, I told her, “I love you, my little duck.”
Never having been called a waterfowl by an American reporter, she was not pleased.

Bill Pennington:
When I checked into my hotel/motel next to a truck stop in Ogden, Utah, for the 2002 Olympics, my room did not have a door. When I pointed this out, they gave me an adjacent room instead. When I came back the next night, my room was missing its door, which had been moved to my original room. (They did eventually find me another door.)

Sam Borden:
While these tales of previous disaster are reassuring, no one has yet to bring up anything that comes close to potentially being (unsuspecting) roommates with stray dogs. Though, it sounds like if that happens, Justin is very much prepared.

Jere Longman, again:
I never shared a bunk with a stray dog, but one of my college roommates kept a raccoon in our apartment for a semester. If you ever have occasion to keep a raccoon in your apartment, do not under any circumstances store it in a beverator.

Sarah Lyall, again: what is a beverator?

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!