Do Svidaniya

I am back in the Land of Flavorful Food.

Although to be fair, when we managed to wander outside of the official Olympic bubble we had some tasty dishes. The two Georgian restaurants rank at the top of the list, but be prepared to spend hours waiting for their delicious offerings. The price of having just-prepared goodness, I guess.

I was hoping to get this post up in a more timely manner, but a funny thing happened after my return home. I slept and slept and slept some more.

Got home at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and was fast asleep by 8:30. I then proceeded to sleep almost nonstop until Thursday morning. I’m pretty sure Anne checked a few times to see if I had a pulse.

I’d like to thank everyone for playing along on the blog, either by commenting or just checking in from time to time. Going to the Olympics is always a great experience, but getting to share it with friends and family always makes it much more fun.

Even if it means less sleep or wandering off with random Belarusians.

And a special welcome and thanks to the newcomers. The more the merrier.

The following are some final thoughts and random quirkiness that hadn’t made it into previous posts.

A NORWEGIAN IDIOM — OR NOT

Aksel Lund Svindal

As most of you know, we ran a daily feature on the Times site about Fourthers, athletes who came so close to medaling, but didn’t. We secretly rooted for English speaking athletes to come in fourth.

We had some great quotes from some of them:

Josiah Wells, a ski halfpiper from New Zealand, “I’m that guy. I’m the guy who got fourth”.

Andi Langenhan, the German luger when asked if the half second he lost by would haunt him for the next four years, “The little man in my head always says go on, go on, go harder, for sure.”

From that moment on we often referred to the “little man in our head.”

But the most potentially interesting quote came from Aksel Lund Svindal, the Norwegian who came in fourth in the men’s downhill.

In a busy mix zone (where athletes make their way through a maze of broadcast and print reporters) Ken Belson had interviewed him about being fourth and asked what Svindal thought of his countryman who came in third.

When Ken came back to the office and listened to his small recorder, he heard this through Svindal’s accent: “He is my roommate, so it will make the apples in the room smell better.”

Belson was a bit confused and told Victor Mather, an editor, what he thought he heard. Victor gave a listen. Mather heard the same thing. This conversation ensued:

Ken: “Should I use it?”

Victor: “Of course, it’s probably just a Norwegian idiom.”

Ken: “Should I explain what it means? Should we call the Norwegian consulate to see what it means?”

Victor, heatedly: “No! It’s just an idiom, people will get it! Just run it as is!”

From across the room, Justin Sablitch was listening to higher quality audio from Svindal. Justin recorded it to go on the site. “I think he says something about apple turnovers.”

Victor: “It’s a Norwegian idiom. Run it.”

Justin: “I cracked the code! I slowed it down. He says, ‘It will make the atmosphere in the room better'”.

Victor: “That would have been a hell of a correction to write!”

FAVORITE SOUVENIRS

Favorite momentos

I could have named this category several things: Favorite Blog Moment or Favorite Olympic Distraction.

In any case, I came home without an old pair of jeans and my muddy, salt-stained, torn ski pants because I had to make room for a few things, including my Belarus hat and my #13 Bottle of “plum wine”. I rinsed the bottle out before packing it, but apparently it takes more than a little hot soapy water to get rid of the smell of moonshine. After unpacking it, Anne asked if she could smell the bottle. “Oh my God” she said, “How did you even live to tell the story?”

THE MOUNTAIN TO OURSELVES

On Monday, we went skiing. Alone. On the entire mountain. It was awesome: sunny, warm and great snow up near Rosa Peak.

Jason (sports editor) asked on Sunday if there was a chance that some of us could go skiing on Monday. “Well, the mountain is closed” came the answer over the phone.

“Does that mean we can’t go?”, Jason said.

Jason was told they would call him back. The phone rang, it was Jean-Louis Tauillon, the mountain manager. He would take us skiing in the morning, which turned into a 4-hour tour of every part of the mountain, including portions of the men’s downhill. Five of us wore GoPro cameras on our heads; a short movie from them is above. There were some narrow passes where one false move would land you in Georgia, which was on the other side of the valley. I hear the food is good there.

About 33 seconds into the video you will see a man walking dressed in a white jumpsuit with black spots. He would be a Russian sniper. They were everywhere on the mountains during the Games, housed in the little white huts (shown in video) which also dotted the mountainside. No one would be sneaking up the sides of the mountain to mess with the Games or with us. I, for one, was glad they were there.

FAVORITE MOMENT, OLYMPIC RELATED

Ted Ligety had just won the giant slalom and was making his way through the mix zone — broadcast first, of course. A mass of print reporters saw his coach and ran to him to get his take. “What makes Ted so good at GS?” “Why is Ted different?” came the questions. The coach turned to the group and said, “Just go to The New York Times Website, their interactive on Ted explains everything.”

That was followed later by a similar exchange at Ligety’s press conference in the main media center down at the coast. When Ted was asked the same questions by a new set of reporters, Ted said, “Go to the New York Times Website, it explains everything.”

That made the indignity of my face-plant into the snows of Colorado all worthwhile!

FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH

Not surprisingly, the photo was taken by Doug Mills. As the veterans of the blog already know, Doug has a special spot in my heart for his generosity, class and work ethic. We have a question of the day at our daily meetings in the sports section. One day the question was, “which job at the The Times would you want other than your own?” That was an easy one for me. In my next life, I am coming back as Doug Mills. I like sports and I also have always wanted to work in the White House. Doug is the Times’s White House photographer and also shoots the top sporting events: Super Bowl, US Open Golf, World Series, Olympics.

It is probably not a coincidence that my favorite shot is of Ligety, but its the brilliance of the composition of this photo that blows me away. It had snowed hard the night before, so Doug skied his way to a spot high on the course that looked like it had a pretty innocuous background. Just some trees. No mountain peaks for drama. But what Doug got was a shot that looked like Ted and the gate were superimposed on a black and white photo.

Bam!

THE BIRTHDAY BOYS

After our Times bowling outing, a birthday cake appeared for Doug (photographer, center), Josh Haner (photographer) and me (blogger). It quickly deteriorated into a bit of a food fight in the halls of the mall. That may have had something to do the emptying of Bottle 13.

SEE YOU IN RIO

Ipanema Beach

So I think that wraps it up for the Sochi Winter Games. Thanks again to all who made this edition of Eatatjoesblog so successful and the most-viewed ever. Before you know it, it will be time to head south to Brazil for the Ipanema version. I’ll trade in my crampons for flip flops and my ski pants for swim trunks.

Spasibo and do svidaniya