OT: Sochi must be Russian for "FUBAR" (Updated 2/6)

Submitted by mGrowOld on

Two days to the start of the 2014 winter olympics and it seems the Russians aren't quite ready for their guests to arrive.   The media began to arrive today and found non-function toilets & water, hotel rooms unfinished and littered with stray dogs & cats and a breakfast buffet one could only describe as "interesting" to say the least.  They have begun tweeting pictures and descriptions of the city and I'm pretty sure this isn't what Putin had in minds when he got the games.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552200/Welcome-Sochi-Journalis…

UPDATE: Looks like they are now running out of pillows:

"Due to an extreme shortage of pillows for athletes who unexpectedly arrived to Olympic Village in the mountains, there will be a transfer of pillows from all apartments to the storehouse on 2 February 2014.:

Apparently they didnt expect the athletes to arrive in the Olympic Village.

 

 

Sochi reporter Tweets

SF Wolverine

February 5th, 2014 at 7:37 PM ^

at a ceremony presided over by Bureaucracy. 

Wonder if this will finally convince the IOC that they really should think about issues like "do we really think these ding-dongs can pull this off" before they sign off on having the Olympics in the Third World.  Can't imagine that the summer games in 2016 are going to be a lot better.

PizzaHaus

February 5th, 2014 at 7:40 PM ^

Hey, at least their children are legally protected from having to hear any dastardly pro-gay propoganda. Thank goodness for small miracles, right?

Bombadil

February 5th, 2014 at 7:45 PM ^

I've been reluctant to poke fun at Russia for Sochi until the games start. After seeing these pictures and all the other reports, there's a good chance money directed to the games has been "syphoned off." Pretty sure bathrooms in homes of local govenment officials don't have this problem:

 

TIMMMAAY

February 5th, 2014 at 9:23 PM ^

But that seat isn't installed at all, it's just turned upside down. It was likely layint there next to the toilet, awaiting installation. If you know how they attach, you can see that it's not possible that it's installed backwards, at least not with the seat flipped up liket that. If they had left the seat down, it could have passed... 

1464

February 5th, 2014 at 8:06 PM ^

See... pictures like this one I am reluctant to believe.  Any reporter could have flipped that lid, and most would sell their own mother for a story.  Now, I think Sochi may in fact a shithole, but this.  This was done for publicity.

All this is coming from a guy who had a contractor install the lock for my brand new set of French doors on the outside.  I realized something was amiss when I tried to open the door and was locked in my house.  I had to go all the way around to the back yard to unlock the door.  By that time, dude was gone, so I had to flip the door handle myself.  True story.

mGrowOld

February 5th, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^

I think I like Lord Grantham.  This is the funniest (and nicest) of your various MgoPersonas.

I vote you keep this one and don't get yourself nuked.  I don't know if you're trying harder or what but for my money I hope this one sticks.  

You're definitely making me laugh.

LSAClassOf2000

February 5th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^

Among some of the interesting things floating around from what I have read, a German photographer arrived to find his room full of construction debris and non-functioning appliances.

Outside Chistya Prudy, there is apparently a bag of cement - leaking, of course - in a palm tree.

An SI reporter had to climb out of a first-story window to get out of his hotel because the doors lock from the inside. A Postmedia journalist had their bathtub come loose from the wall. 

I couldn't find the tweet, but there is a photo of a hotel room with working wi-fi - you know it works because it is hanging out of the wall. 

Someone also tweeted out that in their hotel, several of the outlets are indeed merely plates screwed to the wall. 

One hotel had a non-functioning elevator and stairs which were unlit and of varied height. 

There's more, but yeah, this sniffs of impending disaster somehow. 

Drbogue

February 5th, 2014 at 7:52 PM ^

Last night the nightly news did a story on hackers in Sochi. Apparently anybody who connect to Wi-Fi is at risk of having all their information stolen. It was pretty eye-opening. Granted it was probably hyperbole

93Grad

February 5th, 2014 at 8:18 PM ^

getting slimier, more hypocritical and money focused they don't hold a candle to the Olympics or World Cup.  There is greed, fraud and cooruption across the board from the way these events are awarded all the way to how facilities are built and who builds them. 

These Olympics in Sochi will be the perfect embodiment of that seedy underbelly.