While the athletes are ready for the Sochi Winter Olympics, which get under way at the Black Sea resort on Thursday, let's just say some of the facilities are not.
Journalists are known to complain a bit on foreign trips and at big events, but this is something else.
Ok, so my hotel doesn't have a lobby yet.
Congrats to @Dave_Schwartz only media personality who's arrived in Sochi with a hotel room that's ready, with doorknob that doesn't fall off
My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014
CNN booked 11 rooms in one @Sochi2014 media hotel five months ago. We have been here for a day and only one room is available. #cnnsochi
Still waiting for "preparations" on hotel room to finish. Hoping they're origami-folding toilet roll, rather than, say, putting the roof on.
First rule of staging an Olympics. Keep the hacks happy. Rooms, facilities sound atrocious. #Sochi
And when the water does work, you think twice before drinking any.
Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered
Curtains are optional.
This is the one hotel room @Sochi2014 have given us so far. Shambles. #cnnsochi
At least hotels know who's boss.
The reception of our hotel in #Sochi has no floor. But it does have this welcoming picture.
And beware the cartoon-style uncovered manhole on the sea front.
Watch your step @Sochi2014 -- I've noticed on walkway and on sidewalks that not all man holes are always covered.
You could always get a refreshing drink to calm the nerves... oh.
Sochi hotel not quite finished, & has no record of my reservation. I'll go to the bar while they try to sort it. Oh.
This was the view this morning from the Ice Cube Curling Center — we're assuming the piles of earth are not decorative.
Construction workers could still be seen this week finishing hotels in the area.
Bruce Arthur of Canada.com writes of a chaotic scene greeting foreign journalists, one of whom had to climb out of his hotel room window because the doors were locked.
One found his room was full of debris, while the next had construction workers sleeping in it. Journalists are known to complain about a lot of things, but this does sound like mismanagement on a very large scale.
Still, at least the views are nice.
View from hotel balcony above Sochi
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Monday: "The Olympic stage is ready for the best winter athletes of the world."
The Sochi games are costing Russia $51 billion to stage, which is five times the the cost of the last Winter Olympics, which were in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010.
