Sochi (Russia)

...in the Russian city of Sochi after an horrendous overnight sea voyage from Georgia, the border officials had to call an ambulance because of the terrible reaction I'd had to some mosquito bites I'd got on my last evening in Georgia (a word of advice - mozzies love the water so always cover up completely in the evenings if you are by water). The nurse and paramedic who came spoke no English but cleaned my swollen ankles and decided I needed to go ...
...be my chief memory of Sochi but whenever I think of it I think of the stark contrast between that hospital and the nearby luxury second homes owned by rich Russians who spend their holidays here in the country's chief seaside resort. In the days of the Soviet Union most Russians holidayed on the Crimean peninsular which is now part of Ukraine or the cities of Batumi and Sokhumi, the former is in Georgia, the latter is in the breakaway Russian-backed ... more

The first few hours spent in a new place can somewhat influence your opinion of it. When I arrived in the Russian city of Sochi after an horrendous overnight sea voyage from Georgia, the border officials had to call an ambulance because of the terrible reaction I'd had to some mosquito bites I'd got on my last evening in Georgia (a word of advice - mozzies love the water so always cover up completely in the evenings if you are by water). The nurse and paramedic who came spoke no English but cleaned my swollen ankles and decided I needed to go to hospital - a hospital which turned out to be a very grim and sad place indeed.

At the hospital my legs were bandaged and I was given a list of things to buy from a pharmacy. The nurse asked where we were staying. We told them we hadn't booked anything but that we planned to find some private accommodation. Well, actually because of my limited Russian I could only describe this as a "family house". "With a family?" the nurse asked. "Then come and stay with my family. The matter was decided and the nurse commandeered the ambulance that had brought us there and instructed the driver to take us to her flat.

You might think that this kindness would be my chief memory of Sochi but whenever I think of it I think of the stark contrast between that hospital and the nearby luxury second homes owned by rich Russians who spend their holidays here in the country's chief seaside resort. In the days of the Soviet Union most Russians holidayed on the Crimean peninsular which is now part of Ukraine or the cities of Batumi and Sokhumi, the former is in Georgia, the latter is in the breakaway Russian-backed state of Abkhazia which according to international law is still part of Georgia. Sochi was always popular but since the break-up of the Soviet Union has become more so and the city is rapidly expanding. When we visited the city was campaigning hard to become the city chosen to host the Winter Olympics in 2014 (this may be a seaside city but the snow covered Caucasus mountains are not far away). (Incidentally, the bid was successful)

We stayed five days in Sochi, first with the nurse and her family and when her father came to visit we decided to find alternative accommodation in spite of their protestations. Their flat was minute, two bedrooms but three people living there. The nurse shared it with her sister and her niece. When we arrived the sister and niece moved in together and we got the sister?s room. I suspect that although the three of them lived there, the nurse worked shifts and took one of the beds when it was free. They shared their home with a large dog and a feisty cat with two teeny kittens. When we arrived at the flat I was in raptures ? it was everything I imagined a Communist era flat would be. I know there will be people reading this who lived through that era and are glad at how things have changed (for some, of course, but not all) but that flat was the perfect example of Communist retro chic with the padded front door and collection of differently coloured and sized plastic buckets in the bathroom.

The flat was situated some five minutes walk from the main shopping street of Sochi, a long street with a market at either end. The one at our end of the street sold mainly fresh produce while the other one sold clothes and household items. The beach was fifteen minutes walk away ? longer if you had to keep stopping to tighten your inexpertly tied bandages (no safety pins could be found to secure them). Between the two markets was an assortment of bars, restaurants and shops; one of them was the pharmacy and the nurse?s niece who could speak a little English took us there. Everything was behind glass including the staff; there were two windows where you queued and passed through the list of requirements from your doctor. The pharmacist would then fetch the items in stock and cross them off the list. A cream, two types of tablet, a gauze like dressing and several rolls of bandage had been listed. The bill came to the equivalent of a couple of Pounds, an absolute bargain.

Despite the insistence of our hosts that I should not walk far I was keen to explore Sochi. It?s a place I have long wanted to visit as I saw something about it when I was quite young and added it to the long list of exotic places I wished one day to visit. Growing up in the latter part of the Cold War I believed for a long time that the Soviet Union was an austere grey place where it was so cold that people wore thick coats and fur hats all the time. When the Blue Peter team went to the Crimea on one of their annual expeditions I learned that this is not the case and that there were in fact holiday resorts with palm trees and sandy beaches. I was inspired to learn more and Sochi cropped up in a library book.

Sochi is rather distinctive in that it?s actually the only sub tropical part of Russia. Did you know that palm trees grow in Russia? Well in Sochi there are loads of them; not only that but this region has the most northerly tea plantations in Europe. On a hot summer?s day it feels more like the French Riviera than Russia as you walk along the palm tree-lined promenade past the designer boutiques and top class restaurants. The city has several parks which are really quite exotic and a fantastic arboretum that contains lots of varieties of tropical trees from around the world.

On paper Sochi should be a brilliant tourist destination. It has a brilliant summer climate, it?s on the Black Sea and it has lots of interesting buildings and attractive parks. Alas, the beach is pebbly and uncomfortable but nevertheless gets packed on summer weekends. My nurse had forbidden me to go in the sea but I secretly had a paddle even though I detest the feeling of a pebbly each underfoot. As for the interesting architecture, many of the most notable examples are public buildings and still in use so you either can?t go in or you can?t appreciate the building because there are so many people about such as at the railway station. Hopefully the powers that be will address the issue of signposting before 2014 because it is difficult to find many of the attractions. Sochi doesn?t have an obvious centre which means it?s hard to get some sense of orientation. I would strongly suggest doing some internet research on what to see and do because Sochi is not the sort of place that has lots of signs that will inspire you; nor did we find a tourist information office. All we had was an ancient Lonely Planet that had only a couple of pages about the city.

We tackled this in part by finding an internet café and doing some research online. Our first hosts also gave us some suggestions of what we might like to see. However, our new domestic arrangements had some influence as we bade farewell to the nurse and her family and set off for the train station to find a new place to stay. Not wishing to worry our hosts we told them we were going to a hotel because we needed them to register our visas ? I still feel bad about that little white lie. Within seconds of arriving at the train station a tall peroxide-haired lady approached us and asked if we looking for a room. She was not looking for guests herself, she was what I like to call the ?room pimp? ? as she spoke English she interpreted for all the old ladies who appeared from nowhere.

?This lady has one room with a balcony, you will share kitchen with her? she told us, and ?this woman has a big house with a garden overlooking the sea?. The negotiations moved to and fro and in the end we secured a flat to ourselves. The owner lived elsewhere but she took us there on the bus. For $10 a night we had our own self contained one roomed flat with kitchen and bathroom. The owner spoke no English but left a telephone number where she could be contacted if necessary ? but as she spoke little English and we little Russian I wasn?t sure how that might work. The benefit of renting a flat is that you can cook your own meals and as much as it might be fun in the beginning, eating out every lunch-time and every night on an extended trip can become quite tedious. With the local market nearby we were able to buy some cheap and tasty fresh produce and enjoy some salads that were not drowned in mayonnaise as is the Russian custom.

In Sochi we got around as best we could given that I could not walk far. After a lengthier walk than anticipated, we found the cable car that climbs above the botanic gardens and arboretum. The views are spectacular making this one of the best things to do in Sochi assuming you have a head for heights as the climb is steep and the cars soar way above the ground. When we got to the top we stood a while at the vantage point then went to buy a ticket for the descent. The cable car operator pointed to the footpath, he wanted us to walk back down and a downward journey seemed out of the question. I pointed to my bandaged ankles ? I was in no condition to walk all the way down having walked miles to find the cable car in the first place ? and the operator reluctantly took our money. Another Russian quirk that we never found an explanation for.

Sochi is very much a city of parks. The are tropical and botanic gardens in the city and in many of the suburbs and surrounding towns. In the centre of one Sochi park you will find the ?glade of peace? where a variety of VIPs including every Russian cosmonaut have planted magnolia trees. In another you?ll find the ?tree of friendship? ? a lemon tree onto which have been grafted cuttings from lemon trees from foreign countries as tokens of friendship. In the arboretum you?ll find ?Mayors Walk? which is a stylish boulevard of palms that have been given by visiting foreign heads of state and other dignitaries.

Sochi became popular as a holiday resort in Stalin?s time and so much of the really interesting and impressive architecture is in the ?Stalinist? style, predominant in the 1950s. The Maritime and Railway Terminals are the most striking and their graduated towers can be seen from all over the city centre. Other buildings worth a look at are some 1950s sanatoriums, Russian holiday complexes built for the workers who came here from all over the Soviet Union there are a couple near the centre but the best are some kilometers up the coast at Dagomys where the best botanical gardens complex is also found.

While Sochi does have an art gallery ? sadly we never made it there as it does operate some unusual hours ? it has a dearth of cultural places to visit. It is much more an outdoor place with the parks, beach and sporting facilities. The tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Yevgeny Kafelnikov were both born in Sochi and there are tennis facilities all over the city. The Russian national football team has a year round training camp here ? must beat training outdoors in Moscow in February ? and, generally, you will see lots of people out running and roller-blading.

The beach would seem a good prospect until you find out just how pebbly it is. It is somewhere you might go for a quick swim but not spend the day there as it is simply uncomfortable and impractical. There are some up-market restaurants and designer clothes stores on the promenade over looking the beach though we never saw anyone who looked remotely like the target client group. I suspect these people were all staying in the grand dachas over-looking the town and rarely ventured down to the city itself.

Eating out is a bit patchy in Sochi with ?international? restaurants being over-priced and offering poor service. If you are adventurous the best places to try are the ones that look the cheapest and grubbiest. Do also avoid the glitzy bars aimed at rich Russians which are soulless and expensive. Our favourite bar was a local one where you could buy a plate of dried prawns to go with your pint of Sarmat. One afternoon, while I was back in the flat resting my weary feet, my other half met Sergei here, a Russian sailor with whom he enjoyed a companionable afternoon drinking beer and eating ?stringly cheese? despite neither being able to comprehend the other?s language.

It is likely that, if you are a backpacker, you will end up in Sochi because you need to cross between Russia and Georgia without setting foot in Abkhazia (which is not recommended by the Foreign Office). This is the very bottom of Russia and it is unlikely you?d venture here for any other reason as it is a long way from other tourist destinations. With this in mind I wouldn?t really recommend anyone make a special trip to Sochi, there simply isn?t enough to see or do to keep you really occupied for long. However, I found it a good place to recuperate and I did like the feeling of well-being that pervades Sochi. It must have rubbed off on me and I can see why it?s popular with Russians looking for somewhere warm and pleasant to relax.

After so many years of wanting to, I am glad I finally got to Sochi even if I couldn?t enjoy it as much as I wanted. And when I finally get to Moscow in the winter (I long to go in winter rather than any other time) I will, no doubt, curse and wish I?d gone back to Sochi in summer. My feelings about Sochi are still torn between an admiration for the lovely parks and handsome buildings and a memory of that awful hospital and some of the run down apartment blocks where families cram in like sardines. I made some wonderful friends in Sochi and for that reason I will remember it with fondness. In this respect Sochi exceeded my expectations; the people were on the whole kind and genuinely friendly and it meant so much to us that people who did not have much were so willing to share what they had.

If you do ever visit Sochi make sure you talk to the locals, the people who live in Sochi all year round and are stuck there when the tourists have gone. They are far more interesting than any museums that this city might lack!

 

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