2014 Sochi Olympic Journal #8: The Metal Barrier Habitrail

Most of my fellow journalists as well as the athletes are mystified by all the questions and press about poor accomodations, no running water, and hotel rooms without doors. Yes, everything is brand new and there are kinks to be worked out, but from one person's limited purview, for the most part everything is up and running. Here's the rub though - this incredible Olympic Park, with 8 massive venues all in close proximity, suggests that everything is a few minutes walk away - in fact no venue in the coastal cluster is farther than 400m from the other. Incredible! Amazing! All built from scratch on the beautiful Black Sea, except...

Yesterday it took me 2 hours to transit the 400 meters from my hotel to the Iceberg venue. There are 2 hurdles to go to a venue:

1) To pass security - yesterday due to opening ceremonies the line was an hour long and...

2) The Metal Barrier Habitrail - each day they arbitrarily create barriers in and around all the venues and if you don't know the few slots through them, you can find yourself walking fruitlessly toward and away from your destination, hemmed in by a silver wall of bars. Yesterday I walked within paces of the Iceberg only to find myself following the grid of steel bars farther and farther away and ultimately circling the entire compound, a full hour's walk

Still, you have to hand it to the security teams - there's just no way to know the way into the "bubble" because they change the patterns of the iron grid every few hours, so even though it is a pain to see my hotel yards away yet 1/2 mile or more, it does make us feel safe.