I have a dream of meeting Shaun White. A huge dream! I have wanted to meet him since the 2006 Olympics when I was only 12. I am currently 16 (turning 17) and a junior in high school in Pennsylvania, USA. I am planning on either going to the Dew Tour, Winter X Games, or 2014 Sochi Olympics. I would rather go to the Olympics, since it might be his last run in the Olympics. Anyway, I had a couple of questions about the Olympics coming up in Sochi… 1. When can you start buying event tickets?? I want to buy them as soon as possible to get closer seats and so I make sure I have them. 2. Roughly how much would a round trip plane ticket cost? I would probably be flying out from Washington D.C., Philadelphia, or Baltimore. 3. Roughly how much would a hotel cost for each day? 4. I saw the Men’s Halfpipe event ticket cost $150 for the A Level, would it be roughly the same in Sochi? 5. Do the people who work at the Olympics know English? (I’m learning Russian anyway, but I’m still a beginner.)
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The trick with Russia is that if you want to live like a Russian you will live cheap, but if you want to do anything even remotely North American you will pay like crazy. I do not know when you can buy tickets, that is not what I know, but I will tell you about some of your other questions. A plane ticket to Russia will cost anywhere between $900-$1200 round trip to Moscow. Once in Moscow it is a bit of a trip to Sochi, which is on the Black Sea. I've read that perhaps there will be a high speed train running by 2014, but it is hard to predict things like this in Russia. Also, the Nevsky Express, Russia's other high speed train route, was bombed this year. According to rumours the train will cost approximately $20 and take 15 hours, but this seems like a gross underapproximation. Train travel is very cheap in Russia, but the Nevsky Express costs roughly $150 and is a much shorter distance. Flights from Moscow to Sochi can be bought, but regular train travel in Russia is very cheap and quite enjoyable. The distance from Moscow is 1,300km, which on a standard Russian train (max speed 120km/h) should take you about a day. Probably if you left first thing in the morning you would arrive first thing the next day. I have never travelled to Sochi, but have taken many train rides in other directions from Moscow! Hotels in Sochi will be expensive. Like I mentioned it is not cheap to live like a North American. If you want European toilets, toilet paper, American style hotels with nice carpet and new bedding it will cost you dearly. If you can be satisfied with a Russian style toilet, a situation where you must finagle bumagi (TP) from a woman with metal teeth, and rough wool comforters you may pay much less. The problem is that the Sochi government will know you are coming with money and make it difficult to find such accommodation. It is dangerous in Russia for people to know that you have much money, because many of them do not. It is unlikely you will encounter crime, Russia is very safe, but people will charge you money for everything. I have paid fifty cents for a piece of newspaper to wipe my arse in a jimmy john I'd already paid fifty cents to enter. For hotel prices I would expect the same prices as in Moscow for the duration of the events. Expect to pay roughly 2000-5000rb a night for your room. A homestay would be your best bet as a young person and you may get lucky. I stayed in Petersburg in the Summer for only 1000rb a night and in Moscow for the same, although Peterburg was a homestay and Moscow was a hostel. Again, hotels are expensive in Russia. When you get to the Russia you will find that nobody will be happy to speak English with you among the Russians. This is not Canada or Western Europe. They do not accept dollars, they do not have the same cultural way-points, and they mostly do not know English. If you can't read cyrillics you will have an impossible time in Russia. If you are not quite street smart you can easily get lost and nobody will want to help you. As an example, when I arrived in Moscow last I used a cash machine to exchange some of my Euros into Rubles. The machine took about a thousand Euros, made a noise, and promptly displayed a message reading NE RABOTAET, roughly translated as "he doesn't work". I do not want to suggest that I speak Russian, either. I was lucky enough to argue loudly enough with what Russian I can speak that an Aeroflot steward passing by heard me, stopped, and settled the affair. Result? A prepaid credit card with all my money on it that I could use after... ten days. Bureaucracy is still pretty thick, but you need to be ahead of the curve or at least willing to fight against it effectively. Russia is not an easy country in which to travel. They do not like tourists and do everything they can to keep people out of their country. However, it is a beautiful country filled with amazing places, people, and experiences. You will need a lot of money and "balls of steel", but best of luck. It is truly my favourite place on earth.
