Here's some more for you RickM.
We got to the Sanitorium Neva and had a look around.The lobby and public areas are very fancy. A lot nicer than this cowboy is used to staying in. But when I got our room I was a little disappointed. I've stayed in a couple of nice hotels but this more like an average motel back home. Not bad really and a lot better than my first apartment back in Volgograd. The only thing really lacking was a fridge. Most of our food rotted on us.
But we had meals included with our room so that wasn't a major problem. Just a shame to lose that much good food. The first day was sunday so everything was pretty much shut down. We wandered around and took pictures of the place and each other.
We were going to hit the beach but the sky looked funny. A couple of raindrops hit us so we headed indoors. We were sitting in the lobby bar for a few minutes when the sky fell. I've rarely seen rain like that in my life. The wind blew the rain in the main doors and flooded the lobby. They even had to shut down the elevators because the water was pouring down the shafts through the lobby doors. It was interesting to watch the workers try and scoop shovel the water out the doors while it was pouring down.
The next day we went to visit our main doctor. She took a quick look at us and told us to go to several others. The sanitorium gave us little pass books that we always carried around. Anytime we used one of their services we had to show that we were authorised by our doctor to be there.
I had a bad back so everyday I went to massage, a chiropractor and then a saltwater bath. The afternoons all I did was eat and wait for my lady. She had a couple of other doctors to visit each day. We scheduled most of our doctors appointments so that we would be together. But she has trouble getting up before 10 and then needs an hour to do her makeup. So most days I went alone and then she scrambled around trying to reschedule her appointments.
In the afternoons and evenings we went to the markets and shops to try and find some suitable beach clothes for my lady. We did find some but it ended up being a waste. The weather was cool and sometimes it rained so we only had one good day at the beach. My lady spent most of her time collecting small green stones that I would swear are wore down pieces of broken glass. I mentioned that and several people jumped on me and said they are stone. I have a couple of pieces and I'm thinking of taking them to a jeweller and seeing what they really are.
One morning the two of us were waiting to catch the elevator. My lady's sister Olya came out of another elevator. I looked at her and she looked at me. My lady was staring in the other direction. Then Olya started to walk away and so I said,"Privet." She started to laugh and my lady finally noticed her. My lady was very excited because Olya hadn't told us that she was coming down.
We did our morning doctors and then went to find a place for Olya to live. Now in Sochi many people own large houses or seperate buildings with rooms in them. All you have to do is look around and you can find dozens of places to rent. Of course this was during the off season. Maybe in the summer it would be harder to find something decent.
So Olya stayed with us during the day and went home at night to her room that was about 5 minutes from the sanitorium. She had food with her and our food that hadn't gone bad. But every meal We would smuggle some of our food or offerings from our table mates back for Olya. I got into trouble one day when my lady took several plates and silverware back to the room. I just played stupid(very easy for me) and told the waitress I wasn't with that woman. The other lady at the table almost fell on the floor laughing after the waitress left.
Our other tablemate was an older man. Him and the woman seemed to argue a lot but I didn't understand most of it. The last three days he was drunk the entire time. He kept trying to speak English with me. He was always kissing the girls hands and trying to compliment them. But he was so drunk that he wasn't coherent even in Russian. We spent some time trying to avoid him. But we still had to sit with him if he showed up for meals.
More later.
