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Kravitz in Sochi: Other media get Bates Motel, I got the Waldorf-Astoria

By Bob Kravitz
bob.kravitz@indystar.com

SOCHI, Russia – For weeks leading up to these Olympics, all I heard were horror stories.

Journalists didn't have hotel rooms. Or they did have rooms and they were only half completed, doorknobs coming off in their hands, showers without shower curtains, broken light fixtures and bands of roaming stray dogs walking the grounds.

And then, after a miserable 42-hour long journey (nice seeing you, Frankfurt), I arrived, waited 15 minutes and walked into the Taj Mahal of Olympic housing.

Star columnist Bob Kravitz's hotel room from the Sochi Olympics.

Maybe it's my Russian surname and my boy Putin is taking care of me — he likes when I call him "Poots" — but I somehow got the presidential suite. People down the walkway from me got grotesque little rooms with little or no creature comforts, and I somehow got a Marriott-sized room with a nice big bathroom and running water (not for drinking, but you can't have it all).

This is my 12th Olympics and this is the best place I've stayed.

By far.

Most of my brethren got the Bates Motel. I got the Waldorf-Astoria.

Go figure.

(Of course, with my luck, I'll find out tomorrow I actually have a roommate.)

Palm trees and green grass, not very wintery...

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or emailbob.kravitz@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BKravitz.