With the Olympics well under way, this is a bit of old news, but have you seen all of the Sochi hotel drama? There have been so many hilarious photos and anecdotes gone viral thanks to the hashtag #sochiproblems . You can read/see many of them here, here, here and here.

Joe and I have loved seeing these and remembering our own living quarters hell. We’ve stayed in some doozies over the years and I thought it might be a fun to relive those days for you…

There was our hotel in Mexico, the resort El Cid with its swanky outside areas that overlooked the ocean. This was our view. Not bad, I know.

And the room itself wasn’t bad either…

But the humidity was so intense that when we went to bed our sheets felt soaking wet, yet they were dry. It was some of the most uncomfortable nights I can ever remember.

And there was our actual apartment in Mexico, where we did our laundry in a bucket and hung it to dry on our building’s roof, along with everyone else’s clothes.

 

There was the hotel in Mercogliano, Italy with its ripped and cigarette-burned sheets. Thanks, CCM, for these stellar accommodations. I think these photos are from Wallis’ bed.

 

Then, there was China….

Our first apartment, courtesy of our employer, was here. I can’t remember how long we lasted, but it was probably less days than we have fingers. Our apartment was atrocious, especially the kitchen, and I remember our mattress smelling like mold. Our first morning there, I remember waking up to our passports rolled into tight cigars from the humidity.

 

It didn’t take us long to get the hell outta there and into this beautiful building, thanks to some charades and Google Translate. Apartment 30H…sometimes I actually miss it.

In Hong Kong, our last performance in China, they put us up in these tiny hotel rooms. Joe’s height was literally the width of the room and the bathrooms were so small you couldn’t shut the door if you were in there. But you were in Hong Kong, so it didn’t really matter.

These were all trying times in their own way, but we laugh about them now. Traveling overseas is what you make of it, and we have no regrets. I guess I feel lucky that our water was never yellow and ceilings never fell on us. And I’m more thankful I now live in an area that has almost NO humidity. Utah…the land of straight hair, dry sheets and flat passports. It’s the small things in life sometimes.

Anyone else have some crazy hotel/apartment stories?