I’ve written very little about the weirdo pool I have to swim in here in Moscow. The embassy’s indoor pool (at least it’s indoors) is about 16m long, thus I do three laps and call it 100 yards. Or meters. Or whatever I feel like calling it that day.
The most disgusting part of the pool is that no one cleans it. I realized this recently when I noticed a line of green scum at the water level in each of the four lanes. I don’t touch the wall now, except to flip turn. I keep telling the “lifeguard” (really just a Russian dude paid to zap our badges upon our entry) I’m going to bring in a scrub brush and clean my own lane.
Well, being new to Moscow, I didn’t know that the embassy solves this cleanliness problem with something even worse: they close the pool for (at least) three weeks. What? WTF? Three weeks? Yes. They close it to re-tile (every year?!) and clean the pool. It must be disgusting…gross.
Yes, I will be without my beloved pool from September 13th to roughly 4 October. The search has begun to find a Russian pool to swim in. I found the Olympic (1980) pool complex. It’s got a bunch of pools in it. And I even got my spravka (справка, по-русски) from the doctor. (Gyms require a note from your doctor stating that you are fit enough to use their facilities. Without your spravka, you won’t get in.) This coming weekend I will test run the trip to the facility, as it is a few metro stops away. I’ll check out the prices and pools, see if they have lockers, shower facilities, and whatever else I need. With work, I think I’ll be able to maintain my workout schedule during the pool closure. Crossed fingers!