An Olympic Moment to Remember
Saturday, February 18, 2006 will always be remembered as the day we (Chris, Erika, Jedrzej, Vanessa, and I) went to the Olympics.
It will also be remembered as the day that Murphy's Law repeatedly tried to prevent our going to the Winter Olympics to watch Team Canada's Mens Ice Hockey team compete.
Practically everything was moving ahead like clockwork; we had the tickets all locked up, we were going to meet up with the sellers at the train station to exchange money and tickets, food was going to be packed, the car was loaded and ready to go for the following day, and we were going to all spend the night in for a quick dinner and movie. Too bad, we didn't account for the possibility that 1 of the 2 ticket sellers we were meeting had his flight delayed by 4 hours.
In a nutshell, instead of arriving at the agreed upon time of 12pm at the train station, and then to be at Torino Esposizioni (venue arena) by 1:30pm, he was only just arriving at the airport at 12:15pm. According to that schedule we would miss most of the first period and be lucky to even see more than half of the 2nd period.
So yeah, we weren't exactly sleeping easy for the rest of the evening.
Anyway, we woke up, got onto the open road and made our way to Torino nonetheless.
The drive there was eccentric. Despite being only 2.5 hours away, on a good day, along the way, I think we passed through 5 different types of weather. Rain, fog, snow, clouds/overcast, and finally sun.
After parking, taking the shuttle bus, then the special Olympic tram, we finally made our way to the main train station to rendezvous with our first ticket seller. Once again this other ticket seller was running late, but we managed to amuse ourselves with lunch and still make attempts to signal our seller to our location.
With our last 2 remaining tickets still in limbo, on account of the late-coming seller, we opted to get going to the arena and look for "alternatives". Yeah, you know what I'm gettin' at. Our last sliver of hope: scalpers.
But luck still wasn't on our side as all the scalpers were ALSO looking for tickets to sell for the game. There was literally NOTHING left.
But we kept our spirits up...relatively...and there were some celebrity sightings. That's right, the TSN crew was there (Bob McKenzie, James Duthie, Gord Miller, etc.) and we even managed to get a shot of Tyler Stewart, drummer for 'The Barenaked Ladies'. And yes, that's a picture of Chris getting a whiff of Tyler's cologne.
But just as our luck was about to run out, our "beloved" ticket seller showed up with just 10 minutes to go before the game began. Apparently he had taken a taxi from Milano (2 hours by train, outside of Torino) with a couple of other guys also going to the game, to be able to make it somewhat in time. Now that's luck in the form of Euros. And in the blink of an eye we quickly divied up the cash and tickets and ran full speed to the gate.
With our tickets in hand, and my patented precision ticket certification test to prove that the tickets were legit...
...we made through the security checkpoint with ease and made our way to our section to be welcomed to this...
I'm sure everyone knows what the outcome of the game was...and if you don't, Canada lost 2-0 to Switzerland. I've already analysed the game to death, and what it came down to was a poorly organized Canadian team, a stifling Swiss 4-man trap defense, and great goaltending by the NHL Carolina Hurricanes/Swiss goalie, Martin Gerber.
On the bright side of things, we got to meet and take pictures with 3rd backup Canada goalie, Marty Turco, we met some fellow Canadians (Jane & Jenn) who are also McMaster-ans and one of them also hails from 'tha Hammer' as well, we got see some of this incredibly beautiful Italian city of Torino...
...and best of all we were at the Olympics!
Why are there 2 photos? Cuz neither of us wanted to lend the camera to a stranger, and because Chris and I are both formidable photographers.
Yes, we're just a couple of nerds at the Olympics.
Farewell Torino! We were saddened that we had to leave! But we'll be back in May! You can bet your spicy meatballs that we'll be back!
It will also be remembered as the day that Murphy's Law repeatedly tried to prevent our going to the Winter Olympics to watch Team Canada's Mens Ice Hockey team compete.
Practically everything was moving ahead like clockwork; we had the tickets all locked up, we were going to meet up with the sellers at the train station to exchange money and tickets, food was going to be packed, the car was loaded and ready to go for the following day, and we were going to all spend the night in for a quick dinner and movie. Too bad, we didn't account for the possibility that 1 of the 2 ticket sellers we were meeting had his flight delayed by 4 hours.
In a nutshell, instead of arriving at the agreed upon time of 12pm at the train station, and then to be at Torino Esposizioni (venue arena) by 1:30pm, he was only just arriving at the airport at 12:15pm. According to that schedule we would miss most of the first period and be lucky to even see more than half of the 2nd period.
So yeah, we weren't exactly sleeping easy for the rest of the evening.
Anyway, we woke up, got onto the open road and made our way to Torino nonetheless.
The drive there was eccentric. Despite being only 2.5 hours away, on a good day, along the way, I think we passed through 5 different types of weather. Rain, fog, snow, clouds/overcast, and finally sun.
After parking, taking the shuttle bus, then the special Olympic tram, we finally made our way to the main train station to rendezvous with our first ticket seller. Once again this other ticket seller was running late, but we managed to amuse ourselves with lunch and still make attempts to signal our seller to our location.
With our last 2 remaining tickets still in limbo, on account of the late-coming seller, we opted to get going to the arena and look for "alternatives". Yeah, you know what I'm gettin' at. Our last sliver of hope: scalpers.
But luck still wasn't on our side as all the scalpers were ALSO looking for tickets to sell for the game. There was literally NOTHING left.
But we kept our spirits up...relatively...and there were some celebrity sightings. That's right, the TSN crew was there (Bob McKenzie, James Duthie, Gord Miller, etc.) and we even managed to get a shot of Tyler Stewart, drummer for 'The Barenaked Ladies'. And yes, that's a picture of Chris getting a whiff of Tyler's cologne.
But just as our luck was about to run out, our "beloved" ticket seller showed up with just 10 minutes to go before the game began. Apparently he had taken a taxi from Milano (2 hours by train, outside of Torino) with a couple of other guys also going to the game, to be able to make it somewhat in time. Now that's luck in the form of Euros. And in the blink of an eye we quickly divied up the cash and tickets and ran full speed to the gate.
With our tickets in hand, and my patented precision ticket certification test to prove that the tickets were legit...
...we made through the security checkpoint with ease and made our way to our section to be welcomed to this...
I'm sure everyone knows what the outcome of the game was...and if you don't, Canada lost 2-0 to Switzerland. I've already analysed the game to death, and what it came down to was a poorly organized Canadian team, a stifling Swiss 4-man trap defense, and great goaltending by the NHL Carolina Hurricanes/Swiss goalie, Martin Gerber.
On the bright side of things, we got to meet and take pictures with 3rd backup Canada goalie, Marty Turco, we met some fellow Canadians (Jane & Jenn) who are also McMaster-ans and one of them also hails from 'tha Hammer' as well, we got see some of this incredibly beautiful Italian city of Torino...
...and best of all we were at the Olympics!
Why are there 2 photos? Cuz neither of us wanted to lend the camera to a stranger, and because Chris and I are both formidable photographers.
Yes, we're just a couple of nerds at the Olympics.
Farewell Torino! We were saddened that we had to leave! But we'll be back in May! You can bet your spicy meatballs that we'll be back!
posted by Alanosaur at
2:17 a.m.
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