Hockey Wesnesday in Russia!

And it really was the Russian version of Hockey night in Canada as I was seating just 50 m away from Don Cherry and Ron McLean for the Canada game!
On Monday, I tried to buy tickets for the Finland-Russia but it was obviously sold-out. I still gave it a try as I wanted a single ticket and they are always easier to get. Unfortunately not this time. As the first game of the day was featuring Sweden, aka Tre Kronor, home country of several Canucks players, it was an easy decision to pick up a ticket for that game instead!
Sweden has easily gone through their group and earned a direct spot to the 1/4 finals (along with the USA, Canada and Finland).
They were playing against surprise Slovenia who had gone through the exploit of eliminating (Los Angeles Kings Anze Kopitar's) Slovakia!!
I was seating twenty rows from the ice where Latvia shot twice. Translation of that hockey lingo was that I had good seats to see King Henrik do what he's the best at!

The first period was even and Slovenia was giving Tre Kronor a run for their money. Sweden dominated and went on winning 5-0.

The game quickly went back to reality in the second I was seating twenty rows from the ice where Latvia shot twice.
Canucks Daniel Sedin scored a goal (his first of 2014!!) and New York Rangers Carl Hagelin scored two.

Sitting close by to me was a Canadian. Poor lad missed the second goal and came back asking who scored. Always happy to help I answered "Daniel Sedin" which was met by a "ahahah the Sedins sisters!" Gggggrrr. Only took a split second to answer him back "we are so not going to be friends". Upon more questioning, he appeared to be from Calgary. It all made sense!!

Anyway, I did not stopped there and went on asking him how many Flames were playing in the Olympics. I knew the answer but just wanted to remind him that his NHL team SUCKS! Ahah! His answer "nobody but almost" yes, almost like you almost never make the playoffs!!!
Anyway, we both agreed we would be on the same side in the evening!
After the game, I met with Luke and we went to see the Russia Fans House were there was a display of all sports and Russian athletes and a talk with former soviet gymnasts. It was interesting and the highlight was finally finding a ticket holder for my Olympics tickets! Hihi!
I then headed to the medal plaza to watch the end of Finland-Russia which was already 3-1 in favour of the Finns. With 8 min left there was nothing Russia was able to do to come back. What a desolating spectacle the medal plaza was.
How did Russia get eliminated with so much talent? Malkin, Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Kovalchuk and co? With it we were getting deprived of a much anticipated Canada-Russia final 😞
Since I had a couple of hours to kill before the game, I decided to stay for the medal ceremony. Which did not start at 19h has announced but at 20h14!!! In the meantime I had to put with some kind of Russian Idol singer (Mitya Formin I believe). Well let's just say that I might not be his biggest fan!!!

The torch fountains were then lit up with a sound show. Quite pretty for the part I saw. People in the crowds had no respect for each other and it was very hard to see anything, let alone move....
Time came for the first ceremony, and with luck it was for the Slalom Giant Women I attended on Tuesday!!

I'm not liking this day after medal ceremony. It takes all the momentum and emotions away and the true fans who went to events don't get to witness the medal ceremony... This just scream money making so people will buy tickets to the ceremony.

I then headed for the big deal of the day, Team Canada 1/4 final. For this one I was up in the nosebleeds, but nosebleeds at the Bolchoy Dome are about first rows at Rogers Arena (for the connoisseurs!). Latvia was on the plan after surprisingly defeating Switzerland the day before in the qualification game.
I was sitting next to a Canadian from Newfoundland, and I knew they had a strong accent there, but nothing prepared me for this! I had to ask him to repeat everything - never had a clue what he was saying!

He was the surprised one when he did not know who 22 was and I had to tell him it was Jamie Benn, of the Dallas Stars. He greeted me with a "oh- you know your hockey!" Ahah, coming from a Canadian I took it as a compliment!

The game itself was much different from an NHL paced game I am used to, as the ice is bigger and the luck kept rolling. Latvia was on, and their goaltender put on a master lass stopping 53 of the 55 pucks directed at him.

Sharp opened the score in the first period but the joy was short lived as Latvia scored shortly after. The second period went scoreless and palpitations and sweat were starting to be seen in the arena in the third. Could there be a second upset that day?
Thankfully, the Canadian powerplay and a bomb by (BC born) Shea Weber released the pressure with 7 min left.
Around 3 min left, my Newfie neighbour was screaming victory, but I, the Canucks fan, told him that nothing is done until it's over! I still have nightmares of Toews scoring on the Canucks Game 7 with 20 sec left in the game!
Speaking of Mr Toews, he is the player that I noticed the most in the game. He's just a defensive monster!

I was soooo happy to be able to attend the Canada game, just made me realise even more how much I miss watching live hockey! Fingers crossed for the rest of the tournament!
GO CANADA!

Couple more pics:

Don Cherry's wonderful jacket (as usual)

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Ski, snow and Club France: a day in Красная Поляна!

(There will be an update and pictures of the ice-dance competition later on)
On Tuesday, I took my first (and only) trip to the Mountain Cluster for the Women Slalom and to finally meet up with Emilie!
The weather condition were planned to be heavy rain so I finally was able to use all those winter clothes and thermals I had brought all the way with me!

Early day it was and I headed to the train station at 7. The trip to the Krasnaya Polyana hub is 50 kms and it took 1h45 to get there and it wasn't even the end of the journey.
So far, for me, the slowness of the train is the only glitch of those Olympics. Having to spend so much time commuting to cover so little distances is killing me. Maybe there was a Window for Alsthom or Bombardier on those Olympics? Anyway too late. And everything else has been amazing so that's really just a small complain.
Happened to be sitting on said train with 2 French guys from Paris who had WON a trip to the Olympics with RMC (French radio).
One of them was so blasé about it I could have slapped him. He was unhappy with everything, the events he got, the distance between coastal and mountain clusters and kept taking about the money the Russians spent and how it will all go to be ruins once the OG were over.
He also went on a rant on how people couldn't speak English and the abnormality of it. At this point, I went the obnoxious Olympic expert know it all way with him and gave him an explanation on what most of the venues will become and reminded him how the Krasnodar region was quite remote and not Moscow. My "vous pensez que si vous allez en Creuse vous allez trouver des gens qui parlent anglais?" seemed to shut him up for a while.
What is wrong with people? You just got an ALL EXPENSES PAID trip to the greatest show on earth, just enjoy it!
(The other guy was quieter and seemed more open minded).
This type of people are the reason why I always make a point of saying I don't live in France. Rant over.
Once we made it to Krasnaya Polyana, we had to take two buses to Rosa Khutor (Alpine skiing center) and then a very steep cable cabin up to the mountain.
The not so little secret is that I'm terrified of mountains cable cabins... I can travel round the world in planes, trains and any cars - but being suspended hundreds of meters above a valley scares the sh*t outta me.
I can't explain it, it just does!!!
And lucky me did not even get a seat, so I was wonderfully able to have a 360 view on all that emptiness!!
I tried not to think about it and I made it up to the mountains!
There I finally met with Emilie! They has brought the beginning of the competition forward by 90 min (without notice) so I missed the biggest part of the first run. It was pouring down with rain, but I still enjoyed the end of that run. I had never been to a ski event before and the steepness of the slopes was very impressive! Kudos to the skiers for taking that at such a speed!

I was quite happy with our standing tickets, as it wouldn't have been impossible to sit, and Emilie had arrived early and got us great spots on the first row! The views were great.

We went down for a coffee at intermission and had a lengthy chat with 3 Russians from Krasnodar City, all in Russian if course! My brain was so tired after!!! We obviously had to pose for the usual "you're the first French people I meet" photo with them.
It was then time for the last run of the 30 best times ladies. By then it had started snowing heavily at the top of the slope and the race was delayed by 10-15min. While it could have been a let down, it was actually great to see snow. We are at the WINTER Olympics after all!! 😊
Once the race started, all the girls had a good run (only 1 fall) and the French skier (check name) remained in a Bronze position for a while.
That unfortunately did not happen, but as we were surrounded by many German people and the German lady did get bronze we were able to join in and celebrate! The Franco-German alliance is strong as ever!!
We then headed back towards Krasnaya Polyana. It was cable cabin time again!! Yeah!!! The cabin was made of a big group of CBC sponsored Canadians, more Russians and our dear Krasnodar friends who had had a few beers since we left them.
Krasnodar lady decided that everybody should know I could "speak" Russian and went on to repeat our entire conversation from earlier to all of them!! I was a bit gobsmacked but I was in a middle of a 'bonding' with two Montreal Canadians Canadiens fans over 'our' common hate about the Boston Bruins!
Who said hockey was a violent sport? It has brought nothing but love to me! Lol.
Krasnodar lady was not done yet and she took to me to be liaising with the Canadians as she wanted to know if the Canadian group was enjoying their time in Sochi/Russia.
And we all ended up singing "Россиа, Россиа" in the cable cabin!! What an awesome moment it was! And yours truly totally forgot she was suspended in the air in the middle of nothing!
We then headed to the Club France in Krasnaya Polyana for a bit of warmth and see what the French team was up to in the medal ranking!
As soon as I walked into the Club France, I walked into who is probably my favourite athlete ever, all sports all countries included - Marina Anissina!! Time to react she was almost gone, but kindly stopped for one picture! Unfortunately, I never know what to say to her... I'm just in awe at what she achieved and the sacrifice she went through to achieve it, words fail me everytime! We just took to our seats in time to watch the great end to Martin Fourcade's third race - he literally missed gold by ONE inch!!! Tough, but so far two golds and one silver in one Olympics is something to be proud of!!

Club France had flown a French chef in, and that Poulet Provençal and Speculoos cheesecake were de.li.cious!! Eating those at the same table as French Olympic Gold Medallists Luck Alphand and Edgar Grospiron did not hurt either!
It was a good day for France with a Gold in Snowboard, a Silver in Biathlon and a Bronze in half-pipe!
It was 7pm and time to head home after a great day!

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Россиа, nous voilà!

Let's take it where we left! Moscow layover went well, if not for our flight to Sochi being delayed - but eh on time flights are not in my vocabulary anymore.
The flight itself was fairly easy with decent food and a first view of the torch a couple of minutes before landing!

Our cab driver was waiting for us and very keen on practising his English so he chatted all the way to the hotel! His music tastes were questionable at the most!
The first 'glitch' happened when we went to check-in at the hotel and the receptionist declared that she only had a booking for me and not for Luke (I had booked for the two of us!)! Bit of a heart stopping moment but she solved it in 2 min checking with her manager!
We had a room! With curtains, twin beds, doorknobs and crystal clear water! We even have a balcony with a (partial) view on the Black Sea and HD tv to follow the event we can't see live!!

No rest for the wicked! We headed to Central Sochi to activate our Spectator passes - 5 min tops! Pick up our tickets - 5 min tops! All under blue skies, sun and 18 degrees Celsius!
While we were at it, we tried to enter the line to get skating training tickets and a ticket to Canada-Norway (hockey) on the evening...
Well, let me just tell you that queuing in Russia could learn a lesson or two from British queue.
This was nothing like it! And it was taking place in stairs with no visibility of how long that would go on!! And since it was obvious I wouldn't make it in time for the game, I gave up 😞
(Canada won - so all was not lost!)

We headed back to the hotel and watched the Men LP from the hotel restaurant, to learn that - OH SURPRISE - Evgeny Plushenko had withdrawn and Russia would not have a Men representative in the competition!

The event itself was very good, Hanyu and Chan the clear leaders and 10 skaters aiming for a bronze medal within 10 points of each other!!

It was overdue bed time after sleeping less then needed in the overnight flights and a 7km walk to Central Sochi and back!!

Friday brought a even better weather and after a filling breakfast we headed for a walk on the promenade (in flip flops!! Welcome to February in Russia!!)

The temptation was too strong, I had to put my feet in the water!!!

It was... uh ... freezing!!!

We then decided to head out the the Olympic Park early to have a look around, try to score tickets and visit the Olympic shop.
The train ride to Adler is easy, but fairly slow 😞 50 min later we were at the entrance of the Olympic Park! Finally!

We were a bit baffled at not having to go through security or having our back scanned - but didn't say anything, we just wanted to get in!!

M

But as some of you naught remember from London 2012, he entrance of the park is nowhere near the venues! Another 30 min walk later, we were able to spot the ticket offices. More lining up in the horizons - and all the events we wanted were sold out! No luck!

XXX PICS OF THE PARK AND TORCH XXX

With an hour to kill, the Olympic Store was our next stop. But not before a nice queue of 1 hour... Which was a waste as the store was not very good and the items were quite expensive. Fruitless trip for both is us!

It was then time to head to the Iceberg Arena, host of short-track and figure skating events for this fortnight!
The category B seats were up on the upper balcony which was a bit disappointing. The upside was that they were on the judges corner so e for to see all programs from the judges sides.

I enjoyed the competition very much and thought that apart from the Top 2 pretty much everyone skated fairly well for their big moment.
The crowd was good even though there was no Russian Man competing and totally adopted Kazakhstan's Denis Ten!
As for every Olympics my French blood comes back running and I, yes I, even took out my French flag to cheer for Brian Joubert (my skating friends will know the important meaning of this, ahah)!! His long program was ok, and maybe the best he's skated at an Olympics. No matter how much I dislike the guy, he has stayed in the game for 12 seasons, and has medaled countless time. He can retire in peace!

10 points ahead after the short, Hanyu and Chan were battling for the Gold. After a poor outing from Hanyu, the gold was Chan to lose. And he did... Kudos to him though as he could have gone the safe route and still went for two quads.

Highlight of the season Jason Brown was skating last. With no quads in his repertoire, the Bronze was out of reach, but nevertheless his Riverdance program is such a feel good moment, I enjoyed it very much!
The cheer joy of making an Olympic top ten on his face was just so nice after all the pouts we had gotten!

With the stupid Medal plaza rule, we were deprived of a medal ceremony and had to settle for a Flower ceremony...

After the train ride back to Sochi, we had an encounter with our first mad Russian taxi driver. He agreed to our rate to the hotel, but man, I thought we were going back in a badly driven F1!! I had my doubts we would ever get there alive!
That's it for the first 2 days in Russia! I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, but eh! Oh, yes, Chinese Pang and Tong are at the same hotel as we are, and I almost walked into Evgeny Platov next to the torch after the Men Short program.

L'ami Nelson!

USA TV

Canadian TV!

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