FiveRingFever

Hi! Welcome to my Olympic blog!! I got into Vancouver Tuesday, which was a day earlier than planned. I had to beat a major blizzard that was bearing down on the Baltimore/Washington area. I felt like a contestant on the Amazing Race there for a while, trying to move my flights around. Anyway, here I am. So, what can you expect from this blog? First and foremost, event coverage. I have a boatload of events that I'm planning to attend, so I'll try to capture some of the observations that may not be apparent to those watching the events on television. I'll also talk about the logistics of getting to events-- transportation, security, and the venues themselves. Hopefully, I can drop some tips for those of you who will be attending events later on. So, today I ventured downtown via the Expo line of the Sky Train. It was pretty easy to get to the Scott Road station, and there are a ton of parking spaces there. My first stop was to find Robson Square to pick up a few tickets that I bought in the fan-to-fan exchange. The wait was about 45 minutes, but there was a guy nearby who performed a strait jacket escape and followed it up by crawling into a big-ass inflated balloon. Well, it was cheesy, but at least it was free and helped pass the time in line. So, next on the list was to replace the binoculars that I left on my couch back home in my haste to pack and get to the airport when I moved my flight by a day. There is a Sears right off of Robson Square, so I checked it out, and it was here that I had my defining Canada moment to this point. There were only a couple pairs of fairly expensive binoculars in the store. The saleswoman pointed out that there was another store across the street that would probably have some more choices. I can tell you right now that there's no way that would ever happen in Baltimore or D.C. I still don't quite know what to make of an honest salesperson. Shocking. All of this was punctuated by a great meal at a Thai restaurant called Khai. Tomorrow I will head back downtown and try to see what this SeaBus is all about. I'll probably also take a jaunt on the Canada line and see if I can find some good Chinese food. Then, it's time to get serious. My first events are on Friday-- ski jumping qualifying and the opening ceremony. That's all for now!

I'll go with Ole Einar and Wang Meng.

Count me in!!!

I'll probably be using the Scott Road park and ride starting next week a fair amount because I'm staying in Surrey. I'll let you know what I encounter although I'll generally be getting there in the morning. The Expo SkyTrain line runs really late, 2:16 AM from Feb. 12-28 for the last train from downtown: http://tripplanning.translink.ca/hiwire?.a=iScheduleLookupSearch&LineName=999&LineAbbr=999

I would say that it will come on the 13th. If not the Men's short track 1500m, it will be Heil in the Women's moguls shortly thereafter.

CoSport must have come up with an additional allocation of tickets. I got a whole bunch of tickets including figure skating, alpine, short track, skeleton, long track, nordc combined, and biathlon.

I still think that requiring folks to put the money up front before the ticket allocation discourages applicants who really have no intention of attending-- resulting in better odds for those who do. I'm not ruling out going now, but I'm not sure I want to scramble for tickets like I did for Beijing. At any rate, hope your luck is better than mine.

I got my notification today. I applied for 48 tickets total (24 events) and got 4 hockey games: IH030 (2) IH032 (2) IH042 (2) IH043 (2) Needless to say, I'm extremely bummed. When Cartan used to distribute the tickets, you actually had to put money up front. I think that discouraged a lot of the scalpers. Now anyone interested in turning a profit can apply without committing a dime. I thought Beijing was tough. This is ridiculous.

I arrived in Beijing yesterday. Swung down to CoSport to pick up some tickets today and then hit the Forbidden City. I've got a full plate of events during the games, so I'd be happy to share some of my experiences.

Whatever they serve, plan on being really sick of it by the end of the Games. (Spinach pie from Athens, anyone?) My recommendation is to grab a real meal when you have the chance. If you do find yourself with some down time at the Olympic Green between events and have to succumb to the McDonald's stir fry, you can probably find a big screen somewhere that will be showing live events coverage. It makes your processed meal a little more palatable.

I found one taped to a roasted chicken that I bought from Safeway (all right, the container not the actual bird). I wouldn't recommend paying for one. And just in case you might care, the chicken was quite delicious.

Unload those extras before you leave home! http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/...ent_8740333.htm

Sounds like a fine idea. I'm there! (if it isn't too late to add one more).

Interesting. I guess it's best to arrive with your tickets in hand. I'm not really interested in the "cultural experience" of a trip to a Beijing police station.

If it's like any of the other Olympics I've attended, they let anyone buy whatever tickets are available right before and during the games, and those tickets are the same style as the locally-bought tickets. I can't imagine they would quibble about who had what style of ticket. I do wonder, however, if the Chinese are going to crack down on scalpers at the venues. I've met some people who never buy tickets ahead of time and always get them at the games. I wouldn't necessarily rely on this tactic for Beijing.

I see that CoSport has shut down individual ticket sales, so overseas people are going to have to scramble to find additional tickets. Should be interesting to see what kind of availability there will be leading up to the games. Also, I wonder if the scalpers will be as prevalent as they are at other Olympics.