Friday at the Olympics was all about hockey semi-finals. Sure there was a women's curling final, and yes, Canada won four more medals (wooohooo!) but let's face it - the Canada / Slovakia game was by far the main event. With bars lining people up around the city more than 4 hours before game time, the buzz in Vancouver was impossible to escape.
We warmed up for the day with lunch at a place called Joey's, right downtown. The reason we were there was to sample the "Canadian National Cocktail", the Caesar. Now I love Caesars (so much so that I insist on spelling them with a capital C) and let me tell you, these were some damn good ones! Adding to the effect were the lovely bartenders and servers who taught us how to make the cocktail properly (it's quite a specific process - thanks Izzy!) and also served up something called a lobster grilled cheese for lunch. Perhaps the best part was the ketchup/seafood sauce mixture we got on the side for dipping! At the same time, we watched the US completely pummel Finland, ensuring Zed and I would be seeing the Finns at Saturday's bronze medal game. After sampling a few more Caesars (just to make sure that their process was airtight) we headed off to meet up with another crew of my buddies from the homeland - St Thomas.
We met up at a place called the Kingston Pub and had a few drinks with the crew before we actually had to exit the bar, line up and re-enter to get a seat for the Canada game - there was even talk of tickets being scalped to get into the bar!?!? Unreal. But after 4 hours of drinking hot tea and shots of brain and nerve tonic, the bar was ready to cheer.
As an aside, our girl Cheryl Bernard took home the silver in women's curling as a warm-up event where rookies to curling viewing and hardcore women's curling fans like Zed and I alike joined together to support Canada. We won't point any fingers but after having watched that team curl against those same Swedes on Monday, let's just say we should've had that Gold.
Then there was that hockey game. Wow. Heart-stopping finish and a big shout out to Zed's boy Getzlaf and Vancouver's own Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu for helping punch our ticket. Zed and I will be seeing those dark horse Slovaks go for bronze Saturday night and I personally can't wait.
From there we poured out onto Robson to hoot and hollar for a bit and then went down to the Molson Canadian Hockey House before heading back to Sochi World (I've said this many times on the trip - I love me some Russians!). Again the Russian hospitality (read: vodka) was unparalleled and there were enough Canucks in the crowd to make for a deliciously awkward but still celebratory situation not 48 hours after eliminating the Russian hockey squad in convincing fashion.
The night ended at a downtown bar called Yaggers. Nuff' said.
Celebrating Canada's semi-final win was just an appetizer though - the entre is coming Sunday and Zed and I along with Vancouver, and all of Canada, are ready.
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