After crashing big time following our day in the Gangneung Olympic Plaza, we were up pretty early, having slept for around 12 hours. Our plan today was to train to the mountains where we would watch some snowboarding, before training back to Gangneung to take in a hockey game.
Phoenix Snow Park
After checking out of our AirBNB we took a short bus ride to Gangneung station where we boarded a KTX train to Pyeongchang station. From there we hopped on a free Oympic shuttle bus that took us the rest of the way to Phoenix Snow Park.
Having been to an Olympics before there’s a lot familiar feelings once you arrive at a venue, from the security screening to the pathing spectators are expected to follow. The Snowboarding portion of the venue is laid out quite nicely, there’s the grandstand where those with seat tickets can sit and cheer, and a large area for standing tickets. Behind the grand stand is where the concessions are, along with washrooms and a spectator “rest” area (mainly to get out of the cold).
We arrived a little early, and had a bit of time to kill, so we grabbed a few items from the concession and headed to the rest area to eat. I’d grabbed a coffee, a quarter chicken leg and some sort of “meat on a stick” (exactly how it sounds).
Snowboarding Haflpipe
When the event was ready to start, we made our way to the standing area to watch the women’s half pipe finals & men’s half pipe qualifications. Up first was the women and they had three runs for each competitor to put up their best score. Being a basic level snowboarder, I am amazed at the level of skill these men and women have. The tricks are pretty ridiculous and it was super enjoyable to watch them do their thing throughout the event.
While the entire experience was pretty awesome, it was particularly noteworthy to be able to witness Chole Kim win the women’s event in convincing fashion, and Shaun White put up some amazing qualification runs. I’ve since seen what he did in the finals and am glad to have been able to see him live.
One thing of note though is that in general Korea gets very cold and being in the mountains doesn’t help. So while we were standing there for a few hours straight, your extremities get pretty chilly pretty fast. So if you’re ever in a position to watch some sort of mountain winter sport live, make sure you bundle up, and don’t forget those disposable heat packs. They are like gold!
Kwandong Hockey Centre
Unfortunately, we had a train to catch in order to make it to the hockey game in time, so we had to leave the men’s qualification a little early. We hopped back onto the shuttle bus and trained back to Gangneung. From there we took another shuttle to the Kwandong Hockey Centre.
While on the shuttle we struck up a conversation a gentleman from the US heading to the same location. We chatted about our journey’s to Korea, how we found the events so far and what we were looking forward to. Through that conversation we discovered that this was the father of one of the USA women’s hockey team members. That was already pretty exciting. But it wasn’t until he mentioned that it was only fair he come watch his daughter since he watched his son in Vancouver 2010, that we got curious. After a bit more back and fourth we discovered that we were talking to Phil and Amanda Kessel’s dad! For hockey fans like Suzy and I, it was pretty neat to chat with him and it made for a very enjoyable shuttle ride. Sadly we weren’t able to take a photo with him, and he disappeared soon after we arrived, but all in all it was still a pretty cool encounter.
Women’s Hockey – Canada vs. Finland
Upon arriving, we quickly made our way to our seats to catch the hockey action! This game was between the Canadian women’s team and Finland. I’m not sure where Finland ranks in the world, but the general consensus was that Canada would be winning this game. The game was fast paced, and there were some great chances on both ends. For the first two periods, it seemed like it was all Canada. However in the third, Finland looked to mount a bit of a come back effort. It was a little too late as Canada ended up taking the game 4-1.
A majority of the fans in the arena were Canadian, and most of our row were Canadians as well. So it was awesome to be able to celebrate each goal and complain about the officiating together! It was a light hearted atmosphere (probably because the game was pretty much won). Everyone was in high spirits and in great moods!
Lost in Gangneung
Soon after we left the stadium and made our way to our airbnb for the night. Normally this would be an easy affair, figuring out buses and/or taxis to get there. However, we had a bit of an adventure getting to our place. First of all we ended up hopping on the right bus but going in the wrong direction. After realizing that mistake we made our way to another bus stop to go back the way we came.
Here is where I learned something valuable about buses in Korea. You need to flag them down. We’d been waiting for some time for our bus, and we were happy to see it on the horizon. However, as it neared it slowed, opened its doors, and then… drove away! We were flabbergasted. We were making motions to approach the door but then it just took off! It took another 10-15 minutes for another one to come by. This time we had committed to stepping in front of the bus just to get it to stop. Thankfully it didn’t come to that and we got on and made it to our airBNB.
Dinner
Next up was dinner, our airBNB host had recommended a place for us to go to. But after the bus mishap, it was closed by the time we were ready to get food. Instead we popped into a shop a few storefronts down and ordered WAY TOO MUCH food. We thought the portions were share sizes but ended up being huge portions, we ordered three for two of us! We tried our best to make it through everything, but sadly we had to tap out. In the end it was still super tasty and I enjoyed it a lot.
We had a long full day and were ready to hit the hay! Tomorrow we explore the mountain cluster plaza, before heading back to Seoul to attend the K Pop Awards ceremony.