Winter Olympics

The way from Gangneung Station to the Gangneung venues either involved a bus or a hike over a small mountain. Guess which I took.

This is the street in front of the Olympic venues (which are on the left).

On the grounds was an old stadium that was totally not in use for the Olympics.

Either that or the stories of tickets not selling were underreported.

Tempting, but what do you do when you reach the top?

Lines everywhere.

Huh, this thing has been reported as the Kwandong Hockey Centre. At our paper, someone higher up decided Center not Centre. There's been a lot of politics behind this.

K-Food!

This is about how crowded the grounds were.

A giant vending machine.

I got in to see the US vs the Czechs men in hockey.

Czechs score!

I got up to take some panorama shots.

The scalper sold me a ticket where I was surrounded by Russians and Czechs, but I also found myself sitting directly in front of two Canadian hockey fans from BC who were good to talk to.

Very curious what the story is behind the wigs. But I also don't want to know.

I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a Zamboni.

Czechs win!

Outside, kids fighting over something.

They had these golf cart things running around.

This one didn't move.

Lots of pavilions that reminded me of the Yeosu Expo.

The McDonald's food-shaped McDonald's.

Another look at the hockey center.

I saw a Korean parade march by.

He looks more like a Chinese ghost than a Korean royal.

Someone stole an L.

There was a row of booths where cities had tourist attractions set up. Andong had a collection of masks from around the world.

Tickets for curling were totally unavailable -- even the scalpers were caught by surprise -- so the best I could do was watch from here. I think this is men's not women's, so who cares who won.

Didn't see any events happen on this stage while I was there, though probably something happened later.

So many apartment buildings surrounding the Olympic complex.

PCP? Yes please!

Thanks to the invincible power of PCP, I was able to leap onto the roof of a building nearby. Or just I saw people on the roof of a fucking building and figured I could get up there too.

That is the curling arena.

There's the big useless arena, with the speed-skating oval and the hockey arena behind it. The red building to the right was Canada Olympic House.

Just the stadium.

From up here I could see how close the sea was. Not sure what the arena in the foreground is, or the twin-tower building in the distance is, though that one has to be a hotel.

A look at the urban setting around the venues, with Canada House on the left.

And taking a look at the logistics out front for my own attempt to get there.

Time for some Canadian beer.

Turned out they were all out of Molson and were selling Coor's instead.

Time to start walking back. But I decided rather than taking the route up the mountain, going around it.

From a nearby roof.

That's the direction of the station.

This one is from the ground.

Just as Korea finally fixed "Grand Open" to "Grand Opening," they still struggle with "Welcome," though not expressed as the impatient "Well Come" but still bearing its vestiges as "WelCome."

Playing in traffic while waiting for my train.

Gangneung Station is pretty impressive.

K-Mall is not.