I hope that no Canadians out there are offended by my shameless blasphemy of the National Anthem...it's meant to be fond, not mocking! I'm having an absolute blast in Vancouver, thanks to the amazing kindness and hospitality of the Martz family. Colleen, Bob, Natalie (Patrick's sister), Andrew (Patrick's brother), Sabine (Patrick's sister-in-law)...thanks for making me feel so much at home! It's been a busy four days since we landed on Wednesday morning Vancouver time...have been getting over that jet lag I talked about last time in style...
On Thursday night, I got to meet the Martz family friends I've heard so much about: the Presunka family (Lori, Reid, Jordy and Linda), the Brock family (Danielle and Nicole) and many many others! Reid held a great retirement party at River Rock Casino (no gambling...just mingling!). Happy retirement Reid, enjoy every second! Thursday's unofficial after-party was held at the Roxy, which I quickly learned was the inevitable ultimate destination for any drunken night! Nicole scored a drink touchdown (I'll explain what this means later on...), the girls met a Canadian TV star, and Patrick got head-butted by a man so short he had to bend his knees and launch himself to reach Patrick's head. Good times...and I didn't get a single picture! Ah well, my first night of partying in Vancouver will stick with me for a while...The night ended just as every crazy party should- scoffing popcorn and belting out Robbie Williams' 'Angels' at the top of our voices!
Friday turned out to be just as wild, as I got the all-Canadian experience...(ice) hockey game, the Roxy, and meeting hockey players at the Roxy. As I looked around the hockey stadium where the Vancouver Canucks would play the Phoenix Coyotes, all I could see was a sea of blue, in passionate support of the home team. Natalie was kind enough to buy us all funky Canucks t-shirts, which I sported with pride as I shouted 'GO CANUCKS GO!' with the crowd... even if they ended up losing at home, 3-0. It may not have been the Canucks' lucky night, and all the goals may have been scored in the last 5 minutes, but I still had a lot of fun. The atmosphere was amazing...similar to a football (soccer) game, but with more random bursts of music, a full-on fist fight, and a faster pace. Apparently the Canucks have been on a winning streak before now...I hope I wasn't a curse!
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| Awesome hot dog. I'm wearing Colleen's Vancouver Olympics hockey jersey...I have the name of the Canucks goalie, Luongo, on my back. All through the game, the crowd were shouting 'Luuuuuuuu!'...I couldn't tell if they were booing or 'luuuuuuing'! |
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| Fin, the Canucks mascot. |
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| Andrew and Patrick. |
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| Natalie, Michelle (Natalie's friend) and Sabine wearing the Canucks t-shirts. Me trying to be arty or something... |
During the game, an advertisement came up for the Roxy: 'The Roxy: See You Later'. Probably, I muttered to myself- and guess where we ended up? Though we were still recovering from Thursday night, we still managed to have a crazy night. At some point in the evening, I was told to jump onto the bar, where I'd receive a 'Roxy tattoo'. Before I knew what was happening, the bartender pulled my head back, poured some sort of chocolate shot in my mouth, pulled me up again, and shook my head around. Apparently this is a rite-of-passage for any regular Roxy visitor...which I guess I am, having been there on 2 out of 4 nights in Vancouver! My next initiation challenge was 'Touchdown', the game Nicole played the previous night. This involves shot-glasses precariously balancing in between lined-up bigger glasses, and throwing a lime at the first shot glass for a 'domino effect' on all the shot glasses...this is 'Touchdown', and incurs a ringing of the bar bell and much whooping from strangers! By some fluke, I managed to hit the shot glass first time, and was stupidly proud to do so. Not as impressive as Nicole the night before, though- she'd knocked 9 shot glasses!
Natalie thought I needed to complete my hockey experience by meeting a player, and so she pulled me over to two suited-and-booted men who happened to be Phoenix Coyote players. Other girls were all over them, as you'd expect, but they couldn't have been nicer. Mikkel Boedker, a 21 year old Danish player, was so down-to-earth...he was unbelievably excited about Natalie being a Lulu Lemon designer, as he wears Lulu Lemon all the time under his hockey gear! Oliver Ekman-Larsson, a 19-year-old Swedish player, was also a good sport, larking around with a Heineken box on his head...as you do. It was great that neither of these guys seemed to have egos...Mikkel even signed my Canucks t-shirt with a biro! I'm really sorry that I thought your name was 'Michela Vodka', Mikkell...I have hockey ignorance and bad hearing to blame! A truly awesome night...again ending with popcorn. No Robbie Williams this time...shame.
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| Ready...set... |
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| TOUCHDOWN! |
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| Oliver Ekman Larsson. Can't you tell? |
No rest for the wicked...on Saturday night we went to the amazing Italian restaurant, 'La Baia', for a triple celebration: Patrick's birthday, Reid's retirement, and Sabine and Andrew's 2nd wedding anniversary. White wine mussels for starters, seafood lasagne for main, and Colleen's delicious chocolate pudding cake for dessert back at chez Martz. Another fun night, and I finally got to experience 'La Baia' after Patrick talking about it non-stop for a year and a half! Thanks for dinner, guys...I just apologize about my unsavoury apres-dinner revelation...
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| Jordy, Patrick, Sabine and Linda. |
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| Colleen, Andrew, Reid and Lori. |
And so, it's Sunday...a day of rest and laundry. The last few days have been the best introduction to Vancouver- I can't wait to see what other Canadian experiences the next week will bring...
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