From sea to sky: A trip to Whistler and back

Once I arrived, I headed to the USOC office inside the media center, where I learned that the closest venue where an event was actually taking place was another 50-minute bus ride away. Turns out I should have planned the visit a little better. Still, I knew I had a couple of hours to spare, so I decided to walk around the village.

Buildings in the village at Whistler Blackcomb fit into one of three categories: restaurants, hotels or retail shops. You can probably spend a lot of money here really, really fast. Luckily I found the clearance shop and bought a couple of t-shirts. Then I ate some pretty terrible pizza. A note to Whistler visitors: avoid the Misty Mountain pizza place. But enough about that. Let's get to the main event of the afternoon.

I have five words for you: The Magical Theatrical Vending Machine. What in God's name is that, you ask? Well, it's a bunch of 30 and 40-something Slovakian dudes dressed in colorful pajamas who put on a pretty funny show. Their stage literally folds down from the side of their truck (don't ask me how they got it to Canada from Slovakia), which looked like this before their show started. 

The Magical Theatrical Vending Machine truck. Photo by John Kristoff

Here's when the stage was unfolded.

Photo by John Kristoff

And here's what it looked like after the guys took the stage.

Members of The Magical Theatrical Vending Machine in action on stage. Photo by John Kristoff

Here's how the show worked. Next to to the truck there was a wheel that people from the crowd would take turns spinning. Whatever number it stopped on corresponded to a number with a picture of a winter Olympic sport on the side of the truck. Then the troop would perform a skit for that sport--everything from hockey to biathlon to speedskating. Most of the skits took a really long time to develop, so I'll share this video of their intermission entertainment during the hockey game. You can get an idea of how bizarre these guys were.






As thrilling as the entertainment was, I didn't stay for the whole show because I had to get back to Vancouver for a 5 p.m. press conference. My excursion to Whistler was a success. Even though I didn't see any Olympic events, I took full advantage of the few hours I spent at 2,214 feet above sea level. I hope to go back one more time before our time in Vancouver comes to an end.

Seeing the Slovakian dudes again would be a major bonus.