MKOTBlog

Before I go on, I must warn you that there will be no photos accompanying this post. I am suffering through a photoblogger’s worst nightmare: a broken memory card. It was such a bad time to lose it too, since I could’ve posted hilarious photos of flight attendants yelling directions on the plane via a tiny megaphone (this will make sense if you read on) to prove to you readers that the following events actually happened. If in doubt, you can ask the other passengers of Air Canada Flight #108 from Vancouver to Toronto and of Air Canada Flight #7918 from Toronto to Philadelphia.

Anyway… the title of the post may be an over-exaggeration, but you get my point. Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline, can’t seem to buy good press during this holiday season; it received tons of negative news coverage due to its decision to cancel all short and medium-haul flights going to and from Vancouver International Airport, stranding thousands of passengers just hours before Christmas. The public found more reasons to hate Air Canada when, as it idly stood by, the smaller Westjet Airlines went leaps and bounds to provide their own stranded passengers with amenities like free pizza and soda, in addition to 25,000 meal vouchers, free ground transportation, and more than 6000 hotel rooms.

Of course, you can’t completely blame Air Canada for the fiasco, since the weather in Vancouver this holiday season was abnormally unfriendly to travelers. Yet, only four days into the new year, I can’t help but get the feeling that Air Canada lost the faith of a lot more of its customers today not due to freak weather systems, but insufficient customer service and frequent mechanical problems. I say this as I write this post at various points during a hellish day of travel back to Philadelphia. Apparently I have a tendency to attract travel problems, but today was by far the worst travel experience I can remember.

My day began today (January 4, 2009), at 5:00am PST. Despite being exhausted from a gross lack of sleep, I was excited to be on the plane for my scheduled 7:00am flight to be on my way back to Philadelphia to start my last semester at Penn. Let’s keep count together, this is Plane #1.

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At 2:30pm on January 1, 2009, I joined hundreds of other lunatics and jumped into the Pacific Ocean for the 89th Annual Polar Bear Swim at English Bay. It was my second time participating in the event, which was started back in 1920 by the ten-member Vancouver Polar Bear Swim Club.

If you’re wondering how cold the water actually is… trust me, it’s cold. According to the Vancouver Park Board website, the coldest water temperature recorded in 1928, 1982, and 1985 was 3 degrees C (38 degrees F), and the average temperature of the water is 6 degrees C (43 degrees F). The swim is actually incredibly refreshing, but the worst part is walking back on the snowy beach after the plunge, as your feet, frozen solid, are stabbed by imaginary, icy knives with every little step.

Although you can observe a lot of crazies at the event — including groups donning full Viking costumes and people who have clearly not stopped drinking since the previous night’s New Year’s Eve festivities — the best thing I saw at this year’s Polar Bear Swim was a bride and groom wearing a wedding dress and tuxedo jumping into the frigid water to raucous cheers. A happy couple, they must be.

The snow-capped North Shore mountains provide the perfect background for Vancouver's Polar Bear Swim.

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Tuesday December 30, my two cities faced off in GM Place. In an exciting game, the Philadelphia Flyers went on to defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2.

I’m sure, by now, you’re all tired of seeing snow-related photos, so here you go:

One of the many fruit stands at the Granville Island Public Market.

Mmm.

After a relaxing Christmas morning/early afternoon, I decided to head up to Grouse Mountain, a local ski hotspot / my old stomping grounds back in my middle/high school days. On the way up I saw this guy, and broke my rule of not taking photos while driving:

Yeah, great idea, buddy (License plate edited out).

Driving in a convertible on Christmas Day during one of the most snow-ridden winters this city has ever seen? Douche.  Read the rest of this entry »

Snow continues to fall in Vancouver today, and it seems that we Vancouverites and the rest of Canada are getting an endless supply of it this holiday season, setting up what should be Canada’s first coast-to-coast White Christmas since 1971. While the idea of a White Christmas sure does provide some holiday spirit, trying to catch a delayed bus — overloaded with passengers who decided not to drive in the snow, struggling to drive up and down slippery roads — that eventually broke down on Granville Street Bridge reminded me of some of the inconveniences of snow…

View from the bus on Seymour Street.

Of course, these sentiments of annoyance toward the weather must pale in comparison to what travelers trying to get in and out of Vancouver by air must be feeling at the moment. Numerous airlines have canceled their flights going to and from Vancouver International Airport on Christmas eve (with plans for more delays on Christmas day itself), leaving people stranded just hours before the holidays.

Anyway, back to the bus.  Read the rest of this entry »