Walking in a winter wonderland

I have been to four Winter Olympics and today may have been the most winter weather I have seen in all that time. And that made the already unreliable mountain transportation even more difficult to predict and deal with and made for one heck of a weird (and wet) day.

It was snowing when I woke up this morning and I debated about whether I wanted to head to Cortina or not. We got a notice on the transportation app that some buses may be running late in the Cortina area due to the snow. It wasn't snowing too badly, so I boarded the local bus and headed into the village at the end of the valley, where I got on the TC (for credentialed folks) bus to Cortina. The ride was fine, albeit a little slower than usual, as the snow continued to come down harder and harder. 

By the time I got to Cortina it was snowing really hard and I walked from the bus stop to the venue media center between the curling center and the sliding center where I wanted to do a little writing and then catch a little curling action. The writing got done and I headed over to curling when I realized that the charging pod for my ear buds was not in my pocket. I searched my jacket and it was also not there. My guess, it's somewhere on a bus or in a snowbank. I retraced my steps hoping I might see it, but with no luck.

That kind of ruined my day. But it was just a glimpse of what was to come. I walked through Cortina and up to the bus stop where I usually catch the bus passing through on the way to Antholz, which can drop me off in the village at the bottom of the valley. And along with a large group of other people, I waited. And waited. With the weather, we all figured there would be some delays. 

Eventually another bus came along that was going to Fiames, which is where the Olympic Village for Cortina is located, so we all got on that bus with the idea that we were closer to our destination and there were a number of other buses passing through that bus stop. Sure enough, after another wait, a bus came along that was going to Dobbiaco, which was another step in the right direction, so on board I went. Kudos to the driver who got us through the snowy mountains without a problem and down into Dobbiaco. From there, I knew there would eventually be the public transportation bus that traditionally comes by my hotel. I walked through town to the bus station and sure enough, the bus was delayed, but it was still running. It showed up about half an hour late, but it arrived and another good driver got me back to the hotel.

And a special shoutout to the hotel, who allowed me to have dinner even though I arrived as dinner was ending.

For the last half hour or so of the trek, I was tracking the US women's hockey team and watched it throughout dinner and then finished watching the incredible ending in my hotel room. From there, I watched Alyssa Liu's incredible free program performance that earned her a gold medal.

So, not a great day, but a better ending. And I will have to take that (though it would've been better to see one of those performances in person).

The Olympic flame burned on through the snow in downtown Cortina on Thursday.