By: Kaye Adkins
I have been a fan of the Olympics for as long as I can remember, and for almost that long, I’ve dreamed of attending the Olympic Games.
This year, thanks to my son Ian Adkins, I was able to fulfill that dream. Ian has been working in South Korea for the past few years, and when he had the opportunity to enter the lottery for Olympics tickets, he took it.
You might say he struck gold: He got us tickets to the gold medal rounds of Team Figure Skating, Mixed Doubles Curling and Men’s Halfpipe. This meant that we got to see the U.S. win a bronze medal in the Team Figure Skating and saw Shaun White win his gold medal in Men’s Halfpipe.
We spent two days at Gangneung to watch figure skating and curling; because so many events were taking place there, the complex included a large cafeteria for spectators and the largest souvenir store. We spent one day at PyeongChang, watching snowboarding at Phoenix Snow Park and visiting the Olympic Plaza.
The atmosphere at snowboarding was fun, with cheering crowds and music playing and announcers describing the action during the runs. Our trip to the Olympic Plaza was cold and windy, but it was great to see the Olympic torch and to try the regional specialties being sold by the vendors.
We were impressed with the venues and with how well everything was organized. They were calling this the “pop-up Olympics” because so many of the venues and buildings were temporary.
At the Gangneung complex—site of skating, hockey, and curling events—the restaurants (including McDonald’s), cafeteria and other vendors and services were located in tents. In spite of the cold, the tents were comfortable. Even the Olympic stadium, site of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics and the Paralympics, was temporary.
Although you could tell that buildings like the Gangneung Ice Arena were temporary, there was no sense of them being flimsy. The most obvious characteristic was that the toilets and concessions were located in trailers outside of the buildings.
The biggest portion of the budget for this Olympics was spent on building an express train that makes it possible to get from Seoul, on the western side of the peninsula, to Gangneung, on the east coast, in two hours. Like many visitors, we stayed in Seoul and took the train to the venues.
Riding the train was a great experience—It was comfortable, and it was great to see everyone in their Olympic gear. For everyone in their Olympic gear. For example, Canada played in the gold medal round of the Mixed Doubles Curling, and there was a group of Canadians on the train who were wearing Mountie hats.
My visit to South Korea was wonderful. The people are warm and welcoming, you can get by with English (although my son does speak Korean well enough to talk to cab drivers) and the transportation and technology are excellent.
