As a Dutch Canadian, the Holland Heineken House was a must see for me. Before coming to Russia I had been in contacted the Holland House press center and was granted a press pass, so I went to check it out!

I knew that it was located in the Azimut Hotel, but it was a bit confusing to find and was about a 20 minute walk from the entrance to the Olympic Park. I knew I was on the right track when I started seeing tulips!

When I arrived, I passed through security and met with their corporate relations representative who toured me around the house telling me all about the celebrations and the success of the Dutch athletes.

One crazy story was that their “bitterballen” (traditional Dutch croquette appetizer) were restricted  from entering Russia in customs, so they brought in the Master Croquettemaker from Holland instead. He produced and rolled hundreds of these little balls everyday for the Heineken House Cafe!

Holland Heineken House is by reputation one of the best places to celebrate at the Olympics, and Sochi was no exception. These photos tell that story pretty well!

(Gallery photos courtesy of the Heineken.)

February 13th was an amazing day for me! It all started with a walk in the park with the dog, where I received a phone call from the Holland Heineken House saying that I had won the ticket lottery for tickets for the 5000 M speed skating match that day!

With only an hour and a half before the event, things were rushed! I raced home, got ready to go, jumped in the car and raced down to the Holland House to pick up the tickets to make it to the Olympic Oval in Richmond in time!

So the tickets placed us in a section with other Dutch fans, all decked out in Orange and crazy costumes. Being Dutch myself, this was a very fun place to be!

There were 14 pairs racing in the event and in the end the Gold Medal went to the Netherlands’ Sven Kramer!!! Kramer not only won the race, but also broke an Olympic Record for the 5000 M race! AWESOME!

Not only did I see this amazing race and gold medal win, but later that evening I was fortunate enough to be at the Holland House for the celebration and to photograph Sven Kramer! Below are some of the photos of the day. Please visit Flickr to see more images of the day.

The ticket lottery at the Holland Heineken House is only available to Dutch citizens, so not an option for everyone. But if you have your Dutch passport and you want to try your chances to win the option to buy coveted tickets, head on down to the Holland Heineken House ticket desk and put your name in the draw! If I can win them, you can too!!