One of THE coolest things at the Sochi 2014 Olympics had to be the Molson Canadian Passport Fridge at Canada Olympic House. It’s like a vending machine, only instead of feeding it money, it only opens by scanning a Canadian passport.

The fridge was turned on each day of the Games during Victory Hour, between 5pm and 6pm. I was still feeling under the weather and wasn’t sure I would make it to Victory Hour, so I connected with the lovely @MolsonTonia who was kind enough to give me a special viewing. She plugged it in for me when I stopped by Canada House one afternoon. I only had one *little* problem… Not only did I not have my passport on me, I don’t actually HAVE a Canadian passport!

Olympic Spirit Project Postcards are now available!

My Canadian Passport Problem

My family immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands when I was very young and I’m still a landed immigrant and permanent resident. The Dutch government didn’t allow dual citizenship for years and we didn’t want to give up our EU passports and with them our access to work in Europe. The only difference in Canada is that I can’t vote.

A few years ago the rules changed and dual citizenship is now available for those who were too young to make their own choice to leave the Netherlands. This means that my siblings and I are now able to apply for Canadian citizenship without losing our Dutch citizenship. (Yay!) So last year, after I bought my Olympics tickets I sent in my application with the idea that I would have it in time for the Sochi Olympics to access Canada Olympic House. It is now 13 months later, the Olympics are over, and it is STILL being processed. It takes 23 months for a citizenship application to go through the system. Ridiculous, in my opinion, but there’s not much I can do about it. At least I’ll have it in time for Rio 2016! But I digress…

Let’s Open the Fridge!

So after explaining my passport problem to the Molson girls, I embarrassingly asked to borrow one of theirs to open the fridge. And let me tell you, it was nothing short of AWESOME!

I was still feeling under the weather, but was super happy about the beer fridge!

What Was Inside the Fridge?

The fridge contained only victory bottles. Russian customs blocked Molson’s beer shipment from entering the country so the victory bottles were display bottles only and were empty. Because of this, Molson served Heineken and Miller Genuine Draft at Canada Olympic House. Sad, but true.

What made it all ok? I’m Dutch and Molson is the Heineken distributor in Canada, so I was still drinking beer from my homeland, it was just the “other” homeland!

Travels of the Beer Fridge

This wasn’t the Molson Passport Fridge’s first appearance though. Molson has been spreading Canadian spirit all over the world! Check this video out:

Have you opened the Molson Canadian Passport Fridge? Where?

Olympic Spirit Project postcards are now available! 

I watched the Canada vs. USA Gold Medal Hockey game from the best venue in town next to Canada Hockey Place: the Molson Canadian Hockey House!

Already at 8am the lineups were growing for bars, pubs and cultural houses around the city. The lineups on and around Granville Street were huge in the morning in anticipation for the noon-time game! This was the view from my living room window that morning.

Inside the Molson Canadian Hockey House, the people were packing in and the energy and excitement for the upcoming game was building!

Francois-Louis Tremblay stopped by to celebrate the Canadian speed skating team’s Gold Medal win!

Wide Mouth Mason played two AMAZING sets! I was very excited about this, as I had been hoping to see them at some point during the Games and my moment had finally come!

And of course, the crowd cheered for Team Canada with such loud, excited optimism, that I have no doubt that we could be heard at Canada Hockey Place!

After the game, and during the Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies, Roberto Luongo and his daughter, Gabriela, stopped by for a quick visit to thank the fans for their support and show off his gold medal and the crowd went WILD for one of Canada’s newest heroes!

All in all, it was an amazing day and the perfect wrap up for the Games! If someone had written a script for the day, it could not have been written with a better ending!

For more photos of the Molson Canadian Hockey House during the Gold Medal Hockey Game, visit my set on Flickr.

For more photos of Wide Mouth Mason, there is a Flickr set for that too!

Yesterday’s win for the women’s hockey team against Switzerland and the gold medal presentation to Alexandre Bilodeau, gave Canadians much to celebrate last night!

Last night’s celebration at the Molson Hockey House was full of energy! Tom Cochrane played an awesome concert for the crowd, starting with Victory Day and ending with Life is a Highway, with a three song encore after that.

Donald Sutherland made an appearance as well and stripped off his coat and replaced it with a Canada hockey jersey, and then saying to the crowd, “I have only one question for you: Do you believe?!” Causing the crowd to go wild!

Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies also showed up to play Life is a Highway with the band.

Here are some of the images from the front row of the concert. To see more, please visit my Flickr account.

Although the Molson House is sold out for the duration of the Games, here are a few things to not if you are able to get your hands on a coveted pass to get in:

Fanzone Entry – $100.00
VIP Entry – $450.00 and up (depending on day)

Beers are $7.50 CND
Hard Liquor $10.00  CND

As with all Olympic venues, they accept only Cash or Visa as forms of payment.