A Canadian in Sweden

Most amazing things

Since the spectacular an unexpected success of this past weekend, I have been thinking about other similar awesome experiences that have happened to me in the past. The list is pretty short, but if I had to choose, say, one week of events that I could re-live, these would definitely make the list. They are in no particular order because once you achieve a perfect experience, increments disappear. The only things they really have in common are: they were always unexpected, they were usually free or nearly so, and they often involve sports. Interesting.

1) Sils, Switzerland, March 1996: Getting convinced by a wiley sports store owner to enter a cross country ski sprint relay race with my friend Rob without really knowing anything about it. It ends up being an elite competition with thousands of spectators in the middle of the town square, with a couple dozen athletes. Most of them were racing on the World Cup or were elite Worldloppet skiers. I started beside Maurillo DeZolt, for anyone who remembers Italian skiers from the '90s. On the startline, the announcer introduced the teams in Swiss German, mentioning their latest World Cup placing or other achievements. When he got to us, there was a pause as he obviously had no clue who we were. Then in English came:

"And from Canada, Rob MacEwen and Jeff Lewis - the Crazy Canucks are here!"

I will never, ever forget that moment. Rob and I went on to get utterly destroyed, but as the race progressed (I think we did 12 loops each or something) we became the favourite underdog of the crowd. That was the first and probably the only time in my life to have thousands of people chanting "Hej-ja! Hej-ja! Hej-ja!" for me. It still gives me goose bumps.

2. Baden, Germany, March 1995. My friend Cam Moffat asked me a week before March break if I wanted to go overseas. The Canadian base in Baden Baden was closing that year, so it was the last chance we had to take advantage of military flights and accommodation in Europe. We got a flight from Trenton to Baden for $5.00 (the administration fee) then stayed in the officers mess in Baden for a week for something ridiculous like 2 dollars a day, meals included. We used Baden as a base for day trips, and every single day trip we took was charmed. Without any planning whatsoever, we stumbled across the biggest festival of the year in Basle, Switzerland, talked our way into a 5 star hotspring resort spa for free, happened to get off the train in Strasbourg without knowing anything about the town beforehand (it is incredible) and won some money at a casino. All unplanned, and the total cost of our week in Europe was about $100.

3. Rome, Italy, July 2006. Happened, by pure chance, to be in Rome the day that Italy won the World Cup of soccer. Watched the game in Circus Maximus with about 400 000 Italians, then took in the all- night festivities after they won on the final penalty kick. Plus I was with 3 great friends.

4. Paris, France, July 2003. The best group trip I have ever taken. 5 of us from CIOR Pentathlon decide to take the train from the Netherlands down to Paris basically at the last minute to watch the final stage of the 100th Tour de France and see Lance Armstrong win his 6th Tour. Awesome conversation and arguments on the endless train trip, a cheap hotel (thanks to Alex's negotiating skills), and watching Lance win in person. Then the next day, walking nearly 20 kilometers through the city and basically seeing everything there is to see of Paris. Including a foot race up the Eiffel tower that Alex still doesn't accept that I won.

5. Chilliwack, BC, June 1994. Running the Chilliwack river on airmattresses. This river is where the Canadian whitewater kayak team trains. Not the most brilliant of my ideas, as two readers who shall remain nameless will no doubt agree. This one only makes the list because nobody died.

6. St. Eugene, Ontario Summer of 1986 (approx.). Blew a 3 foot deep, 4 foot wide crater in my Mom's garden with an home-fabricated bomb. It was awesome. A geyser of dirt flew at least 30 meters into the air. When I say home fabricated, I mean I figured out the chemistry of black powder from reading old books when I was 13 years old. I made my own charcoal with a blowtorch and maple firewood, bought saltpeter at the pharmacy, and found chunks of sulphur lying on the railroad tracks behind our house. I even figured out how to build an improvised electrical detonator so I wouldn't blow myself to kingdom come. It took me about a year of tinkering with the percentages of the ingredients until I figured out the best ratios (which, later in university I found to be within about 1% of the actual recipe). Although this may seem to pale beside some of the other things on this list, I can only say that to a 13 year old boy, this was a monumental achievement. When that sucker blew, two things happened. One is that I almost crapped myself (I didn't think it would be that big an explosion). Two is that I experienced what can only be described as a moment of clarity. Time slowed down as that earth flew through the air. It was a feeling of profound satisfaction bordering on bliss that I don't think I have ever equalled. C4 is for sissies.

And of course this weekend, which I have recounted in detail in another post. If any Alert Readers think I should reconsider an event in which they may (or may not) have been involved and which should be on this list, leave a comment. I may do an update. This was fun.

posted by Jeff @ 7:59 AM