Edmonton day 1

CRUMBS has arrived in Edmonton.

The drive was again an easy jaunt over the seas of wheat and prairie ocean. If it was just a little closer we would actually make the trip more frequently, which would be nice.

We arrived and promptly received our "arrival hugs" outside of a kareoke bar where the party was at. After a few minutes (it doesn't take long in Edmonton) the bar fight started and we watched people get their asses kicked (more accuratly, their faces pounded in). Whyte Avenue in Edmonton is notorious, it is like no other street in the world i have ever run into when it comes to sheer drunken testosterone and white trashiness. Perhaps i should check out some large American cities before i start waving the Edmonton flag to high, though i think they would give them there cities a run for their money.

Anyways, soon i will be able to report on some actual improv shows, i am itchin' for it badly.

p.s. thanks for reading

Improvaganza

CRUMBS makes their annual pilgrimage to Edmonton for the largest improv festival in all of Canada. This festival is two weeks long and full of talent (though CRUMBS only shows up for the last 6 days). We look forward to hangin' with the Edmonton noodlers (noodlers is an Edmonton term, closest translation is "slacker").

Talent expected:
-Of course Rapid Fire Theatre from Edmonton
-Instant Theatre from Vancouver
-Unexpected Productions from Seattle
-Dad's Garage from Atlanta
-Theatre in Narobov from Ljubljana
-Quicksilver from Belgium
-Iron Cobra from Toronto
-The Gentleman of Improv (or something like that) from Toronto
-Die Gorillas from Berlin
-maybe even more???

Really looking forward to getting knee deep in improv festival fun. After touring for 2 months, I miss the intensity of show action. I need to be surrounded by improv for 6 days. I need to be in a foreign city... well I guess Edmonton isn't really that foreign, unless you count Whyte Ave at about 2am.

I suppose i will keep tabs on the festival and update the internet about the highlights and lowlights.

What?

So I get back home safe, and then get sick?
It was like my body was in defence/emergency mode while I was on the road. The tour was keeping me healthy because i could not afford to get sick. Which meant, as soon as I got home, BAM!, sick happened.

Now I won't go into to much detail (although, i know that i could) let me just say that i ended up in the hospital giving samples of things that should not be sampled. Tests come back with a resounding "you gotta nasty little bugger in your gut".

It seems that in Switzerland they make some of their cheeses with unpasteurized milk (the so called old fashioned way). This leads to poor weak stomached travellers like me getting nasty little things living in my gut.

After about a week of staying at home, weak and by the bathroom, I recover.

I venture outside and eventually I am assimilated into Winnipeg culture once again.

Waking up in O'Hare

Ahhh, waking up in an airport is something everyone should try once before dying. The sound of screaming school children waiting to go on that school trip, the hustle and bustle of airport life flooding your ears before you really know what is going on. Mmmm.

So Lee and I get up and instantly the race is on. Lee has done some research/complaining and has found out we could have been in a hotel room last night. We didn't get the full chunk of information from the United workers (angrrrr). We find out that there is an earlier flight to Denver then to Winnipeg that will get us home a full tow hours before our flight from Chicago would even leave (and its a Toronto/Winnipeg flight that gets us home at 10pm).

We run, we run, we run. We run to baggage desks, we run to the east terminal, we run to the west terminal. We run all over the place. We run past security, we run to our gate and we do in fact get on the plane. We arrive in Denver and are amazed at how much nicer it is then Chicago. After marvelling over Denver we board for Winnipeg and arrive home without luggage in the sun filled prairie.

It takes a couple of days for our luggage to catch up with us but we are home safe and happy.

next... travel sickness

Airports

So the Frankfurt airport was normal. We boarded and had a reasonably comfortable flight, although having to pay for booze on a transatlantic flight is air piracy.

We arrive for our stop over in Chicago's O'Hare airport, and everything seems fine and good. Unknown to us at this time is that Lee and myself would be spending the next 40 years trapped in the O'Hare airport (okay it only felt like 40 years).

After being given the run around for a couple of hours they finally cancel the flight. Lee and myself are forced into the pergatory of line standing. UNITED airlines is very misinformed and this leads to several bored and irrate travellers (including you humble blogger). UNITED books us a new flight on AIR CANADA and this of course means a whole new line up. The AIR CANADA lie up tells up to get back into the UNITED line up, UNITED informs us to return to the AIR CANADA line up (can you understand the insanity?).

After line ups are all done, we then decide to make our way to our Hotel. Our flight is not until the next day, so we make our way to where the Hotel's shuttle buses exist. Trouble is we are waiting with hundreds of standed travellers. After an hour or so of no shuttle to our Hotel we become a little frustrated (to say the least). Rumours start flying of "no more rooms left in all of Chicago". We decide to call our Hotel, they say there is no room, we explain that we have a voucher, they say they are full, we become more frustrated.

We stand in a new line up to get some info about what we are supposed to do. We are informed that the line is going to close, the airport is going to close. We are given two options (options are great).

Option #1 - We can go through security once again, and sleep in the airport onn a bench.

Option #2 - We can sleep on the streets.

We chose option #1. Slept under a TV blaring CNN. Shoved two benchs together and made TERMINAL references. (TERMINAL starring Tom Hanks as the traveller trapped in an airport for months) What a terrible night of "sleep".

...next update: Waking up in O'Hare