by Kristina Ashqar, Special to AllHabs.net
When you travel, you tend to leave a lot of things behind. Some of the more obvious things include your house, your car and your job (thank goodness). Ultimately, you have to go through the painful event of packing a suitcase which includes items that you think you might wear or might need throughout the course of your entire vacation. Now, who doesn’t love predicting what you may want to wear in two weeks time? For a Habs fan though, this whole process of packing is made a little easier. You simply start by easing yourself into the process by taking items you are 100% certain you will be wearing.
I left for Lebanon on the evening of September 18th, 2010 and I started packing that afternoon. The first items I packed included my Mike Cammalleri T-Shirt, my white Go Habs Go T-Shirt and of course, my Montreal Canadiens bikini. One would have thought I was going to a Montreal Canadiens convention or something. Anyway, I managed to throw in some other items that I thought would be useful in the 30+ degree weather and off I went.
When you travel to the middle east, hockey becomes some what of a foreign topic of conversation. At first, it is slightly entertaining that the highlights on the sports channels in Lebanon are Cricket, Soccer (more commonly known as football in this part of the world) and Rugby. Trying to get sports information that is of interest to a Montreal Canadiens fan off the television here is like trying to fit a square through a circular hole. It is just not going to happen.
So if you can’t get the information off the TV, you might as well try the Internet. But if you weren’t already frustrated enough with the TV, wait until you try and LOAD a website on the internet. The speed of the internet here is about 1/5 of the speed we are normally accustomed to in Canada. Basically, you can have a cup of coffee before HIO loads. And if you think that is painful enough, you can’t stream any video here either. That wonderful TSN player, yeah, not so wonderful anymore.
Nevertheless, as a Habs fan you always find a way to get your news and get as close to the action as possible. After midnight here in Lebanon, the internet gets faster, I guess because most people are in bed. But don’t get your hopes up, it is not fast enough to stream video. But luckily for me, I managed to download the Corus Radio application on my iPad and I was able to listen to the entire first Habs vs Bruins pre-season game on CKAC minus a few freezes of course. I think I might have even heard the Price boo-birds all the way over here. Anyway, between staying up at all hours of the morning here (Lebanon is 7 hours ahead of Montreal time), following Habs tweets on Twitter, reading TSN with half of the images loaded, I was able to make due in country where hockey is as irrelevant as poutine.
But just when I thought I was quite possibly the only Habs fan in country that is 150th the size of Quebec, I was pleasantly surprised one morning on the way to the beach. Because of the heat, pretty much the entire population of Lebanon hangs their laundry out to dry. As we passed a few shops and some small shack homes along the way, I saw a multitude of beach towels that were out drying in the sun. Low and behold, among the many colorful towels, my eyes spotted the bleu, blanc et rouge of the Montreal Canadiens and there, flowing in the wind was giant CH towel. As much as I appreciated the sight, a beach towel is certainly no foreshadowing of new hockey mecca in this part of the world.
That’s why every Habs fan always wisely packs and appropriately chooses their vacation so they can come home at just the right moment. I’ll be wearing my Cammalleri T-shirt while I walk out of Trudeau airport on October 5th.
Of course a Habs fan always plans for at least a 48 hour flight delay too…