The hills are alive

You just never know what you're going to find at the Olympics.

Monday night, after watching the women's Super G in San Sicario, we ventured into the village of Sauze d'Oulx.

One of the first sights we saw was something that looked like an old American Indian village in a town square. Instead it was a series of tepee-looking structures made by a traveling band of Sami, the indigenous people of Norway, northern Sweden and Finland.

They had come here to promote the Sami way of life, interest tourists in visiting and of course sell a lot of reindeer products. We tasted the reindeer sausage and salami (edge to the sausage) and sampled a Norwegian beer while sitting around a campfire in the largest lavvu, which is what they call their tents.

The beer, called Mack, is from the northernmost brewery in the world and was definitely cold, which is a key requirement for beer in my mind.

From there, we found dinner and then a true English pub. The owner, Mark, knows how to do things just right to keep the clientele happy. On a previous night Tanja Frieden, the winner of the women's snowboardcross when Lindsey Jacobellis fell, was there celebrating. With the highlights playing on the video screen, Mark popped in "Que Sera, Sera" on the CD player.

Last night, it was the Micheala Dorfmeister fan club in attendance. Dorfmeister had won the Super G earlier that day and the Austrians were in a party mood. Mark was at his best, replaying Dorfmeister's run with his TiVo and playing the accompanying music of "Hey, Mickey you're so fine." The Austrians, with "Team Michi Fan Club" shirts were swaying.