From Crosswords to Escape Games: 5 Fun Ways to Exercise Your Brain

People regularly hit the gym to keep their bodies in the best possible shape, but it’s just as important to put your grey matter through its paces. Without exercising your mind, you’ll start to lose neuroplasticity, your brain cells will stop talking to each other, and your brain function will be diminished.

Basically: use it or lose it.

Luckily, there’s no need to enroll in a calculus class to keep your noggin in tip-top shape. Here’s five fun ways to keep your brain fit, from crosswords to escape games.

1. Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles have long been held up as being great for keeping your brain active. More than testing your knowledge of obscure facts, it’s learning new words, storing them in your memory, and retrieving them for the next crossword that helps build memory muscle.

2. Knitting

Seems like you’re not doing a lot with your brain when you’re knitting, but that’s exactly the point. Knitting functions similarly to meditation, helping to regulate your moods and protect against brain aging.

3. Escape Games

The best way to exercise your brain is to use all your senses at once in unusual ways. And the best way to do this is to play an escape game: a new environment, visual clues, audio cues, mini challenges, teamwork—it’s all there.

4. Geocaching

Believe it or not, an important way to keep your brain sharp is to do physical activity. Another excellent exercise is to break routine and “do things the hard way.” By putting you into a forest, sending you on a treasure hunt, and taking away Google Maps, Geocaching combines all these things.

5. Virtuosity

Challenge yourself to become the absolute best at something creative, whether that’s a musical instrument, short story writing, boat building, or soccer juggling. Virtuosos are more alert, open-minded, and calm and they can put details together coherently better than other people. Even if you don’t become Yo-Yo Ma, your brain will thank you for trying.

Keeping your brain in fighting condition by booking one of Krakit’s four Vancouver Escape Games.

5 Unassuming and Underestimated Detectives

Nancy Drew, doing some unassuming sleuthing in one her many books

If you’re a criminal and you’ve got a Sherlock Holmes, Stella Gibson, or John Luther on your case, you’ve got no choice but to immediately start quaking in your boots. But it’s not just intimidating and decorated detectives who always get their man. There are some sleuths who the bad guys never see coming, including the seven underestimated crime-solvers on our list.

Don’t forget: you can try your own unassuming detective hat on at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game and catch your friends off guard with your sleuthing brilliance.

1. Miss Marple

The simple fact is: no one suspects the little old lady—of anything, least of all of being a shrewd investigative mind. That’s probably why people are willing to say things in front of Miss Marple they’d never say in front of Sherlock, helping her to catch them out.

2. Nancy Drew

If no one suspects the little old lady, they certainly don’t suspect the teenage girl, precocious though she may be. Hardworking and determined, Nancy Drew never fails to far exceed people’s expectations of her.

3. Poirot

Tiny, fashion forward, and with a slight limp, Poirot cuts a far different figure than the towering dominance of John Luther. However, his unassuming physical appearance lures people into talking to his “benign confessor” character.

4. Jessica Fletcher

Novelist on the outside, brilliant detective on the inside, Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote is able to use her day job as a mystery writer to gain insight into real-life crimes—always to the criminals’ downfall.

5. Dirk Gently

People might expect Dirk Gently—a man obsessed with the spirit world and otherworldly pursuits—to be full of a lot of hooey. But though Gently may seem like he’s running a sham business with his “holistic detective agency,” he’s not messing about in the slightest. Gently is the real deal.

Get sleuthing at one of Krakit's four Vancouver escape rooms by booking you and up to seven other people into one of four themed escape games.

Escape This: 6 Zombie Apocalypse Survival Skills That Apply to Real Life

When it comes to surviving the end times, we normally think of things like machete-wielding skills or the ability to hotwire a semi-truck. But it’s not just practical skills you’ll need out there. Humans’ main advantage in the natural world is our big brains, and that’s what’ll get you through the zombie apocalypse in one piece. (Maybe that’s why the undead want to eat them so bad …). 

Not coincidentally, they’re also the same sorts of skills you’ll use to lead yourself to victory in Krakit’s Zombie Apocalypse escape room.

1. Ingenuity

Rather than stocking up on tinned foods and honing your knife skills, you know what’s really going to help you in the Zombie Apocalypse? Being creative and insightful. If you don’t know how to jerry-rig a tank, then at least your ability for inventive thinking will help you think up a plan and help you learn new skills along the way.

2. Flexibility

Along with ingenuity, flexible thinking is key. You can only use what you have at hand. How are you going to MacGyver your way out of this situation? Unfortunately, your original plan has gone out the window—better think of something else quick. When one thing doesn’t work, immediately switching to a new gear will help you get through the Zombie Apocalypse, escape games, and life in general.

3. Quick thinking

When you’re living on the run, often you don’t have a lot of time to come up with the perfect plan. Developing quick thinking by challenging yourself with rapid-fire puzzles and logic problems is a surefire way to make sure you stay one step ahead of the undead and also your coworkers.

4. Long-term thinking

At the same time as quick thinking is an essential skill, so is long-term thinking. Being able to do both means you’ll be able to escape immediate danger but also figure out how you’re going to secure safety for you and your crew in the long run. In an escape room, this comes into play when you solve the smaller puzzles that lead to the bigger victory—winning the entire escape game.

5. Reading people

If you want to survive in the cut-throat world of the Zombie Apocalypse, you’ll have to keep a close eye on the people you’re with. As much as we want to trust everyone, you must stay vigilant. Being able to read people accurately is key to figuring out if what they’re saying matches what they’re thinking. This skill applies everywhere, from zombie survival to the dating scene to the workplace.

6. Teamwork

Though you need to stay on your toes, you wouldn’t survive any sort of apocalypse without the help of your friends or even strangers. Learning how to meld your strengths with someone else’s is the only way to forge ahead, when it comes to zombies and when it comes to life.

Band together with a group of up to seven of your friends to defeat Krakit’s horde of zombies in our Zombie Apocalypse escape room. Book now.

From Ostomachion to Escape Game: A History of the Puzzle

The Ostomachion Puzzle (Illustration: Rosario Van Tulpe (CC))

Escape games may be a pretty new phenomenon (the first one opened in 2007 in Japan), but coming up with puzzles to solve purely for the fun of it is an ancient human pastime. While it’s hard to know for certain what the very first puzzles were, there are some really old ones entered into the history books.

The world’s first mechanical game

This game from 2550–2250 BCE looks oddly familiar. Many a Christmas cracker and kid’s birthday goody-bag comes stuffed with one of these puzzles, which requires you to lead the ball from one end of the labyrinth to the other. This clay one looks just as hard as the plastic versions we have today.

The world’s first riddle

One of humankind’s oldest riddles unsurprisingly comes from Classical literature. In Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex from 429 BCE, when Oedipus encounters the wily Sphinx, it asks him this riddle: "What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?"

Oedipus answers correctly: “Man,” and is spared becoming the Sphinx’s dinner by his own quick thinking.

The world’s first puzzle

The famous mathematician Archimedes is behind this most ancient of puzzles: the Ostomachion Puzzle. Invented in 287–212 BCE, this puzzle has 14 geometric pieces that the player is required to arrange correctly in order to fit into a perfect square.

The world’s first crossword

The crossword is the new kid on the block, for sure. It was invented in 1913 by a journalist named Arthur Wayne, which makes it just over a century old. Crosswords are so commonplace now, it’s hard to imagine they were once an innovative pastime, just like escape rooms!

Take on a variety of puzzles and riddles when you play one of Krakit Vancouver Escape Games four themed escape rooms. Book now.

Can’t Escape Sherlock: Sherlock Holmes’s 5 Best Moments

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed character in movie history—and that’s not even counting his appearances in literature, television, and even popular music. It’s no surprise that he’s one of our favourite characters at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game. He’s more of an inspiration, really.

5. Sherlock’s first appearance

In 1887, the first Sherlock novel was published. Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories would go on to be popular for 130 years (and counting), beginning with A Study in Scarlet, which includes the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson, and even his archnemesis, Moriarty.

4. Basil Rathbone dons the deerstalker

What does Sherlock Holmes wear? A deerstalker hat and a cape, of course. This image comes courtesy of Basil Rathbone, who, beginning in 1939, played Sherlock Holmes in 14 films and over 200 times on radio. If there’s one man responsible for really searing the image of Sherlock into the pop cultural imagination (and launching 1,000 Halloween costumes in the process), it is definitely Sir Rathbone.

3. Sherlock gets a full-time secretary

Despite the fact that Sherlock’s address of 221B Baker Street, London, is completely fictional—and, more to the point, so is he—it turns out he gets a lot of mail. So much mail, in fact, that in 1932 the Abbey National Building Society, located at 219–229 Baker Street, had to employ a full-time secretary to answer Sherlock’s mail.

2. Sherlock dominates the BBC

There’s one reason why Millennials are obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, and that reason has everything to do with BBC, Benedict Cumberbatch, and really, really long wait times in between seasons. The most recent TV version, Sherlock, premiered in 2010, and in those seven long years, there have been only 12 episodes and one Christmas Special. This tactic of always leaving the fans wanting more really seems to be working.

1. Sherlock gets serialized and hits the big time

“A Scandal in Bohemia,” the very first short story to be serialized in the Strand Magazine, was published in 1891, and it didn’t take long for fans to go gaga over the character of Sherlock and his exciting exploits. It was Sherlock’s presence in the easily available newspaper that really led to his enduring popularity. Conan Doyle continued writing about his beloved character until 1927—just three years before the writer’s death.

Try on your Sherlock hat in one of Krakit Vancouver Escape Game’s four themed escape rooms by booking now. 

History’s Great Escapes: Napoleon's Escape from Elba

Napoleon greeted by the 5th Regiment at Grenoble after his escape from Elba (Charles de Steuben)

On February 26, it will be exactly 201 years since Napoleon Bonaparte made his great escape from the island of Elba. Being one of the most famous exiles of all time has really got to put a damper on your chances of making a prison break, which is why we at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game consider this one of the greatest escapes of all time.

It’s true that a lot of negative qualities are associated with Napoleon—being overly aggressive as a way to compensate for a lack of height being just one of them—but no one can argue that he wasn’t also a great strategic mastermind. This is precisely what led him to seize power as the new leader of France following the Revolution.

Unfortunately for him, people eventually tired of his antics, which mainly included invading other European countries. After ten years, his enemies finally got the better of him and ousted him from his position as Emperor of France, exiling him to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea.

Napoleon lived on Elba for the better part of a year, at which point he caught wind that his rivals planned to move him to an even more remote location—an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So, on February 26, 1815, Napoleon made his escape.

Taking advantage of in-fighting among the European powers who had placed him on Elba in the first place, Napoleon managed to slip past his guards who were otherwise preoccupied. He and his 1,000-man army—which he had amassed on Elba using his undiminished powers of charisma—boldly marched aboard a French ship and sailed to Provence. A regiment was sent to overtake Napoleon and his army, but instead, these men simply joined his ranks.

Two days later, Napoleon returned to Paris—and to his former title of Emperor. This wasn’t fated to last very long, however, with Napoleon’s power lasting just two days before he was exiled again. This time, to a new island a thousand miles off the west coast of Africa, where he would be unable to duplicate his Elba escape. He died on St. Helena five years later.

Pull a Napoleon and make your own escape when you book one of our four Vancouver escape rooms here: http://bookeo.com/krakit

Can’t Escape That Feeling: 5 Best Horror Love Stories

Zombies need love too (Photo: Kenny Louie)

Love Valentine’s Day but don’t love sappy rom coms? Neither do we here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game.

We’re completely sure that celebrating love doesn’t require red roses and sparkling wine, goopy rain-drenched kisses, or even chocolates (though that’s never really bad is it). Why are we so certain? Just take a look at these equally horrorific and lovey-dovey couples.

5. Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas

They may not be perfect—he has no flesh and hers keeps falling apart—but they’re perfect for each other. Despite Dr. Finkelstein’s attempts to keep them apart, the pair end Tim Burton’s beloved Claymation classic by declaring their love in lovely, romantic graveyard.

4. Edward and Kim from Edward Scissorhands

While there is no rain-filled kiss scene in yet another creepy romance from Tim Burton, there is a snow-filled dance that even Belle and the Beast would envy, when Edward makes it snow by carving an ice sculpture in Kim’s likeness. Like Belle, though Kim finds Edward super weird at first, she ends up falling for her very own beast—though things turn out rather less happily.

3. Oskar and Eli from Let the Right One In

Is there anything more precious than first love? Even if it’s with a vampire? Oskar, from the dark and moody Swedish indie flick, doesn’t let Eli’s penchant for killing human beings ruin his feelings for her. In fact, it makes him like her even more.

2. Buffy and Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A tortured love story to rival Romeo and Juliet’s—only with a whole lot more dying. Could their tale be any more tragic, guys? There are probably some people out there still hoping that Buffy and Angel get back together. Fingers crossed.

1. Eve and Adam from Only Lovers Left Alive

We’re starting to sense a theme here. Despite some franchise doing their best to ruin it, there really is something romantic about vampires, despite their unsettling bloodlust—it must be that whole immortal thing. No film portrays this better than Jim Jarmusch’s quiet film, which tells the story of a devoted vampire couple through the ages. Eve and Adam are really just a great couple to aspire to this Valentine’s Day, whether you’re a vampire or not.

Take your own eternal love on a Valentine’s date to remember at our Vancouver escape game. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit

Escape Your Brain: How Optical Illusions Work

We can all agree that the clues and riddles that lead to escape room victory make you do some serious brain gymnastics. Why? Because by twisting your expectations, they force acrobatic thinking.

This is basically the same principle that optical illusions work on—except they are all the more frustrating, because we can never exactly solve them.

When we take in data about the world—through our eyes, for example—we make assumptions about that world. But these assumptions are not always true to reality.

Ponzo illusion

Take the Ponzo illusion: It looks like the horizontal lines are different lengths when, in fact, they are the exact same. The angled lines trick our brains into using our depth perception. And, just like that, four simple lines will outsmart us, every time.

This is why optical illusions can be incredibly frustrating: they’re so simple, and yet they trick our brains so effectively.

 

Grey squares illusion

We all know the illusion above: The squares with the two dots are the exact same shade. But none of us actually sees it that way, do we?

The only way for our minds to process all the information around us is to take shortcuts. These help us to make quick work of what we’re sensing—but it can get us in to trouble. This is the same principle both pickpockets use to distract you while they steal the watch right off your wrist. They misdirect your attention by messing with our sensory shortcuts.

Perceptual shortcuts like the ones that make us susceptible to optical illusions and pickpockets are the same ones that can thwart us when we attempt to solve riddles. That is, we fall into familiar patterns and come to the same old conclusions. Usually this is great—but not when a mystery is afoot!

Slowing down, and seeing what’s really in front of our faces, is the only way we can work against this natural shortcoming.

It’s like Sherlock says: “You do see, you just don’t observe!” The trick is to try and do both at once. 

See how well you can master your perceptual shortcuts in one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape games. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Becoming Sherlock: How to Think Like a Detective (and Win Your Escape Game)

Playing an escape game is half immersion in a fantasy world and half logic puzzle marathon. If you want to come out victorious at your next escape room, you need to get your deerstalker-style thinking hat on.

Here’s how.

Observe, observe, observe

The most important step to thinking like a detective is paying attention—very, very close attention. Observing everything that’s around you, whether it seems important or not, is the foundation of detective work.

Be methodical

Except for bona fide geniuses like Sherlock, detectives never ever rely on memory alone to keep track of all the information they’ve gathered. Take notes, make drawings, keep a log of your thoughts. All of this is needed in the quest for a solution to whatever riddle you face, be it escape game or a real-life whodunit.

Give in to intuition

While considered and methodical observation is key, so is listening to your gut. Our brains work in mysterious ways, often making connections that we’re not consciously aware of until we have what’s known as a “eureka moment.” If something is sticking out, there’s probably a reason—even if you have no idea why just yet.

Get logical

Once you’ve got a balance of observation and intuition that even Sherlock himself would approve of, you can apply your cold, hard logical brain to the information you’ve gathered. Thinking through a situation step-by-step and coming up with a conclusion based on all the facts at hand is the name of the detective game.

Get feedback on your ideas

Even the most brilliant mind needs a sounding board, which for Sherlock Holmes comes in the form of Dr. Watson. It’s simple: if there’s no one there to pick holes in your theories, you’ll never be able to find them.

Challenge yourself

Constantly put your detective powers to the test by engaging your brain in riddles and logic puzzles. The more you use your brain, and especially skills you don’t get to use on a daily basis, the stronger the neural pathways you’ve taken the time to set up will become.

Stay curious

Learn as much as you can about everything that you can. The more you know, the more you will see connections between the various clues and puzzle pieces you encounter. Plus, you’ll just be a more interesting person. He may be a weirdo, but no one can call Sherlock boring, right?

Have you turned yourself into a regular deduction powerhouse? Test out your detective skills in one of our four themed Vancouver escape games by booking now.

Zombies and Monsters and Serial Killers, Oh My: 7 of Canada’s Best Horror Flicks

Still from Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Although Canadians are known internationally for being “so nice and polite,” we’ve definitely got a dark side. That’s definitely something we explore at Krakit Escape Game, putting you right into the action of your favourite zombie flick or creature feature. We get a lot of our inspiration from the cinema, with a lot of horror classics come from our own backyard.

Here’s seven of our favourites.

1. Ginger Snaps (2000)

A modern horror staple, featuring two sisters whose lives get a little out of control when one of them is bitten by a werewolf. Director John Edwards hails from Edmonton, and its star, Katharine Isabelle, was born right here in Vancouver.

2. The Fly (1986)

National treasure David Cronenberg is behind this seriously creepy Jeff Goldblum vehicle, telling the nightmarish tale of a man-fly hybrid.

3. Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010)

Though set in Virginia and directed by a Californian, top-shelf comedy-horror flick Tucker and Dale nevertheless stars Tyler Labine (of Breaker High) and was produced with the help of some Canadian grants.

4. The Witch (2015)

Another Canadian co-production, the horror standout of 2015—Robert Eggers’s The Witch—was filmed entirely in Ontario, though set in 1630s New England, which apparently suffered an unfortunate outbreak of devil worshipping.

5. Black Christmas (1974)

This decidedly Canadian slasher film takes place in a sorority over Christmas—the perfect time for a serial killer to wreak havoc on unsuspecting co-eds.

6. American Mary (2012)

Vancouver’s own Twisted Twins, aka Jen and Sylvia Soska, brought in Ginger Snaps’s Katharine Isabelle to star in their gory tale of a medical student turned body modifier.

7. Pontypool (2008)

Pontypool has that rare quality of being a Canadian film that’s actually set in Canada—Pontypool, Ontario—which tells the story of a deadly virus infecting the small town.

Fancy staring in your own Canadian horror? Book one of Krakit’s horror-themed escape games and see whether you’re first victim or final girl material. <bookeo link>

Escape Game History: The Uncrackable Code of the Phaistos Disc

Both sides of the Phaistos Disc

The current obsession with codes and puzzles that every escape game fan enjoys has a very long history. Pretty much as long as humans have been able to communicate through language, we’ve had the burning desire to encrypt that communication. What can we say, we’re a complicated species.

One ancient example of our fondness for code-making—one that still has cryptologists scratching their heads—is the Phaistos Disc.

Found on the Mediterranean island of Crete in 1908, the Phaistos Disc is a 15 cm disc of fired clay with a spiral of symbols adorning each side. The 241 symbols are made up of only 45 signs, which can only mean one thing—the images aren’t just decoration, they’re trying to tell us something.

The archaeologist who found the disc, Luigi Pernier, continued excavations at the Phaistos palace site for years afterward, but no other example of the symbols was ever found. This makes not only the message the Phaistos Disc contains a mystery, but also its very origins—no one knows where in the world it came from (literally).

Since the Phaistos Disc was found in Crete, and is from very very long ago—the second millennium BC, to be exact—some people have gone so far as to connect the mysterious artifact to the legendary Maze of Daedelus—otherwise known as the home of the Minotaur.

While this seems highly unlikely, it’s as good a guess as any, as many archaeologists and crytography experts think there’s little chance of the message of the Phaistos Disc ever being solved, without any other examples of this symbol set to help decipher it. Some of the symbols resemble those from another writing system from the same geographical area, called Linear A. However, Linear A also hasn’t been solved, so no luck there.

It seems that the Phaistos Disc is a mystery we’re just going to have to learn to live with.

At Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, you have a much better chance of solving our codes. You can try out your hand at cryptography by booking a go in one of our four themed escape rooms.

Escape Game First Date: 5 Revelations You Will Learn about Your Future Bae

On paper, it may sound a little intimidating: enter a locked room with a person you’ve exchanged very few words with, and who you likely only just met in person for the first time, and then attempt to escape that locked room through close collaboration.

We’ve seen plenty of first dates at Krakit Vancouver Escape Room, and we’ll tell you why it’s a fantastic way to jump start what could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. (And OK, maybe it’s a little intimidating, but what first date isn’t?)

Here’s just a few of the qualities that a high-pressure situation, multiple brainteasing puzzles, and a 90-minute countdown will reveal about your next bae.

1. How they deal with stress

Put anyone in any situation with a countdown clock, and you’re guaranteed to get the stress hormones flowing. This is great for a first date, because you get to see if that guy who seemed so easygoing on Tinder is actually a tightly wound spring.

2. What their imagination is like

If you’ve chosen an escape room also your first date, odds are you’re a creative person who likes to immerse themselves in challenging situations and, yes, get lost in a little fantasy. No other first date will reveal if your future gal is on the same imaginative wavelength like an escape game date.

3. How well they communicate

We are all very aware that good relationships are built on good communication. So, why not throw this budding romance into the proverbial fire and see how quickly the two of you can get those verbal juices flowing. Without them, you certainly won’t win the escape game, and your date probably won’t win your love.

4. How they cope with failure

Whether or not you solve the escape room, there’s a good chance each one of you will fail at least one of the puzzles. Will your date take failure like a champ? Let’s hope so. Will they take your failures with grace? Let’s doubly hope so!

5. Whether or not they will put you first

A brain-hungry zombie rattles on the door—does your date shield you, or use you as a shield? VERY important to know. Might as well find that out asap.

Book your escape game first date in one of our four themed Vancouver escape rooms.

Puzzling Logic: 9 Ways to Step-up Your Escape Room Game

A puzzle is something that needs to be solved, but that doesn’t have an obvious, predetermined set of steps you can take in order to solve it. This practically sounds like a puzzle in and of itself—which is why it’s a smart move to brush-up on your puzzle-solving skills before tackling your next escape game.

1. Remember the first two rules of puzzle solving. Written by puzzle experts Gianni Sarcone and Marie Waeber, they go: 1) Nothing is as difficult as it looks. 2) Nothing is as easy as it looks.

2. Do the straightforward tasks first. Is there a math problem to solve? A word to unjumble? A cultural reference to nail? Figure that out, and only then start thinking about how it fits into the grand scheme.

3. Remember the rules. Your escape game master will tell you the dos and don’ts of your escape game. Not paying attention to the introductory spiel can spell disaster for even the cleverest of clue solvers.

4. Jot down notes. With all that’s thrown at you with puzzles—especially when there’s multiple ones to deal with, like in an escape room—you need a good way to organize your thoughts. An old-school pen and paper set usually does the trick (especially since we take your smartphones away!).

5. Watch out for double entendres and puns. Humans are usually willing to take things at face value, so plays on words and visual puns can be hard to spot at first. But keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything with the potential for two or more meanings.

6. Keep an eye out for oddities. If something seems out of place, it almost certainly requires some sleuthing. In other words, what appears to be an intentional error might as well have giant neon arrows pointing at it that scream, “Scrutinize me!!”

7. See what’s hidden in plain sight. Sometimes something that seems entirely irrelevant or mundane is actually the key to it all.

8. Let it simmer. If you can’t figure it out but you know something is there (see point 5 above), give the task a rest and turn your attention to something else. Things often fall into place once your brain is given some breathing room—otherwise known as a “eureka moment.”

9. Use your hints. It’s not a “cheat” to use a hint—it’s part of the game!

Put your escape game skills to the test in one of Krakit’s four themed escape rooms. You can book your next sleuthing experience here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.                                                              

New Year’s Escape: Riot and Prison Break at Oakalla Prison in Burnaby

Interior view of a jail cell at Oakalla Prison (Vancouver Archives)

With snow continuing to rear its ugly head much more than we Vancouverites are used to, the only thing most of us are thinking about escaping this New Year’s Eve is subzero temperatures.

However, there was one New Year’s past when a much bigger escape happened. This escape involved 13 maximum-security prisoners—and it happened right here in Burnaby, British Columbia, just a ten-minute drive from Krakit Escape Game, in what is now Deer Lake Park.

It all began 29 years ago, on December 28, 1987, when tensions at Oakalla Prison were at an all-time high. In this atmosphere, a minor disciplinary incident acted as spark that would erupt into a full-fledged riot involving more than 100 people. It took three days for the prison guards to turn down the rioting prisoners, who smashed cells, lit fires, and made weapons out of anything they could find.

By New Year’s Eve, the rioting had spread to the east wing—where the worst offenders, including murderers, were kept. To keep on top of the escalating situation, the guards moved these max inmates to a set of underground cells that hadn’t been used since the days when Oakalla was a prison farm.

When the guards came back to serve the prisoners coffee, the inmates jumped the guards, locked them in the segregated cells, and made a break for it.

That was that, and the 13 inmates found themselves with a sudden New Year’s resolution to keep—hold onto their new ill-found freedom.

From its opening in 1912, Oakalla Prison was no stranger to escape attempts, with its inmates able to slip out from between cast iron bars, scale the razor-wire fences, and run into the surrounding forest. Some were recaptured, but some ere not. It reportedly even became a game for particularly sneaky criminals to get caught, be placed in Oakalla, and then make an escape attempt—just to see if they could. One year, there were more than 40 escapes in seven months.

Over the course of its nearly 80 years in operation, 850 inmates escaped from Oakalla Prison. Not a very good record, to say the least. The 1987 New Year’s Eve prison break was the beginning of the end for the Burnaby prison, which had been making local residents understandably nervous for quite some time. It was decommissioned and demolished just a few years later, in 1991.

You and your friends can make your own escape attempt this New Year’s Eve by booking a slot in one of our four themed escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit. But please, no maximum-security inmates need apply.

10 Great Christmas Gifts for Mystery Fans, Escape Game Lovers, and Sleuth Wannabes

Still haven’t gotten around to gift buying this holiday season? Well, neither have we at Krakit Vancouver Escape Room. All we can say is, thank goodness two-day shipping exists!

Below we list ten gifts that we’re sure any of our escape game players—along with any mystery film fan, detective novel buff, or sleuth in training—would love.

1. Lock picking kit

You need to be careful who you give this one to (maybe not your 11-year-old niece), but not only is a lock picking kit very cool looking, but it can legitimately come in handy.

2. Mysterium board game

This unusual mystery board game takes some serious creative thinking and collaborative teamwork to win. Not to mention it’s rather beautifully designed.

3. Escape game passes

Give the gift of experience with an escape game voucher, and get those puzzle-solving brain cogs turning at full speed.

4. Veronica Mars Investigations mug

If there’s one thing all sleuths can agree on, it’s the necessity of coffee. Especially when it comes in a Veronica Mars mug.

5. Hollow book safe

Any private investigator in training needs a good place to hide things from prying eyes, whether that be a candy stash or a secret diary. You can even make this gift yourself!

6. Benedict Cumberbatch’s face

Give the gift of Sherlock this Christmas—quite literally.

7. Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries television series

For the mystery-loving hipster on your list: an obscure 1970s serial mystery show hosted by Orson Welles and created by Roald Dahl. Warning: this hard-to-find gift will require some sleuthing of your own (bootlegs or torrents only!).

8. Spy the Lie book

For the more serious and cerebral mystery fan, we’d choose Spy the Lie: Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception, a training guide to becoming a human lie detector.

9. Columbo “Just One More Thing” T-shirt

There just won’t be a time when Columbo isn’t super cool, so a T-shirt with his catchphrase is a pretty safe bet.

10. Rebus 20 Highland Park Whisky

The holy grail of mystery-fan gifts—a mystery unto itself, really. Rebus 20: a limited edition single malt created by Highland Park in honour of Ian Rankin’s whisky-loving detective Inspector Rebus. Maybe start looking for it this Christmas, and give it next Christmas. (That way you’ll also have time to save up …)

Make someone’s Christmas merry, mysterious, and bright by giving the gift of an escape game. You can learn more about Krakit’s four themed escape rooms here: http://www.krakit.ca/room-themes.php.

6 Holiday Mysteries for Escape Room Fans

In December, the ratio of work days to days off is right where we like it at Krakit Escape Game: about half and half. Even after trying out one, two, maybe three escape games with your friends and family this holiday season, you’ll probably still have some time to fill with some further brain-tickling mystery goodness.

To help you out, we’ve put together some of our favourite Christmas and wintry-themed mysteries: three TV specials and three films to get you through to the New Year.

Mysterious TV Christmas Specials

1. Sherlock, “The Abominable Bride”

What’s better than Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman playing Sherlock and Watson? Cumberbatch and Freeman playing the dynamic duo in Victorian England, of course. This hour-and-a-half Christmas special was released last January, so it’s about time for a rewatch.

2. Murdoch Mysteries, “A Very Murdoch Christmas”

The Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries, set in the Toronto of the 1890s, got into the Christmas special spirit with this two-hour episode from 2015. Along with a Christmas pageant (classic), “A Very Murdoch Christmas” also involves the Christmas demon Krampus (amazing!).

You can watch the whole thing online here.

3. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, “Murder Under the Mistletoe”

And finally, to turn your Christmas upside-down (literally) comes the Melbourne-set Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. This Christmas spesh is also a period piece—set in the 1920s—with Miss Fisher and company trapped in a house after a heavy snowfall where a murder most foul has just taken place. Since Winter in Australia is during our summer, this special is set during July.

Mysterious Christmas Films

1.  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and a murder mystery set in Los Angeles during Christmastime. Win, win, win, win, win.

2.  Die Hard

Oh, Die Hard is already your favourite Christmas movie? Well, we should’ve seen that coming—but we couldn’t not include it on our list. John McClane has to escape an office tower that’s been taken over by terrorists. And oh boy, will he.

3. The Thin Man

A 1934 comedy-mystery to help make your holiday merry and bright, in which Nick and Nora Charles’s New York Christmas holiday is about to have a lot more murder than they ever expected. Plus, it’s a chance for us to see what 1930s Christmas cocktail parties looked like (hint: pretty classy).



Book your own Christmas escape in one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Deep Freeze!! Top 3 Wintry Escape Scenes From The Cinema

Vancouver has been thrown into the deep freeze!

A cold front has swooped down from the Arctic, crippling the city. Traditional zen lotus-eaters are losing their minds in traffic, lineups for winter tires are two-blocks long and yoga classes across the lower mainland have been suspended; it is pure chaos in the rainy city!

With more snow on its way, the Krakit team are preparing for a full-out winter assault. And what better way to prepare for snowmageddon then a light-hearted review of our favourite snow-bound escape movie scenes?

Here are our top three wintery escape scenes from the cinema:

3. The Spy Who Loved Me

Roger Moore, as James Bond, is up to no-good in an Austrian chalet when Queen and Country calls. Leaving a fair maiden (double-agent) wanting Moore, Bond dons a Ronald McDonald ski suit and heads out the door. The fair maiden shows her true hair-colour and calls in a ski attack.

With four armed agents in pursuit, Bond does some epic glacier skiing. His path takes him through a narrow ice shoot, he fires a ski pole rocket at one of his enemies and he pulls off a backflip half twist before skiing off a mountainside.

Of course Roger Moore was never on skis in Austria, but neither were the stuntmen. The entire sequence was filmed in Nunavut, Canada on Asgard Peak on Baffin Island.

The final cherry on the escape is the parachute design - a giant Union Jack flag. Well-done James.

2. The Empire Strikes Back

By far the best film of the Star Wars series (fingers-crossed for Rogue One), Empire starts on the icy planet of Hoth. After investigating a meteor (probe droid), Luc is sucker-punched by a snow beast. The young Jedi is taken back to the Wampa's layer where he is imprisoned in ice foot shackles.

Upon waking, Luc tries desperately to free himself before remembering that he has this wonderful gift called the force. Using Yoda's lessons, Luc is able to summon his light sabre from across the ice cave, cut off his shackles and slice the arm off his captor.

I guess with the force any Vancouver Escape Room might seem like a kids ballroom. But then again, maybe not...

1. The Thing

John Carpenter's The Thing is a sci-fi classic. The film includes aliens, a wintery locale on Antarctica and the always-entertaining action star, Kurt Russel. More of a mystery (who-done-it) tale then the other two films, The Thing has a group of scientists and remote technicians wondering who is the assimilated alien in the group. The snow flies, the crew accepts their fate and one-by-one the infected are killed off.

The final scene has MacCready and Childs share a drink, while the research station burns in the snowy background. Both men suspect the other of being infected, but with nothing left to fight for, a thin possibility of survival and the doomed fate of mankind looming off-screen, the two choose to let the time run out, leaving the audience guessing as to who was human.

And If you brave enough to stand the cold, come out to our Vancouver Escape Room! You might be shivering, but it won't be from the cold!

Real-Life Escape Games: 3 Daring Historical Escapes Made by Women

Mary, Queen of Scots in captivity

In the list of Great Escapes, you’ll notice a lack of women’s names. But that’s definitely not because women didn’t commit a whole lot of impressive escape feats. Handily, Krakit Vancouver Escape Game is here to fill that gap with this list of three of the most daring escape efforts made in history—all done by women.

1. Mary, Queen of Scots, escape: 1568

Mary, Queen of Scots did a lot of things most women didn’t do during the 16th century, like rule a country, get involved in a murderous love triangle, make enemies with Elizabeth I, and be taken political prisoner.

In 1568, after one year locked up in Lochleven Castle following a rebellion of Scottish nobles, she disguised herself as a laundress and tried to make her break by boat. Alas, she was recognized and turned back to her cell. However, that didn’t stop her from making a second escape, two months later, with the help of an orphan kid she befriended and a horse she stole from her captors. This time, she was successful.

Despite her penchant for daring escapes, Mary unfortunately would be no stranger to prisons throughout her life, ultimately being executed in 1587.

2. Harriet Tubman, escape: 1849

Harriet Tubman was born into a life of slavery in 19th-century Maryland. When her master died in 1849, instead of going to work at the neighbour’s house, Tubman took advantage of the disarray and made her escape to Philadelphia.

However, she didn’t stop there. She returned to her former home to help her family escape, along with dozens of other people. When the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, she returned to her knack for arranging escapes, helping get people across the border and into British North America (now Canada) along the Underground Railroad.

Because Tubman was just an overall badass, when the Civil War came around, she joined up as an armed scout and spy.

3. Countess Andrée de Jongh, escape: 1941

An active member of the Belgian Resistance during WWII, Countess Andrée de Jongh made her escape from Belgium at the age of 21, crossing the Pyrenees Mountains on foot to reach Spain. Like Tubman, de Jongh really did not stop there. Instead, she organized the Comet Line, an escape network that helped captured Allied soldiers escape occupied France and Belgium and reach safety in British-owned Gibraltar. All in all, de Jongh made 30 double crossings, escorting 116 escapees.

Following the end of the war, de Jongh worked in leper colonies in several African nations, and was ennobled as a countess in 1985.

Plot your escape in one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape rooms by booking here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.