Olympics by the seat of my pants

I decided a few days ago that I was going to vamoose over to Vancouver to experience the Olympics first hand. After all, when am I ever going to be this close to them again? So, off I went, largely flying by the seat of my pants the whole way. This venture also marked the first time I have ever really gone on a trip all by myself, ha, I am so grown up now.
So, you get to experience my, somewhat poorly documented, trip. Or glaze over the blabbing, skim the pictures and move onto something more meaningful/useful...
So, transportation, a two hour ferry ride (wherin I miss the bus to take me to the ferry I originally intended to go on courtesy of me staying up too late, er early, the previous night, but anyways...)

Once I got to Vancouver, well Richmond, you take a bus/skytrain (which are super by the way) to Vancouver, which basically got me right downtown. I headed to the nearest free venue, called LiveCity Yaletown, where I got to stand in line to get in (and then be subjected to airport style security) Fortunately they had entertainment for folks waiting in line:

And into LiveCity, which was kind of dead, but I think it was more geared towards people doing stuff in the evening, and I went in the early afternoon. However, note the huge television screens. I saw some speedskating on them, wherein one person bailed quite nicely and another person (who is 20) won, and I felt bad about my life accomplishments.

There was also a Coca-Cola sponsor tent thing within this venue, which I stood in line for a ridiculously long time to get into. A whole lot of spiel about their sponsorship of the games through the years etc. but they did have the walls covered in the signatures of all the people who had been involved in this years Torch Relay which I thought was pretty swell.

This was also the location of 'Vancouver House' (each province had their own house around the City, as well as some countries) which I didn't peer in, but next door they had a Laneway House set up to go walk around in and see which was pretty swell. Basically its a sustainable house that is 800 some square feet and I think you can basically buy it as a package type thing. Anyways, I think they were trying to promote it as a solution to Vancouvers housing problem, regardless, it was spiff but I apparently didn't think to take pictures inside.

I poked around for a bit, taking in all the Canadian pride *grin*

I don't know if you can see, but those lamp-post flags say 'with glowing hearts' and TONS of buildings had Canadian flags on them, although this one was the best that I saw.

I also attempted to see the athletes village, however it was supposedly super secure etc. so I peered at it from this bridge that was supposed to be the best place to actually see it:

And this is the part where it started to get dark and my camera had a hissy fit about not enough light and commenced with the blurry pictures. Enjoy! :)

I meandered over to BC Place, which is where the medal ceremonies happen and the hockey games occur. The day I was there was a game between Canada and Russia. Thats BC Place in the first picture, and the stadium in the second, they are possibly the same building, or just right beside eachother.

Right across the street from BC Place was Alberta House which I also didn't go in to (another big lineup) but it was largely open (under those white draperies) so you could hear the country music (haha, that entertained me far too much-so albertan) from outside, and they had a big TV you could watch outside. The TV was playing the hockey game, surprise surprise, but it was fantastic! There were so many people and everybody was so into it. Every time Canada got a goal, basically all of downtown went crazy! Also, because Alberta House was right across the street from the arena, you could ocassionaly hear stuff from inside the stadium at the same time you saw it on the screen. Thats probably the only time I have ever actually been excited about a hockey game!

A bit down the street from Alberta house was this thing called the Bell Ice Cube, also didn't go in so I'm not sure what they had inside but they did have these huge spotlights outside that they swung around that lit up the sky, alas, camera didn't like my attempts to photograph that.

I came across some more street performers in my meanderings. These folks were having fun playing with burning batons. One girl actually lit herself on fire (by accident, but it got put out pretty quick) but all in all it was spiff. In the second picture, one fellow had this stick with the olympic rings balanced on his nose, and the girl came over and lit them on fire. He vamoosed around with them for a bit longer.

And yes, that pretty much sums it up. On the ferry ride back I found out that they have TVs at one of the seating areas, so they were broadcasting the Olympics, another hockey game, and it was a super ending to my Olympic-filled day, sitting there watching with all these other people. Its amazing the energy you can get just from being around a bunch of people who are super into it!

I am actually plotting about maybe going again, with a girl from dance, but we shall see.

Hope you all are well, and we should talk! I can't wait until I get to see you folks next!

-Hermy