The long awaited Winter Olympics came to town - there had been a lot of hype about it, with most Vancouverites dreading it, or so it seemed from my perspective. We had so many people coming in wanting to book trips out of the city - anywhere, they just didn't want to be here while the mayhem was going on! Andrew and I were looking forward to it though - what an experience, to be living in a city that's hosting the Olympics!
The city was well prepared. Apart from the issue of no snow. Vancouver had the warmest winter in years, which didn't make it ideal for the one year they really needed the snow! The buildings were used as billboards, the weather was stunning, there was a buzz about the city. Meanwhile, they were importing snow from other mountains, as there wasn't even enough snow to make more! Ah well, you can't have everything, right?!
The Opening Ceremony was on the 12th of February, Flight Centre had put on a party at one of the local pubs so we went there to watch it. We hadn't got tickets for any of the events, as by the time we thought about it we couldn't get anything for under $100 each. It's the first Winter Olympics on record that the Curling sold out!!
There was, however, lots of free stuff going on around town, and even just walking around soaking up the atmosphere was great. We walked down to see the Cauldron, which stayed lit for the entire time (lit by Wayne Gretzky, naturally). Streets that were normally not even half as busy on a Saturday night were jam packed every night of the week - meaning even the quickest errands took longer, and Andrew had to fights his way through the hoards to get to work and back.
The light show that you can see in this photo happened every night, and the lights moved all over the sky in different patterns - it was gorgeous.
Now the one sport we had followed religiously was the hockey. Of course, every Canadian had their hopes pinned on Canada for the gold medal! Canada played the USA in the quarter final, and lost, but then both met again in the final - the gold medal match. Canada playing the USA in hockey is like NZ playing Oz in the rugby. Tension is at an all time high! Andrew and I chose to watch the game at home, as watching it at a pub would've meant queuing up at 7am to get in somewhere, for a game that didn't start until 12pm. Ummm... no thanks. So we watched at home, and had the balcony door open a bit - every time there was a goal, you could hear the yelling! And then when Canada won the gold in overtime - my god, it was amazing. The whole city just exploded - very soon afterwards there were people running down the streets, screaming, singing, cars beeping their horns, such an outpour of relief and pride. After about an hour we went out a block from our house to see what it was like.....
Fantastic! This is normally a street that cars go down, but they'd shut it off for the Winter Olympics. It's the same street as the one above (night shot with all the people), and check at all the red - mainly Team Canada hockey tops! The atmosphere was amazing, and the people and noise carried on into the night.
That evening we watched the Closing Ceremony - and the fireworks that ended the Olympics, that we could see from our balcony. We really were so close to it all!
Spring has sprung in Vancouver, and the cherry blossoms are out in full force - gorgeous! The streets are beautiful, so many all in a row, just make it look so pretty. We've been having some beautiful weather, milder temperatures, and less rain.This has meant that we've been able to get out and explore a bit more, now that the madness of the Olympics is over, and the crowds have gone.
