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Hi all. I just finished my first day at work after getting back from my trip to Vancouver last night. I thought I'd tell you all a little bit about the trip, not to brag, but because I think some of you might be curious.
First off, the city:
The setting for Vancouver is pretty much unparalleled by any other North American city I have been to or know about. Downtown Vancouver itself sits on a small island surrounded by other cities which essentially are all a part of greater Vancouver. It is situated on the water (an inlet of the Pacific called Georgia Strait), but it is also at the foot of a mountain range. This makes for some pretty incredible views, which I'm sure you've seen in the Olympic coverage. However I would stress that the shots on TV cannot convey the beauty of the city.
As far as the feel of the city, it does have Canadian feel, but in some ways, it feels more like Seattle, or even Portland, than it does an east-coast Canadian city. Downtown is a city of glass. Everything looks new and shiny, and there isn't a huge sense of history, which I feel helps give character to a city. In that way it's much more like Toronto (burned in the war of 1812) than Montreal. But I would say if you took out the Olympic tourists, Vancouver would not have the international feel you get in Toronto and Montreal. There is a sizable Asian population in Vancouver, but other than that the town seems pretty whitebread, maybe even more than Portland which is saying something.
Vancouver definitely has that west coast "laidback" in spades. Public transit is everywhere, both buses and lightrail (the "skytrain"). There's a big coffee culture. People are outdoor activity freaks and generally in good shape. There is also a big weed culture, but in this case even more so than in Portland and Seattle. There are even Amsterdam-style "coffee shops" that allow their patrons to fire it up right there in the cafe. Maybe this is what helps with that laidback feel. Whatever it is, the people were extremely nice about their city getting overrun by tourists. Drivers would stop for pedestrians, people would give you directions (Rebecca and I even had a couple give us a ride to the train station after we asked where it was), and people were just very pleasant in general and happy to show off their city.
The games:
Ice events are taking place in Vancouver (hockey, curling, figure skating), but all mountain events are not. So actually most tourists in Vancouver proper that I saw were not there to see an event, but to get the Olympic "experience". This includes things like seeing the Olympic flame, going to the Olympic village, or going to national "pavilions". We saw the flame and went to a hockey game at GM Place (called Canada Hockey Place for the games), but did not do a lot of the other things we saw people doing. That was mainly because we wanted to avoid crowds and waiting in line. People going to these national pavilions would wait in line for hours at a time (we heard about 3-4 hour waits for both the Russian and German pavilions) to get in. Once in, I really don't know what they'd get out of it. I imagine these were basically parties for people of that nation. But I hope that maybe athletes or famous people from those nations were there to add to the experience. I'd personally rather not go to a party than wait 4 hours to get into one, so I didn't go to any, nor into the Canadian Mint to exchange a loony for a special Olympic edition loony which also had an hours-long wait.
One great thing is that anyone with a ticket to an Olympic event got free admission to all public transit, not just for the day of that event, but for the whole Olympics! So all of our rides on public transit were free, a huge bonus since I had no desire to take my car anywhere near downtown. I was able to leave my car at our hotel in Burnaby, and ride to and from the city on the Skytrain. The hotel itself was located conveniently, but it was really a step above fleabag status. The room stank of cigarettes and had many defects as well as an overall feeling of dinginess. That wouldn't have been a problem if it was priced like a bottom of the line motel, but it wasn't. Getting a room was the hardest part of planning the trip for me, and I imagine many others. As it turned out I paid more for this crappy motel room than I have for any other room I've ever rented. It was literally highway robbery as this was located right next to Highway1.
The Hockey game itself was fantastic. It was Russia/Czech Republic on Sunday. We had great seats: lower bowl, in the corner, right above the tunnel. We could put our drinks and feet on the tunnel in front of us, and had great access to the aisle as well a killer view. We were sitting right next to a camera man. I asked him what network he was shooting for, and he replied "the world. However wants to pay for it." I thought that was a good answer.
The game was quite well-played and competitive IMO. I was only bummed that I missed Ovechkin's check on Jagr because the guy next to me asked if I could take a picture of him and his kids right when it happened. I heard the crowd react, and then I was like "I missed something". Never got to see it until the replays. I wanted Czech to win, but honestly I was more excited to see the Russian team, and it didn't really bother me that Russia won. What a great game!
Overall, it was a great experience. While I feel no huge desire to go back to Vancouver in the near future, I highly recommend the city. And I also recommend the whole Olympic experience. It makes you realize that people the world over are more alike than we are different, and that's a great thing to keep in mind. Sorry about the huge post.
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