Before Olympic, I am trying to stay away from it (because of the road closure etc.). But now I started to miss it. Downtown has never been so safe late night, nor have I seen so many people with Canadian flag on the street. I almost never watched hockey game, but I stayed in front of the TV for the entire game, and cheer for the Canadian team. I should say, I never felt so "Canadian" before. It's a truly unique experience. And yeah...the Olympic Cauldron with the sunny blue sky as backdrop, I missed that! I was out of town during the first week, which I now regret. I wished I were here for the entire Olympic and enjoy every moment of it.
Now that the Olympic is over, let's worry about the tax increase later, at least, Canada Line stays, so as the memory.
My adventure begins 3 days after my Hong Kong trip. I took skytrain to water front to view the Cauldron around 10pm. Normally I wouldn't think about going to downtown by public transportation at this time of the day. But I know it's safe. The skytrain and the streets are filled with people with the same mission.
I finally see it, the Cauldron, it's so pretty.
After that, we drive to Granville Island to take some night shot. The laser light show is truly an added bonus.
And the restaurant transforms to the Swiss Pavilion.
Since we want to take some shot of the Olympic Village, we went to the False Creek area. But we can't get closer (as expected). We walk up Cambie bridge, and took this picture:
On Saturday, which is the 2nd last day of the Winter Olympic, my adventure continues. I planned to visit the different pavilions. From the info I gathered, I decided to visit the Royal Mint Pavilion and Yaletown Live City (Coke Pavilion). Inside the Mint Pavilion, the actual medal is displayed. The Coke Pavilion offers some interactive games and free coke. I'm not really for the coke but I do like the special edition coke bottle that they give out.
Although I have been warned that there is huge lineup to the Mint, my plan to be there at 8am fails. I was there around 8:30am. But that doesn't matter any more. The lineup is already wrapped around the block. Hearing the security guard mentioning the lineup is approximately 10 hours, I gave up. I lined up to view the Mint (but not medal) instead. Still, it takes me around 3 hours before I can get in.
See the lineup:
There are actually people complaining about the Olympic. Their main ground is that instead of government spending huge budget on the Olympic, why not use it to help out the poor? Who say that the poor is not benefited from the Olympic? He is providing some entertainment for the people who line up for hours in the cold and rain. And he made at least $20 for singing about 5 minutes.
Finally, we got inside.
And we saw the Million Dollar Coin.
We also have a chance to lift a gold bar. Pretty heavy!
The few pictures on the way to Live City.
The Bay Downtown (Olympic Superstore)
Even the street light is decorated.
Street performance.
Yaletown Live City. (from the left: Samsung Pavilion, Panasonic, Coca Cola, Main Stage).
Another 2 hour line up before getting in the Coke Pavilion.
Coke bottle display.
We are able to hold the real Olympic torch and take picture.
The moment when Canada team wins gold.
We continued on to watch a 3D movie in Panasonic Pavilion, and visit the Samsung and Acer Pavilions. But they are not as interesting as the Coke Pavilion.
We then move on to Richmond O-Zone and we thought that we could get the glowing Coke bottle on the way. But we didn't. We passed by the Yahoo Fan House and hang around there for a bit. Took a few pictures there. Too bad, in the OZone, there is not much to see. The Holland House is closed for party, the BCLC booth closed early. I should have stayed in Live City to see the firework instead.
The next day, we decided to get up early to line up to see the medal again. This time we were there at 7am. Despite our effort, there are around 200 people in front of us. Still, we are in around 10:30.
That's it! The medal!
We are given gloves so we don't make the medal dirty when we hold it. The medal is indeed heavy: about 1.5 lb each.
Being so exhausted, we can't hang around in downtown any more and decided to head home to watch the medal hockey game. Canada Vs US! And phew~ Canada won!
I was trying my best effort to stay up for the Olympic Closing Ceremony. We had dinner with in-laws that night. In the restaurant, we bump into the Chinese Winter Olympic 3-medalist, Wong Mone. And she's nice enough to take a picture with us.
And this is part of my Olympic collections (some are freebies). Olympic Mascot puff toys, the Coke bottle, pin, coin set and the mitten.
Winter Olympic does end at this point but my advantage does not. I'm suffering from the Olympic Hangover...there are still Pavilions I wasn't able to visit but they are closed after the Olympic, I still haven't visited the Olympic Superstore myself...
So the next weekend, we head back to downtown...
The Olympic Cauldron in day time.
One happy tourist.
The Art Gallery, which was once the BC Pavilion.
Inside Olympic Superstore.
After dinner. We took a night shot of the cherry blossom.
The next day (Sunday), we went to Gastown. Heard that there is a store that sells Olympic goods on discount and also may have the Quatchi hat I like.
Look at the cool window display.
The inside.
My Olympic journey does not end here. Because, the para olympic is coming.
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