I spent 10 days in Vancouver during the Winter Olympics; my time there was certainly one of the most enjoyable experiences I can remember. I had intended to keep updating my blog regularly, but alas, the best I was able to do is to keep a few notes and resolve to post retroactive updates later.
Well, later starts now!
Luckily, I was able to sublet a great little one-bedroom (owned by a friend of a friend) in the centre of Yaletown. Normally yuppie-central — think tiny little dogs with clothes on them and women too skinny to hold their hands with gigantic engagement rings up — the area was a short away from a lot of the outdoor evening activities, the venue for the closing ceremony, and the hockey arena. The place was on the 23rd floor of one of the many residential high-rises in Vancouver, and as such had a pretty great view! It even had laundry in-suite, which was quite convenient given my long stay. Here’s a photo looking out (and in) from the place. Fred has some photos from the balcony, and I’ll post them when he sends them my way (soon!).
In lieu of a rubbish chute, they had a series of trash compactors in the basement which fed directly into huge dumpsters. Residents are expected to carry their trash to the basement and dispose of it that way. I wish I’d taken a photo of it; it’s probably the only time I’ll ever get to operate an industrial-strength trash compactor!
In preparation for the Olympics, the city built a new subway (SkyTrain, as they call it) line from the airport, through the heavily ethnic Richmond suburb, past the curling venue (more on this later), through Yaletown and right to downtown. Apparently, this line was completed way ahead of schedule, and under budget. I was really impressed with the train — although after living in New York for so long, it is a bit disconcerting to be in such a new, clean station. The coolest part (for me anyway) is that the train is totally automated and computer controlled. If one sits at the front of the first car, one could almost pretend that one is driving it. Not that I did that. Of course…
While I’m on the subject of trains, the city also built a single-tracked light rail line (“The Olympic Line”), apparently for the purpose of shuttling people between Granville Island, a renaissance-fair kind of tourist trap, and their accommodations. The train was borrowed from a Belgian city, much to the amusement of my Belgian friend Frederick, who was with me at the time. All in all, this train line seemed to be pretty useless. I hope there are plans for expansion!
The Nightlife/Partying:
Although Vancouver was, with a metro population of about 2.5 Million, the largest city ever to hold the Winter Olympics, the impact of the tourists was still marked. I can only imagine how Lillehammer, a city of 20k, dealt with such a huge influx of people. There were three many night-time areas where people congregated: Granville St, Robson Square, and Yaletown.
1. Granville St.
The authorities shut down the main downtown street of Granville to all automotive traffic and made it a large pedestrian mall. Most of the times at night, however the street was so crowded with revellers that it was impossible to move. For the most part everyone was very well-behaved! I’ve included a few videos from various days.
2. Robson Square
Robson Square is a large public square with an art gallery and a skating rink. This area was closed off daily and had large throngs of people at all hours. Each night, VanOc put on a light/firework show synchronized with music and people riding down a long zipline they set up. On some nights, there were upwards of 100000 people in the area watching the show. I saw a few people who brought large boomboxes playing dance music. They quickly got a huge following of people dancing in the streets. This was a common theme, and I saw it in many other places.
(I can’t seem to find a photo of Robson Square now. I’m sure I have one somewhere.)
3. Yaletown
Yaletown park was the site of daily special concerts set up, and its own fireworks/light show. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it into any of the more popular bands’ shows; some people lined up 5 hours before some concerts to guarantee space. Here too, the streets were shut to traffic and filled with many people when the weather was nice. Many restaurants and bars on the street were open extra-long hours.
At this point, I’ve provided a decent overall summary of the Olympics in Vancouver. At this point, I’m going to do a day-by-day summary of my experiences, building on my notes! I’m going to split it up into a bunch of different posts though, since I don’t have the attention span to write it all at once (and you probably don’t have the attention span to read it all at once either!)
The Games!
Well, I guess it’s about time we talk about the games. More on them in my next post!
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