Author: John Bollwitt

Every night that we head home from wherever our Olympics adventures take us in Vancouver, we seem to keep circling around Robson Square. This is truly becoming the heart of the downtown core in terms of people gathering to celebrate, party, watch, or apparently throw down an impromptu game of street hockey in the middle of the street.

The crowds that we’re experiencing in Vancouver during these games are unlike anything else I’ve previously seen. The only thing comparable for me are the massive amounts of people we see during the Celebration of Lights. The million or so people on each of those four summer nights are often loud and rowdy, if not heavily intoxicated the whole night through.

These crowds have something different to them. Yes, there is plenty of drinking being done around these venues, hospitality houses, and bars, but there is still a common excitement, enthusiasm, and cheerfulness running throughout. I won’t say that the crowds aren’t annoying when trying to get through them, but let’s be honest, it could be worse.

In the thick of last night’s crowd, we ran across the now very popular Boxing Kangaroo, the Australian symbol of pride when it comes to anything athletic related.

Going back to what I’ve been seeing and saying about the sense of Canadian pride during these games is somewhat captured in the two photos above. People stop to watch whatever event is being televised on whatever screen they can find. In fact, while at work yesterday afternoon, the only reason I knew that Maelle Ricker had just won gold in snowboard cross for Canada was the amount of cheers that came from our special lounge we setup in an area of the building.

And you would have thought that Canada had already won the gold medal for men’s hockey the way they celebrated downtown. Just sitting at home, we could hear cars honking and people yelling something that involved the words “Canada” and “wooo!” numerous times, late into the night.

People are jazzed. They want to be out and about to experience this city. Even the now famous Japadog has a long line of people waiting to try their street side, hot dog creations, and I think we can point the finger at Anthony Bourdain for the well deserved hype.

No matter how much you do in one day or how many events you have tickets to, I have this overwhelming sensation of still feeling like your missing something or everything. You’ll never see it all, and I have come to terms with that. I’m just thankful to be seeing everything that I have and what’s yet to come.

I’m riding the vitamin C pretty hard today, trying to keep a cold from seeping into my sinuses. I think all of the anticipation, stress, and excitement has caught up to me. While I’ll do my best to take care of myself, I can’t forget that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and keep going as much as my body can handle it.

That being said, some photos from yesterday’s excitement.

The line for the ticket office at Robson Square continues to amaze me. It always seems to be at least this long, but what you can’t see is how it goes back and wraps around. And what else you can’t see if the scalper vultures waiting just out of frame.

Blue coats, green coats, blue and yellow coats… You see little groups of workers and volunteers like this all over Vancouver right now. I’m not sure what they’re doing, but I hope it’s important.

Riding the train to and from various places, you see all sorts of people dressed up to show off their country’s pride. I absolutely love this.

These crowds never seem to cease. A lot of chatter on various back channels is how they wish Vancouver was like this all the time. While that might be pushing it, it would be amazing to have more events where excitement like this can thrive maybe once or twice a year. It’s just an idea, but an interesting one.

Later on in this day, we made our way to Pacific Coliseum to watch the pairs figure skating finals from our row four seats. We thought they would be good, but what we didn’t know is that row four was the very front row. Talk about amazing!

Welcome to Canada! Buy our flags!

I love how VANOC set this up for people, but this wasn’t promising seeing this free bike parking and lock-up. But then again, with as crazy as traffic normally is in Vancouver and the influx of people in this city, I can see what people wouldn’t want to try to do the bike thing. Seems like a ton of people are using transit instead.

Pacific Coliseum looks great. Getting to the rink is a winding maze that takes you from Hastings for about 100 meters, a security checkpoint, then another 100 meters of walking before you get to the front doors.

I took all sorts of shots while inside the venue, but you’ll have to visit my Vancouver 2010: Day 4 set on Flickr to see them.

China took gold and silver while Germany took bronze. It was so cool to be surrounded by people all around us, cheering for their respective countries yet alone going outside to see CCTV interviewing people about what they just saw inside.

I sent word to my mom and dad of where our seats were and that they should watch the NBC coverage of the event. Sure enough, we were spotted in Canada, in Iowa, and even Illinois. The people right next to us were getting text messages from China that they were on TV in Beijing, so we probably popped up over there, too.

Hockey is starting up for the men on Day 5, so now it’s really game on!

Saturday seems like a long time ago, but it was my first time getting into an Olympic event.

We were on our way to Canada Hockey Place to go watch Canada versus Slovakia women’s hockey when these, obviously, team Canada fans came up the escalators in Granville Station singing Oh, Canada at the top of their lungs. Seeing me, they gave a hearty yell as I snapped their picture.

I took a variety of photos while at the game, but trying to keep within the rules of what the IOC lets you do with those photos, you’ll have to visit my Vancouver 2010: Day 2 set on Flickr to see them.

That being said, CHP (more known as GM Place to Canucks fans like you and me) looks amazing. I love that the only piece of advertisement in the whole rink is the Omega sign hanging from the scoreboard above center ice. I wish it could be that way the whole year round, but the Canucks need to pull in that extra income somewhere.

The game itself was an amazing experience. Canada blew Slovakia out of the water, 18-0, which kind of made it a little lackluster in terms of action. I just like a little more competition as a spectator, but trust me, there was no lack of skill in that game.

On top of that, experiencing true Canadian pride was chilling. Growing up, I’m familiar with the same of fellow Americans and the pride associated there, but this was different. I can’t place my finger on what it is, but it’s all about the celebration of the game in front of you as well as your fellow countrymen and women around you sharing in that. It’s all about being in that moment, and then probably sharing that story over and over for years to come.

Heading home through downtown, it just seems like there is a constant party, especially down Granville Street. There has been impromptu dance parties, flash mobs of choreographed dancers, and so many other things that I’ve seen mentioned on Twitter that I can even recall because there always seems to be something going on.

Ever wonder what it would be like if there was a party and the whole world was invited? This is it.

After all the torch run excitement from yesterday, it was time to get ready for the Opening Ceremonies.

Around downtown, it seemed like you could find torch bearers all over the place. People were telling a lot of them congratulations and even stopping them in their tracks to get a photo with them and the torch they get to keep.

Ticket scalpers were out in force. If you’re selling anything, they want it.

Robson Square and the area around it was just a party zone. People were all over the streets, taking photos, and soaking in the atmosphere. Even being a little rainy, no one seemed to care.

We were really fortunate to get tickets for the Molson Canadian Hockey House to watch the Opening Ceremonies on their numerous TV screens in their tent.

I won’t say it was the best place to watch the event, but being surrounded by so many proud Canadians was pretty worth the experience. The sound of the broadcast was hard to hear in the venue, but there are always rebroadcasts of the ceremonies to watch later.

Another testament to these “green games”, compostable cups for your beer. Brilliant.

Like I said, even though the sound of the announcers was hard to hear, everyone was pumped when Canada entered BC Place.

We have yet to make it down to see the cauldron, but we saw this on our exhausted walk home last night.

Even though there were technical issues in these ceremonies, I think they were pretty great. We’ll certainly watch them again from the comfort of our own couch, but they put on a hell of a show. If there is anything more Vancouver, it’s sticking Wayne Gretzky in the back of a pickup truck and driving him through the streets with people running along in driving rain. Nice touch.