Tonight is our last night in Vancouver before we head back to NC tomorrow (Saturday). Yesterday we didn't have any events so we walked around and did some shopping. We were hoping that because it was cloudy and raining off and on, the crowds would have died down a little but we had no luck. The lines getting into the various attractions were still 1-3 hours long and not worth the hassle. The streets were still packed and as the weekend was approaching, I think it was actually busier than Tuesday or Wednesday. One of the things we learned from this trip was that when the attractions for a major event like the Olympics are mostly in a central location, it's going to busy and you're not going to be able to do a whole lot. Since the best attractions had waits of 3 hours or more, by the time you waited in line and got in, most of your day was shot. Since we only had two days without events, we had to skip a lot of the better pavilions and attractions. It also wasn't worth risking a long wait for a lame exhibit like the stupid Quebec House we visited (which consisted of a stage and some hippie singing in French and smelled like weird).
One of the good things about being here is that we got to watch a lot of the events on TV. Usually it's tough to watch a lot of the Olympics because of work and other plans (plus NBC's crappy coverage), but here the station with the rights - CTV - covered everything for 24 hours each day. So all night they would replay stuff in addition to showing just about every sport as much as they could. I know far more about cross-country skiing and curling than I ever imagined I would after this.
The other downer we had was that it was incredibly hard to get tickets to additional events. I was hoping to go to the women's gold medal hockey game as well as the last short-track speed skating event but the tickets actually got more expensive as the events approached. I think if we had waited for them to begin we could have scalped tickets for reasonable prices but it wasn't worth the travel hassle in the rain just in case. I've heard other Games have plenty of tickets available but even less popular events like the Nordic ones seemed really busy.
Today we got up and trucked about an hour to see Long Track Speed Skating. It was raining hard today and the security has been very easy to get through so far so we chanced it and got there only 45 minutes early. That turned out to be a big mistake so we spent that whole time standing in the one long security line - which was the only security going into the building - in the rain and only got in about 30 seconds before the event started. The weird part about the various event venues is except for Canada Hockey Place (where the Canucks play) and Pacific Coliseum (short track and figure skating), the venues all felt temporary. They were located in suburban neighborhoods and had tents up and a flimsy stage-like concourse area with port-a-potties. The seats were temporary too for the most part so it was kind of weird and uncomfortable to sit there and view an event for two hours. Luckily, we saw the team pursuits for the men and women (though they were only quarter- and sem-finals) and the USA scored huge upsets in each and shut the Canadian fans up. It was fun to see the Dutch all dressed up - they love their speed skating like they love their tulips and pot. Unfortunately Jess was beginning to get a cold so after the event was over we just headed back to our hotel, grabbed something to eat and hung out and watched hockey, curling and short track speed skating. The crazy thing it's past 11 PM local time, there hasn't been an active event in two hours and people are still screaming on Robson St.
That leaves me with my one big lasting impression from this trip: I don't really care for Canadians. They are very nice normally but when it comes to sports - especially hockey - they are not kind at all and are actually pretty nasty about it. Plus, when they win gold, they are over the top obnoxious about it. They replay gold-winning moments all night long and then put together montages with a really stupid and sappy song and play them for the next week. I know they wanted to "Own the Podium" and that failed but they are worse homers than Tripp Tracy when even the slightest thing goes right. Then if someone who is favored doesn't win, people just ignore them like they never existed (see Women's Curling). Plus, when they leave an event, the place smells like beer, vomit, urine and maple syrup for hours. Sadly, I'm not even making that up. The other bad part is for being such big hockey fans (and ripping American fans at every chance), they don't know players, teams, etc. Unless it's Crosby, all of us in Raleigh know way more and watch more NHL than any of the people Jess and I have spoken to here. Lastly, they run about the same 5 commercials and if I never see that stupid McDonalds manager giving the thumbs up again, I'll be a happy man.
We leave tomorrow at around 9 AM and should be back home by midnight EST. I'm off to bed, but as the speed skaters say, "Finish with a kick and you'll always be quick." Note: No one says this.
