To: Marty
My trip into Vancouver today was fantastic, with beautiful weather and a shining sun. However, it was also much more busy than I expected it to be. When I came into town for the dress rehersal of the Opening Ceremonies, while it was certainly much busier outside, it was nowhere near this crazy or crowded.
But this may just illustrate the difference between the days leading up to the Olympics and when the Olympics are in full swing. Add that today was the first official day of men's ice hockey at the Olympics and you've got yourself a lot of people who took the day, or week, off of work.
I arrived on a Greyhound bus from Whistler to Pacific Central Station in Vancouver at around 11 AM this morning. If you've never been to Pacific Central, it's very similar to Union Station down in Toronto, both in style and in architecture both on the inside and the outside. However, unlike Union which was stationed in the heart of the city centre in downtown Toronto, it appeared as if Pacific Central was stationed on the outskirts of the downtown core. It certainly seemed to be more acquainted with the more industrial side of Vancouver.
Still, it has a lot of history attached to it, given that it is a part of that storied and controversial Trans-Canda Railway.
Mapless and a little overwhelmed by the location I was in, I decided to immediately hopped onto the Sky Train. The entrance was right next to Pacific Central and I had a pass that would let me go anywhere for free. Also, I presumed it'd take me closer to the parts of Vancouver's downtown core that I was marginally more familiar with, and where I had planned to start my journey into Vancouver.
I did kind of wish when zipping towards Stadium-Chinatown station from Main St-Science World Station that I had been a little less hasty to get downtown and a little more observant. I turned to look to my right to see that only a block away from Pacific Central, the Russians had set up Sochi World - or the Russian Pavillion in preparation leading up to the Sochi 2014 Games. It was one of the places on "the list" to visit for me. The line-up to get in was massive though, so I figured if I find the time, I'd stop in to see it on my way back to the station later that evening.
I didn't spend too much time regretting however. I got off at Stadium-Chinatown, which was when and where I bought my tickets off of scalpers to see the USA-Switzerland men's ice hockey game that day, which you can read about in full elsewhere. With about an hour to go before the game and knowing that security would probably not take terribly kindly to the pair of hockey skates I had stuffed in my backpack, I headed straight off to get into the crowded and busy screening lines to get into the arena.
The game ended at 2:30 PM, and while it did take away a bit from exploring time, I'd more than willingly give up seeing the Olympic Torch for a chance to see that calibre of hockey any day.
Inside the arena, I grabbed a map of the greater Vancouver area and decided to swing around to check out the Olympic Superstore on Granville Street. So I followed the crowd up from Canada Hockey Place that was formerly known as GM Place further into the downtown core, meanwhile taking pictures of the various ways in which the buildings of downtown Vancouver decided to welcome their international visitors while celebrating our national pride.
It was a slow walk, as the streets were crowded with people both leaving the arena and going to the arena. Many of them though were going to the arena as the following game was the Canada-Norway men's ice hockey game at the arena.And before you ask, I checked around, those tickets were going for 400 dollars a pop. I like my hockey, but short of a Canadian gold medal game, or even a Stanley Cup game involving the Toronto Maple Leafs, and you may feel free to laugh now about that ever happening, I don't like my hockey that much right now. Maybe when I begin working for a living.
When I arrived at the Olympic Superstore just past Granville Station, my eyes popped. I haven't seen a line this long going into any department store since the release of the final Harry Potter book at Chapters in downtown Toronto. The line stretched past Granville Station itself and practically around the massive city block that The Hudson Bay department store occupies. It seemed as if everyone in the arena had the same idea as I did when they left.At least my mom, who works at a Hudson Bay Company store, will be happy seeing the business her company is getting from the hoop-la that is the Olympics out here.
I decided against going into the store. Especially given that having taken a look at the merchandise through the store windows, a lot of the stuff sold in there I can easily get in Whistler's Olympic Store without sitting in line for it. That and I wasn't that desperate to stand in a line to take pictures of stuff that I either couldn't afford or wasn't willing to pay that kind of money simply because the thing has "Vancouver" and "2010" etched onto it. So came the next item on my task: find a TD Bank.
Okay so that wasn't so much part of the exploring and sight-seeing as a bit of a practical issue given the fact that I was low on cash thanks to the unexpected detour to watch a hockey game. It was also an issue revolving around the insistance by Olympic merchandisers to only accept cash or else Visa debt and credit. I have a Visa card. It's not activated. And I left it in Toronto, in a box somewhere. I use Mastercard instead. And right now, I do kind of wish that I did make use of that card. Because I'm none too pleased about having to carry fat wads of cash everywhere.
Still, the search for a bank did take me further into the city and gave me a great look at the way the city decorated itself for these Games. If you ask me, the city itself is as much a spectacle as the spectacles advertised.
It's also a lesson in clever marketing as you looked at the various ways non-licensed merchandisers got into "the spirt of the Games" by simply latching onto the symbol of the red maple leaf. Or anything that amounts for a good Canadian stereotype.Like an igloo, for instance.
Pacific Centre is one of the few landmarks in the area that I was familiar with from my first, brief trip to Vancouver earlier this month. And it seemed I timed my arrival quite well, although I promise that it wasn't planned. Right at the entrance of the location there was a television set up by Bell, tuned into Women's Snowboard Cross. I had arrived just in time to watch Maelle Ricker run the race of her life in order to easily win Canada's second gold at these Olympic Games.
There were many happy people crowding the screen as Ricker
crossed the finish line to loud cheers at Pacific Centre.
No comments:
Post a Comment