Olympic weekend #2

On Friday night, we went to Granville Island (not actually an island, just part of Vancouver) to see The Lost Fingers, a gypsy jazz string trio consisting of two classical guitarists and a double bassist. They are from Quebec City and were playing here as part of the Cultural Olympiad running alongside the Winter Olympics. They played arrangements of 80s songs from their album "Lost in the 80s" - click the CD cover below if you'd like to hear a sample! It was a fairly small and intimate show, and before it started it was brought to our attention by the Coastal Jazz MC that some members of the Canadian womens' curling team were in attendance - we all gave them a cheer! (Curling is a really weird winter sport - look it up!) Anyway, we had front row seats at the side of the stage and thoroughly enjoyed the show!


It was fun to experience the Olympic atmosphere around Granville Island in general... lots of crowds, foreign languages, pavillion line-ups, 45 minute to 2 hour waits at restaurants (we eventually found an almost-empty one away from the main thoroughfare!), musicians and dancers performing outdoors, and the city lights glittering prettily across the water. Granville Island is growing on me - especially on night visits!

On the drive home, we saw flashing emergency lights ahead and then saw that it was because the Bombardier streetcar had run into a Jeep that was sitting on the tracks! (The streetcar is a temporary installment for the Olympics, carrying people between Granville Island and downtown.) When we first saw the lights, Ben had actually predicted that it would be a car hit by the tram, because when he and Gerard had ridden the streetcar back to Stuart and Rosanne's place to collect the car last Saturday (while Janelle, Claire and I rode the skytrain back to their place), the tram driver had had to slam on the brakes to avoid the same thing happening - a taxi was just idling merrily on the tracks, waiting to pull out onto the main road! Vancouver drivers can be a little, erm, vague... they deserve a separate post, which we are thinking about writing one of these days!! Anyway, I saw in the online news the next day that no one was injured in the streetcar/Jeep crash.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed into downtown Vancouver to check out the Olympic craziness, with the intention of seeing another pavillion or two. It was a beautiful sunny day, about 9 degrees. We didn't end up going into any pavillions because the line-ups were just too long - the closest we got was checking out some of the innovations at the BC Hydro PowerSmart Village (such as the "home of the future" and a dancefloor that generates electricity when people dance on it!).

However, we certainly saw lots of interesting/ bizarre/ amusing sights, and the amount of Canadian clothing around indicated that it wasn't just foreign tourists cramming the streets while the locals steered clear! Although we are aware of some Olympic negativity in the media and apparently among certain groups of locals, we definitely haven't encountered it in person... everyone we've seen here is enjoying the Olympics with admirable and infectious levels of enthusiasm!!

Here are some of the sights in downtown Vancouver on Saturday:

Olympic merchandise and shoppers at The Bay...





Lunarfest on Granville Street (hanging Chinese lanterns made by schoolchildren)...











Olympic pin collectors/ traders...



A hairy Canucks fan...



The crowd on Granville Street...



Anyone want a hug?





Displays of patriotism...







People zip-lining 100m across Robson Square... insanely, they had waited in line for 6-8 hours for this 10-second adrenaline rush!!!

The Olympic mascots...

A crowd waiting for some entertainment to start...



The colourful Vancouver Art Gallery, where the Olympic countdown clock is located (pictured below)... check out the cherry blossoms - did they lose track of what season it's meant to be?!















A sizeable flag...



The line-up for hot dogs...

On our way to Kelly and Janae's apartment; the entrance to Chinatown...

A flower-seller rummaging through the rubbish to find drinking containers to recycle (Ben heard on the radio that the greatly increased trash levels is a positive side-effect of the Olympics for the homeless people who rely on recycling for a little income!)...

For supper, we met up with Kelly and Janae, Janae's parents Donna and Terry (our US Thanksgiving hosts), and Janae's brother Justin. This is the gorgeous view of the Vancouver skyline from Kelly and Janae's apartment balcony...



And here we are in the condo that Donna and Terry were staying in... settling in to watch some of the day's Olympic events while munching on pizza, candy and icecream!



And that was another great Olympic weekend! :D