Sitting on the greyhound, I was quite nervous, but I was also very tired. Naturally, I was too tired for nerves and took a short nap. I knew that I should seize any opportunity to enjoy unemcumbered sleep, particularly over the first four days since I did not have any accommodation! I drift in-and-out of sleep, somewhat visualing what my trip may be like while overhearing fellow passengers having the same anxieties. I wasn't even sure I would recognise Vancouver because it had probably been over 10 years since I had last visited. As the bus neared the station, there was still no feel for the Olympics. Sure there were banners and maybe some traffic cones to close off certain routes, but there were no people, no crowds, no excitement and more importantly... no GOOOOOOOOOOOOLD MEDALS! (look up Danny Kinda on YouTube for that reference).
That would soon change as I walked out of the other side of the bus terminal. Suddenly, I was right there. The area immediately around the terminal was littered with Olympic volunteers dressed in their bright blue jackets, policemen directing traffic, loads of confused locals and tourists all trying to soak it in,while up above, the SkyTrain goes whizzing past. Like the sheep I am, I follow the crowds, expecting them to know where they are going. Within minutes, I am at the Russky Dom (Russia House), a large domed building used to showcase the plans for Sochi 2014 and show off their culture. I wouldn't even had realised that this was a big deal if not for the massive sea of people trying to get in. I make a mental note: come back later. I continue to walk along the water and survey the people I pass. Though I was 'home', I felt like I was a foreigner. Aside from Vancouver being over 4000 km away from Toronto, everyone was wearing red canada mitts... but me. And that brought me to mental note #2: buy red mitts.
As I continue to walk along the water, I see a sea of inukshuks lining false creek on my left and a fenced off pavilion to my left. Straight ahead of me is BC place/Olympic Stadium and GM Place. I follow signs for the ticket box office and begin to queue. Within minutes, I realise that only cash and Visa's are accepted. Not accepting any other forms of payments was probably the bane of my existence during this trip. Knowing that I have about $100 CAD in my wallet, I quickly look for the nearest ATM. Chinatown, they say. As I walk over, I am like a salmon heading up stream. Hoards of people in hockey jerseys from all over the world rush past me as I weave my way through. Not knowing the costs of events and what other general shenanigans I will get up tonight, I pack my wallet with $500. I make my way back to the ticket office where the queue is longer than before. Luckily, patience is one of my best assets. As I near the front, there is a Chinese couple enquiring about tickets. They must have asked about every event in the book and spent almost an hour trying to purchase tickets. Understandably, no one was happy with them, particularly the man directly in front of me who was pretty much heckling them in frenglish (some sort of custom mold of french and english he had made up.. either that or he was very drunk, both of which are possibilities!!).
I got to the front and in typical uninformed and vague fashion ask, "do you have any tickets available for anything?". The agent at the window holds back a smile as if to say 'of course we do... we're a ticket office'. Turns out they have tickets to pretty much everything, including a Sweden v Germany ice hockey match in 30 minutes! The only thing they didn't sell tickets for were Cypress Mountain and Whistler. Bummer. So I bought the hockey tickets and scooped up some curling tickets and was on my way. Before you make your judgement, let me just say, going to see curling was probably one of the most fun and entertaining events of sport I have ever seen... and I've been to numerous baseball, basketball, football (american) and tennis (including Wimbledon, French and US Opens) matches. It really is JUST that good. It typically mixes in old and young, knowledgeable and ignorant, but most importantly drunk and really drunk. The banter is unparalleled, particularly if you mix in the hockey type atmosphere. It is the one event I would tell everyone to go see, especially since it is also one of the cheaper ones out there. The ice hockey was good too, but that would be like comparing 1-ply and 2-ply toilet paper (I mean, either way you're happy to have the TP, but who wouldn't prefer a little 2-ply action??!).
Over my first four days, my nights and mornings were pretty much the same routine. After a night of light-to-heavy night of drinking, I would retire to my hotel (read: car parked at River Rock Casino in Richmond). I would sleep for 3-5 hours in my bed (read: trunk with backseats pushed down), wake-up and then spend the morning playing poker til the sun came out. Now I now what you're thinking, 'what kind of life is that?'. Thing is, I really had no better option unless I wanted to spend $250 CAD a night in a hotel. And let's consider this: the parking lot was an enclosed structure with security cameras and the casino is open 24 hrs so I have access to toilets, drinks of all sorts and even food! Oh, also, this was costing me $2/day. While you may start seeing the merits of this, you may start to wonder, 'but no shower for 4 days after drinking and sleeping in your car? you must have been in some sort of state!'. Wrong. This casino also happens to double as a hotel resort. A hotel resort with a swimming pool. And for $10, you can pay to use the swimming pool, jacuzzi and gym. This wasn't even a re-occurring cost either as I tried the card the very next day and it worked again! (let this be a tip for you all!!). So every day, I could have a little work out, a little nap in the jacuzzi and a hot shower. I also happened to find very good places to nap in and around Vancouver, which just added to the overall experience.
On my last day of the car living, I made it up to Whistler to see some action in some actual snow (up until now the weather was still beautiful). I had not made up my mind what events I wanted to see, but I was pretty much at the mercy of the ticket office and any ticket touts/scalpers I would run into. To give myself the best chance of securing a ticket, I set off at 5.30 am. As luck would have it, I run into a group of friends in front of me who is in the same situation as me... and a scalper was in the queue right behind us! We start to butter him up, but then it is time to board and more importantly for me, time to go to bed! When we arrive, one of the girls has a 1-on-1 convo and scores us some ski jump tickets for only $20 more than face value. I considered this to be a relative deal. Too bad the actual event itself was less than eventful. To me, every jump looked the same, and there wasn't a competitive atmosphere since everyone was going one at a time. Also, we were only allowed at the base of the mountain so they just seemed like really small flying bird before they whizzed past us at the bottom. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I saw it, but I'm not sure I would do that again. Thankfully the company I was with was good and the weather was beautiful, to the point where I was wearing flip flops. We also got the opportunity to take a picture with the silver medallist and his skis, so all was not lost.
The third installment is still yet to come...
