I am currently sitting on Air Canada, en route from Vancouver back home to Montreal, reflecting upon the incredible five days we have just had. A complete whirlwind of activities, line-ups, security checks and national pride, Jeremy and my time at the 2010 Olympics was truly an experience of a lifetime. And this flight is pretty sweet too… Ah, the joys of traveling without my 16 month old, Jasper (he stayed home in Montreal with his grandparents)! Miss the kid like crazy but it sure is nice to actually watch the movie for a change!
Packing up to leave was quite a feat in itself. Between getting Jasper organized for five days at his grandparents house with clothing, essential toys, food, and playdates set up for every morning we were going to be away, and then me trying to abide by Jeremy’s strict “only carry-on luggage” rule (how oh how do I stuff my tall black boots into this tiny Samsonite I ask you??), the frenzy began the second we woke up that day and continued for the rest of the trip. From the time we arrived in Vancouver last Thursday afternoon (the 18th), our schedule was jammed pretty tight with activities. Jeremy got very lucky with the Olympic lottery system two years ago and he was able to score quite a few tickets – mostly to hockey, rightly so as he was the one selecting the events, but also men’s curling and ski jumping up at Whistler. We were so psyched, and our national pride was brimming from the second we landed.
Upon arriving at Canada Hockey Place for the Slovakia v. Russia match-up, we realized very quickly that we might as well have been naked unless we were dressed head to toe in Canadian garb. Although Canada wasn’t even playing that night, looking out in to the stands was a sea of red, white and maple leaves and we had nothing! First order of business we decided was to hit the Hudson’s Bay the next day and load up. “Good luck with that”, we were told by a nice old man sitting in front of us, “they are all sold out of everything. You’d have better luck buying stuff at home where you came from!” Nonsense, I thought, they must be selling this stuff everywhere, this is the Olympics for crying out loud! The game was intense, edge of your seat hockey, and despite the jet-lag, we sat riveted into overtime and then the stressful shoot-out. Slovakia scored, got the upset win… very cool to see!
Being on east coast time and all, the next morning we were up, literally, at the crack of dawn, so we thought it’d be fun to head in to downtown Vancouver to check out where all the events were going on before the rest of the city had the chance to wake up. And perhaps pop into the Bay (which was set to open at 9) to get some Canada gear. Robson Square was already brimming with bodies by the time we arrived, and already we could see lines forming throughout the area, people clearly who knew what they were doing. “What are you guys lining up for?”, we ignorantly asked a group of girls way at the end of a long snaking line, three rows deep. “Zip-line”, one of them responded happily, “should only be a 3 hour wait from here!”
“Three hours??”, we cried incredulously.
“That’s nothing! Yesterday my brother waited for 7!”
As we walked away, dumbfounded that anyone could wait for ANYTHING for 7 hours in line that didn’t include a million dollar jack-pot or possibly a kiss from Brad Pitt, it dawned on us that our fellow Olympic revelers had a lot more stamina that we did, and a lot more patience.
“Maybe we should walk over to the Bay, just in case there is a wait to get in”, I said to Jeremy. It was 8:45. As we rounded the corner of Granville, our hearts sank. “Is that line-up to get in to the Bay?” I asked glumly, although I was pretty sure I already knew the answer. Flashbacks of horrible boxing day shopping popped in to my head as we found ourselves at the end of the queue that must have snaked over three blocks. And after around 5 endless minutes, we threw in the towel. Novices, I could hear the people in front of us thinking with disdain.
“Pssst!”, whispered a pan-handler as we walked away, resigned to the fact that we would have to live without our Canada hoodies. “You should go out to Oakridge Mall, no line to get in and they have the same stuff.” I felt like we were being passed top secret government intel from Deep Throat. “Thanks”, I muttered, eventhough I was sure as hell not going to drive all over Vancouver just for a stupid sweatshirt. Jeremy, meanwhile, was buzzing back to the car, tapping away on my IPhone’s Google maps trying to find the exact location of this illustrious mall. I couldn’t believe it. I can barely get the man to buy himself a new pair of shoes when his are falling apart at the seams, and all of a sudden he wants to drive a half hour away to go the Bay?? What has happened to my husband?? Olympic fever, that’s what.
The frenzy at Oakridge Mall was bad but nothing like downtown Vancouver. I had to laugh as I saw Jeremy wrestling an old lady for the two remaining Hudson’s Bay tartan Canada scarves (he was victorious!), and groaned in unison with the rest of the crowd as it was announced that the hoodies were all gone. With our scarves and the much sought-after red mittens in hand though, we left happy.
Watching the men’s curling that afternoon was awesome. Though neither of us knew the first thing about the sport going in, it was very easy to catch on (think a cross between bowling and bacci on ice), and it was so neat to watch Canada dominate so significantly over Denmark. Who knew this sport could actually be fun to watch? And I gotta say that seeing the Norwegian teams’ pants was worth the price of admission alone.
Our next few days were a whirlwind of more hockey games (Switzerland v. Norway, Finland v. Sweden) but the biggest event was finding somewhere to watch the best match-up of the week, Canada v. USA. Bars and restaurants were packed throughout downtown, stuffed to the gills with crazed fans from both countries, and we got lucky with prime seating in front of a huge screen, so big we felt we were actually there. You could hear a pin drop in Vancouver during the 2 hours that they played, and sadly we all know the results… But that just makes the gold medal game all the more exciting!
Late that night, after the Finland/Sweden game, we hit the road to head up to Whistler for the next morning’s ski jumping. The weather had been on our side all week and that day in Whistler had to be the most spectacular. Sun blazing, not a cloud in the sky, we watched excitedly as Austria set a new Olympic record for distance and basked the beauty of our surroundings. Ski jumping, it turns out, is not exactly Canada’s strongest event (we placed 12th out of 12) but it didn’t matter – it was our favourite event of the week.
Spending the day in Whistler Village was great too. The vibe and energy there was so different and much less frantic than Vancouver. Bands played open-air concerts outside with no queues that snaked kilometers long and though the village was packed with bodies it was still very easy to get around. It was great to check in again at the Hatley store, where they have launched the new Spring line and it looks fantastic. In retrospect we wish we had spent more time up at Whistler, but it was time to go home and see our boy who we have been missing incessantly.
All in all, our Olympic 2010 experience was truly a once in a lifetime event. It was so great to be here in our own country, taking in all the energy and witnessing such national pride. Really special. Too bad Jasper was too little to come along, if he were a few years older I think he would have been in heaven. As the games now wrap up, and the final showdown between the Canada/USA hockey looms on the horizon (for men’s and women’s), it’s time we all get back to real life again. I’ll have to put my maple leaf mitts away till 2014…
