Olympic Fever

The Olympics finally arrived and everyone seemed to catch the bug... well almost. I can't say that I have the bug. I tried really hard. I watched part of the opening ceremony. What on earth was that whole thing with Saskatchewan about? I loved Ashley McIsacc and the rap poetry was also great.(can't remember his name) It still didn't get me going much, but I had heard that they had some great weird  art work on Granville street and I wanted to take some pictures of the flame just to say that I had actually seen it even though I actually walk past it on the way to my office. So Fred and I climbed on the sky train and went  down to where all the hoopla was happening. I got a picture of the flame without standing in the at least hour long line that the tourists were in ... what on earth for people? As you can see it is a fire coming out of metal pipes. Not 

earth shattering! 

From there we fought our way through crowds to go about one block to see the Kla-howya aboriginal welcome village in the lobby of the Pan Pacific Hotel. It would turn out to be one of the few places that was not lined up. 

I had great fun watching the tourists get their picture taken with real live natives!!! 

From there we made our way through the crowds to Granville street where I had hoped to see the Royal Canadian Mint that I had heard was very good. It was supposed to have a huge gold bar that was chained to the floor that they were letting people pick up. However, the line up there was at least two hours. 

So we decided to carry on up Granville and see the weird art?! But first  we came to  the  street entertainers. Some them were doing magic shows and some were dancing, but  this guy was trying to beat his partner in getting out of a  straight jacket... somehow I found this quite appropriate and hilarious! Okay I never said I was normal. 

The street art was very strange. I love art and consider a lot of things art, but some of these escaped me. Like this one that looked like a large piece of aluminum foil scrunched up. It was entitled Artificial Rock - Huh!

We carried on wandering with the crowds and taking in the excitement of the people.  What interested me the most were some of the locals that dragged themselves out for this event. If there were no flakes on Whistler it was only because they were all in the city trying to cash in on the tourists. Like these guys -

They look innocent enough. I thought they were protesting something and handing out leaflets so I stopped to ask them what is was about. Apparently these enterprising scam artists decided to print up, on half sheets of letter size paper, a list of the best places to go to in Vancouver and sell it to the tourists for two dollars a pop! Come on guys... do you really think that is what VANOC meant when they ordered us to be friendly to the tourists for two weeks? Then of course there are the religious folks who come out at every large event to try and make sure that they can score brownie points by trying to save the world , one crowd at a time, with printed pamphlets of why they are right and any one who thinks differently than them is wrong. And of course any where there are tickets and money involved the scalpers were out in force!  Three and four on a street corner wearing signs asking to buy tickets from people.

Finally we worked our way towards Robson square and I got a picture of the one event that I would loved to have tried. Zip Trekking! A company has put a zip line across part of the city and are offering free rides! I was in awe. If my back were not so bad I would have waited in line for hours to try this. Unfortunately all I could do was watch and photograph. I just loved this picture if you take a really close look she has her purse attached to the line as well. No lady should leave the ground with out it!

So ended my Olympic foray and I doubt I will do much more of it while it is in town. I have enjoyed watching the kids all excited and dressed up in Canada colors. However this little one was dressed as the Olympic mascot Quatchi and you just can't help but say Awwwww