Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hongcouver Olympics 2010


so i decided last monday on my way home from work that i was going to take friday off and go to Vancouver for the Olympics. i have been wanting to do this but it just slipped through the cracks and thought that i wasn't gonna get to go this time BUT luckily evan and andrew came with me too! so we left thursday at 8pm and got into Vancouver around 5 or 6am where we slept in the car in a Costco before we started our day. we strolled around beautiful downtown Vancouver or Hongcouver as Allen our friend through couchsurfing once described his hometown. it was in the 50's, sunny, and seeing the mountains made me miss alaska lots.



so we tried to get tickets to the sweden game but didn't have the money for it so we saw the olympic torch, the olympic rings on the water, graffiti exhibit, other art pieces they have around, listened to some singing groups on the street of some people from various countries, watched many events in pubs/restaurants, and luckily got into a hockey game.



we went with the intent to get $100 tickets and we talked to scalpers and they were selling tickets for $140 a piece, then the ticket booth was selling tickets for $135. so right when we were going to walk away the lady helping us said that a booth opened up and tickets were $50!!!!!!!! amazing! so we got them and sat in great middle seats a little bit up but no one was in front of us. we saw finland vs germany. it was a blowout by finland but still fun to watch a game filled with lots of hockey stars.



we stayed with some people we met through couchsurfing. 2 brothers and a girl from germany, i sadly cannot remember their names but they were super nice. we watched bad canadian movies and just talked till the wee hours for both nights.

then on saturday we strolled through town eating at tim hortons, donars, dennys, just all the classy places you can think of. we watched hockey games, curling, and anything else that was on in various places throughout town with people from all over the world. made some canadian friends and started various USA chants to rile up the canadians.

we had a ton of fun. and am glad we did it. we drove home on sunday. here are some more pics of what we saw. enjoy.

 







1 comment:

Leo and Jen said...

Sounds like you guys enjoyed the olympic experience. I wonder how many times you heard it was a community of the world rather than a competition since it was considered a world community rather than seperate countries. Wish we could have joined you up there to watch! Although, we just did a late night excursion with the high schoolers and we are realizing that we aren't as young as we used to be!