Day 2 (Feb 15, 2010)

Day 2!

My first real day of Olympic action.

On tap for today:
1530 - Men's 500m Long Track Speed Skating
1830 - Vancouver Victory Ceremony









I started out my day with a quick trip into the heart of Vancouver to check out Robson Square.

As expected it was quite insanely busy.  There are all sorts of random things in the square including some cultural events and the huge zip line.  The zip line seems to be quite popular...at least judging by the 5 hour wait.








Finally I headed up to Vancouver City Centre station to head south to Richmond.

I then ran into a rather large contingent of Dutch speed skating fans.  I VERY quickly learned that the Dutch are extremely passionate about speed skating. An impromptu anthem singing competition ensued.  There was little doubt that the Dutch won.

After a 20 minute train ride and a good long walk, I finally got a look at the Richmond Olympic Oval.








The event itself was amazing with a few small exceptions.  As with yesterday there were always twice as many volunteers as was needed.  So everything runs incredibly smoothly.  A Dutch brass band called Kleintje Pils entertained the crowd during lulls in the action.  Hearing a Dutch band playing Hava Nagila in Richmond BC was...a unique experience to say the least.  The Japanese also had a very large group of fans who alternated between absolute silence and ear-shattering noise, depending on who was on the track.

Unfortunately there was a very long delay caused by the zambonis.  You'd think that a bunch of Canadians could manage to resurface ice without incident... But I digress.  Unfortunately, the Canadians didn't manage to medal, but a good time was had by all.

The only real downside of the day was missing the Victory Ceremony at BC Place because of the delays at speed skating.  That, of course, meant that I missed Alex Bilodeau receiving his gold medal.

But overall, a great first day!  I can't wait for more.

Tomorrow:

HOCKEY!

USA/Switzerland and Canada/Norway