Vancouver – Olympic Detox
OMG, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are over. They were AWESOME, but they’re done now. Finished. Kaput. Put to bed. We’ve been prepping for this for the past 10 years,survived the gut-wrenching bid process, the constant traffic disruptions that came with building the new venues and Canada Line skytrain, the protests, the adjusting to the Logo that no one initially liked, the crowds, the incredible excitement, the overwhelming patriotism, the nine-hour line ups for the maple leaf mittens, the best hockey game ever, and the raging hangover from the post-Olympics-and-hockey-game celebrations. Phew. Now all us Vancouver (and surrounding area) -ites are left tingling, walking around in a daze and thinking, what’s next?
First thing Monday morning, assuming you were not one of the 40,000 people trying to fly home from YVR, the most noticeable change was that there is now nothing on TV again. That’s one of the fantastic things about the Olympics in general: the 24/7 TV coverage. You can get up at 6 and catch up on all the short track speed skating and doubles luge action that aired the night before while you were watching the moguls skiing and biathalon. And here in the lower mainland we had this on not one but four English Channels, as well as French, and occasionally Punjabi ones. Multiply this by 2 if you have HD cable. Author’s note - If you’ve never watched short track speed skating with an over-excited French commentator, you’re missing out, it’s hysterically funny. Particularly if you don’t speak French. But anyway, now we have to watch the same boring crap as always, and it bites.
And then there’s downtown. The streets are still busy, but you have to walk down the (gasp!) sidewalkon Robson St. because it’s no longer pedestrian only. The street performers are gone, too, and we miss the guy in the green skivvies on the giant unicycle already. Thankfully many of the pavilions, art installations and the wait-in-line-for-two-days zipline are still open thanks to the Paralympics starting on March 12th, so it’s easing us back into regular life slowly, not a sudden rip-off-the-BandAid jolt. The biggest difference is that the people walking around are no longer all wearing giant maple leafs on their heads (backs/arms/dogs/children), just a few holdouts still are, and the rest are back in their business formal attire. Oh, and the line for your Japadog is only half an hour again.
We’re all kind of numb. It’s over. It’s OOOOOOVVVVVVEEEERRRRR!!!! But it was incredible to have it here, we now have state of the art facilities that will help foster the new crop of Olympians, we have a new appreciation of Curling, and we have the most incredible memories. We are, now and forever, an Olympic City. We showed the world how beautiful our scenery and our people are, and, most importantly, showed them how much National pride flows through our veins. Sorry guys, but Canada isn’t just going to sit by quietly anymore, we’re going to scream our heads off, wear red and white mittens everywhere, and apologize for beating you afterwards. For that, we thank the Olympics. They brought us together as a Nation, the home-soil advantage brought us out of our shells, and nobody was more surprised by it than we were. We always knew our country is the best (I’m more than a little bit biased), but we never really laid it all out there to be seen before.
Vancouver 2010 Olympics, we miss you. And we promise to remeber you fondly.
But in the meantime, can you help me find something good on TV again?