Day 3: Buses, Boats, and Trains

Another busy day in Vancouver! We caught the 9:50 bus down the street. Took that to another bus, which took us back to Lonsdale Quay, where we had dinner last night. Lisa and her family met us there, and we explored the Lonsdale Quay Market for a while before boarding the SeaBus to take us across the water to the Downtown area. At that point we split up. Lisa and her family went to see the flame, and we hopped on the Sky Train to head to the Curling Venue. This was several Sky Train stops away from Downtown, in a residential neighborhood. We walked for a few blocks past small but nice-looking homes. And here’s the answer, American skeptics: Curling is pretty fun to watch! With four matches going on at once, it was a little hard to follow at first, but then I began to realize that there was almost always at least one match that was at a really exciting place in their round. By about halfway through, I was cheering, and realized I understood why! So since we promised you some research, here’s a little instructive Top Five List for you: Top Five Ways Curling is Not Like Bowling: 5 – Curling is very much a team sport. All four members do their best to get each and every stone to exactly where they want it. 4 – Bowling tournaments don’t being with the playing of bagpipes. This is an homage to the origin of curling, in Scotland over 500 years ago. 3 – You don’t have to wear oddly colored shoes – but did you get a load of Norway’s Harlequin-style pants? If you’re gonna get away with wearing pants like that, you either have to be secure in your masculinity, or have Vikings for your ancestors! 2 – In a way, it reminded me a little of chess, in that the “skip”, who is the leader of the team, will strategize a few steps ahead, to try to outsmart the opponent. There were sometimes 6 or 8 stones in the “house”, and yet neither team would score. And the number one way Curling is not like Bowling: No one does the wave at a bowling tournament! The crowd was very excited for their teams, but also cheered good moves by any team. Canada and the U.S. did our own version of “Tastes Great/Less Filling” trying to out-chant each other with “U.S.A!” and “CA-NA-DA!” The Swiss fans chant something like “En Suisse!” I don’t know what it means, but it makes me want some cheese…. The Danish fans chant “Let’s go, Denmark!” in English, for some reason. And the Swedish fans sing something in Swedish -- but to the tune of “Stars and Stripes Forever” ! We left curling and took a shuttle back to the King Edward station, back to the SeaBus, back to the North Van bus, back home, to watch the rest of the Canada/U.S. Men’s Hockey Game. When that was over – off again! Julianna and I drove Tony and Bodie back to downtown to see Sweden and Finland play hockey, so I’ll let him tell you about that. I debated whether or not to wear my USA hockey jersey yesterday —these Canadians take their hockey pretty seriously, and I didn't want to risk my life— but I really didn't need to worry. Sure, I got a lot of comments, and make some new friends from the US, but the people up here are really friendly.
As Bodie and I jumped out of the car to walk over to the hockey arena, I gave Kirsten the only map we had at the time, so she could get back home. Turns out I shoulda looked at it first. I thought I knew where I was going, but now it was dark and I lost my bearings. It was OK though. After walking a couple of blocks in a circle, I got out my trusty iPhone and found we were going in the right direction. The security line for the game was fairly short, but they had just barely started letting people back into the stadium after the Canada-U.S.A. game, so there was a giant mob of people funneling into a staircase leading to the arena. Despite the huge masses of people we have encountered off and on, we feel really safe in this city. Everyone is just here to have fun. It's a great atmosphere.
The Sweden–Finland game was kind of a yawner, as Sweden won 3-0, and Finland never really looked like they were in the game, but the Olympic people go out of their way to make sure everyone is having a good time and they do their best to keep up the in-game energy with the music and clapping, etc. So, the game was still a fun time.
Monday, Kirsten and Julianna will be joining Bob and Steve at the women's hockey game between the U.S. and Sweden. Look for them in the crowd shots. Bodie and I are going to do some exploring and shopping while they're at the game. Kirsten's sister, Laura arrives this afternoon, so we'll pick her up at the airport after the game.
That's it for Sunday.