Monday was our one 'day off' of going to an event. Which was great since after all the early mornings, little sleep, and a few nights of drinking, we were ready for a rest! So what do you do when you are taking a break from watching the games? You go to the Pavilions that are located all over the city. These pavilions are meant to highlight the country/province that they represent so they usually have some sort of educational/tourism aspect of it as well as the most important part: food and beer. Going to Pavilions is like doing Senior Walk at Epcot (pub-crawl for you non-MTU people), you come for the entertainment, but you stay for the beer.
We are lucky that we live a few steps away from several ones. Right across from the condo is the Russian Pavilion, which is huge! They went full out and rented the entire Vancouver Science Centre to highlight their country and the location of the 2014 Winter Games: Sochi, Russia. We got there a little after noon and the place already had a huge line that took about 20 minutes to go through security but then you were in. I learned all sorts of things about Sochi (they build cars there and its a resort city near the black sea). I also learned other previously unknown things like, the Russians really like hockey (that seemed to be the only sport they highlighted despite them having a large figure skating tradition). They also had really pretty Russian ladies all over the place to clarify any questions you might have. . . . Yes the Russian pavilion was apparently for the men: hockey and ladies. (although none of the bars were open when we got there, it may have been to early)
So if Russia was for the men, then the Saskatchewan which featured the Canadian Mounties was for the ladies (two good-looking mounties available for your photo
opportunity pleasure). They had a cool small bubble dome that had all the info about Saskatchewan like they are a leader in potash and lentil production. Also Saskatoon seems like it might be a cool place to visit and not just because the name is fun to say. Right after the that tent is the other tent which has the live bands playing all night and the food and beverages. (they have buffalo burgers and berry tarts as well as local Saskatchewan beer and wine) We got to make some new Canadian friends as we danced out to some fun Ska band one night (US pairs figure skaters were out there kicking up their heals as well. . . . .they did a cool lift on the dance floor, pretty awesome!)
The Quebec house is right next door. The have an open air building that is there for the sole purpose of being a party palace. The Quebec house is all about the music. They have a fantastic live stage setup with great local Quebec bands every night - the line in the evenings has been pretty long to get into this place, so you have to get there early! You can get great Quebec wines and cheeses at their food and beverage station as well as fancy sandwiches (the duck and camembert is supposed to be delicious).
The Ontario house and the Canada Hockey house is another one that is right outside
our condo. They have the same winning combination: beer and entertainment. The lines outside this place have been incredible. Dina and I have plans to hit them up later in the week. Other houses that we plan to hit up this week are the other Canadian province houses that are located further into the city. We also are going to hit up the 2 German houses, the Swiss house, Irish house, and the ever famous Heineken house that is located right outside the speedskating oval (I love the Orange fans!). The USA house is apparently not open to the public (but they have a gift shop? Lame USA, lame).
In addition to the Pavilions, there are several 'livecity' locations where the city has set
up nightly live music stages (Wilco opened them on Sat) in some of the parks and squares around town. There are also many pedestrian areas that they closed the roads and have let the people take to the streets to run around and celebrate. The Canadians with their success in the men's moguls, snowboarding, and the hockey have kept the streets painted red with maple leafs. The excitement level has been running on high since the winning of the golds and its likely to continue through the next two weeks. The Canucks have set up one heck of a party and they intend to be the belle of the ball if they can help it. Being in the middle of the action with everyone in such great spirits has helped make my Olympic experience that much better. Go Canada! And let the good times roll!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment