Vancouver Olympics Journal (pt 3)

The opening ceremonies happened on Friday and the games have been going strong over the weekend. Vancouver is really exciting and the mood from the city centre is spilling over to our area.

Our weekend was not much different from a usual weekend. We saw many of our favourite regulars and heard their stories about events they have been to downtown. Everyone has been really positive about the Olympics which is really great and makes each day feel more special then usual.

In terms of traffic there isn't very much in our area. All of our customers that have driven to us have found parking within two blocks, and those that took transit said it wasn't that busy and they made all of their connections easily. The media has talked a lot about how the traffic would be terrible and that there would be two hour wait times to get on the public transit, but so far non of this is true. Getting to and from our area and downtown takes minutes.

The first ring of security around the athletes village is pretty tame. We were expecting it to be more tense, but the mood is quite light. There are Vancouver Police officers on the corners and intersections around the village, but nothing intimidating.

Each day we see more athletes and tourists in our area, it's a really nice atmosphere and not overwhelming. As we begin our first week we look forward to meeting more and more people from other countries and also from across Canada.