So, Malou and I watched the game at my place and decided to walk around after the medals were presented. It was crazy, to say the least. People were high five-ing each other, woot-woot-ing... if you didn't know any better, you might swear everyone knew each other! The corner of Robson and Granville was... well, the photos will speak for themselves, but I'm going to offer you two things that are typically Canadian about the crowd:
1. Every single person who bumped into me or wanted to get by me apologized: "Sorry," "Excuse me, can I just get by you?" I'm serious. It's probably also why I felt completely safe when I lost Malou for a brief moment and everyone towered over me, which is also when a complete stranger said, "Dude, don't worry, I got you - just keep going straight, I see some room yonder..." It got to be so that amongst the woot-woots you'd hear, "so sorry" "are you okay?" "here, let me help you"...
2. When an American bearing his/her flag crossed into the crowd, a bunch of people said, "Hey, buddy, you're team's awesome, too." Pity complement or an attempt to diffuse the obvious tension, it didn't matter - people were just nice all around.
It was bizarre. I have no words to describe how packed the streets were and how safe I actually felt. It took Malou and I a good half hour to navigate the corner of Granville and Robson. You might think that crowds of that sort might get out of control - beverages and plants and shtuff. There were police everywhere, but I never once felt that I'd be smooshed. One dude actually started surfing the crowd.
It was just good, old Canadians celebrating. Fin.
Okay, so you're looking at the time and realize that I am blogging during the closing ceremonies... It's just performances right now. I've already seen the Sochi hand off (Neil, get Rosetta Stone because I think we should go to Russia in 2014) and the speeches are done. (Not too bad, actually...well, maybe except for the "wind beneath our wings" comment Furlong made... don't let me get started on his French! Poor guy... he really did do an amazing job...) What I'm saying is that Neil Young just sang and the flame is out and I can just listen to the songs...
More photos, then! This alley (the one between Seymour and Granville, and Robson and Smithe) is usually very dangerous, but today, it was a portal, a place for the over spill of crowds and quite the party place, apparently.
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