Winter Olympics

The athletes vilage, Vancouver

"With only a short time in the host city, unfortunately my friend and I could not visit all the venues so curling and skating had to fall to one side and it was hockey and a visit to the athlete village which won!

We were lucky enough to get guest entry passes into the Vancouver athletes village to see what it really is like. If I am honest I think it reminded me the most of a brand new university campus. The athletes are all housed in apartments with all the facilities you would expect them to need.

Facilities include a gym, medical centre, food hall, chill out area and places where entertainment happened each evening. It wasn't perhaps as impressive as some may imagine, but it was pretty cool and I felt honoured to get a glimpse into the life of an Olympian during the games.

Stealing a Canada Ice Hockey shirt!

Taking in some Ice Hockey

My favourite bit was the Team GB apartments. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go in, but the lines of Union Jacks emblazoning their balconies were impressive! After a comprehensive tour we had to make a quick exit as we had tickets for the ladies Ice Hockey Semi-Final.

As we headed over to Canada Hockey Place we passed thousands of people queuing up to access Sochi House, a huge arena which has been set up by Sochi, Russia who are the hosts of the next Winter Olympics. We were not sure exactly what you got once inside, but my suspicion was maybe lots of vodka, hence the queues!

We also passed the waterfront where hundreds of people had tried to make their own Inukshuks – the emblem of the games – and it was quite a sight on the pebble beach.

After passing the monuments, we headed into the hockey through the tight security checks. The stadium is impressive, seating around 20,000 people which as you can imagine creates a fantastic atmosphere.

The game was not quite as tight as we had hoped (USA beat Sweden 9-1) but it was great to go to a big hockey match, and also witness the skills of the female players. So with no more tickets to any events, we made our way around the city taking in the atmosphere (there are people everywhere!).

We had hoped to visit one of the live sites in the city, but the queues (or "line-ups") were huge, so we opted to watch the curling (GB girls narrowly missed out on beating the Danish) and the Canada vs. Finland ladies hockey match in a pub on another one of Vancouver's busy streets.

Before leaving the bar we couldn't resist continuing to share our GB love by getting yet more Canadians to pose with our well travelled Union Jack!"

Betony

To see more photos from Betony's Olympic journey visit the event photo gallery. To see more of her Olympic blogs visit the Winter Olympics news section.