Vancouver Winter Olympics Anniversary – Part 3 – Sochi Pavilion

On Feb 27, 2010, one day before the end of the 2010 Olympics I decided to visit the Sochi Pavilion, also known as Russia House (Russky Dom), because Sochi, Russia is where the 2014 Winter Olympics will take place. Another reason for my visit was to see the inside of the interesting structure (see the photo on the left), also known as Vancouver’s Science World, since I had never been inside. On regular days Science World is an interactive place for families to come and do fun stuff while at the same time learn about science. I’m not interested in family entertainment – ok, I hate screaming kids – so I never bothered to pay money to check it out. Take a look at the short video below (about 4.5 minutes) to see my visit to the Sochi Pavilion. My goal was to get inside, take a look, and take pictures and video. I think I succeeded, even though I waited in line for 3 hours and only spent about 45 minutes inside.

In the first half a minute or so of the video on the right you can see the huge line of people waiting to get inside, and also a Vancouver police boat returning a ball to the crowd. Some people were bouncing around an inflatable beach ball and the wind blew it into the water. The police boat came, they fished it out and returned it to the crowd without tazering, punching, kicking or shooting it! It was good to see. If you live in Vancouver, or are Canadian pay attention to what the guy on the bullhorn (really? Bullhorn?) is saying while describing the model of the Sochi Olympic site. It sounds like’s he’s putting down Vancouver for the transportation situation between the Whistler and Vancouver sports venues, and how far the Vancouver airport is from the city. I have one questions for you Mr. Sochi: In 2010 The Economist’s Global Livability Report ranked Vancouver as #1 for the Most Livable City in the World, where was Sochi on the list? Ok, that’s enough bad mouthing, I wish the best to my Russian friends in their preparations for 2014.