Before the Winter Games we teamed up with Travelsmart 2010 to give away THIS 3 zone transit pass to a lucky reader of ours. This randomly selected winner was Kim Werker, and when I handed her the pass I asked if she wouldn’t mind taking photos of her adventures she had with it, and did she ever deliver! She was lucky to win the pass but we are super lucky to have found a new contributor who’s going to be sharing experiences and stories like the one below. Okay, they might not all be as epic in proportion as this amazing adventure through the Olympic Games on Transit but please welcome new V.I.A. contributor, Kim Werker, to the site!

WORDS AND PHOTOS: Kim Werker

“Aside from the truly incredible party Vancouver became during the 2010 Olympics, the thing that wowed me most was our transit system. Seriously. Translink’s Twitter stream was about the most valuable internet resource I’ve ever grown to rely on.

I’m a regular transit rider, so winning the VIA 3-zone pass was a glorious event for me. And I’m glad it’s valid through much of March, since with the festivities focused downtown during the Games, I haven’t even gone outside of my zone yet. But I will. And when I do, I’ll let you know what I get up to. For now, here’s what I saw and experienced in Vancouver, getting around on the impeccably run public transit system.

Last week I walked down the hill on Alma Street to Broadway and caught the 99 B-Line bus to Main Street, where I met my friend Lili. We hopped on the #3 bus and took it to Main and Terminal, from which we walked to False Creek and Science World.

Science World was transformed into Russky Dom, or Sochi World. Sochi will host the Winter Games in 2014, so this was the first pavilion I waited in line to enter (where by “wait” I mean “stood in line for nearly three hours”).

It was worth that wait, though. With the Games only four years away, the Russians outdid themselves showing off the gorgeous region where Sochi is located. And though from the looks of it, the upstairs of Science World seemed more set up for some swank night-club-style partying at night, by day the upstairs proved a great viewing platform for the fantastic show they put on. Singers and dancers in lavish traditional outfits were wonderfully entertaining.

And check it out – they had a 2010 torch and a 2014 torch all nice and set up for people to take photos with.

After grabbing a cookie snack, we went off on foot to see some of the province pavilions set up along False Creek.

That’s BC Place on the left. The big box with a “Q” on it is Québec House. The dome is Saskatchewan House.

Before we hit the pavilions, though, we had to check out the hundreds (thousands?) of inukshuks lining the northeast side of False Creek. It’s a sight to behold! Across the water is the Athlete’s Village.

A couple of Mounties were chilling out on their horses outside Saskatchewan House, with a bunch of people taking turns posing. I had to get in on that action ‘cause it’s criminal to turn down the chance for such a cheesy, awesome photo. The Mounties seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, too.

Next up: The Ontario House 4-D movie. The fourth dimension is, well, they spray water on you and the seats vibrate. It’s hilarious. Especially when there are kids sitting behind you, squealing in glee. It was worth the hourlong wait in the rain, even though in the middle of that wait we realized we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. Thankfully, Ontario House had great fries to buy when the movie was over.

I raced back home (taking the #3 up Main St. to the #25 at King Ed.) to catch the hockey game, then collapsed in exhaustion.

A few days later, my partner and I headed downtown at night to be a part of the party before it all ended. We took the #17 bus from where we ate dinner on Broadway (Temaki Sushi – YUM).

For two full weeks, Granville Street looked like this at night. Packed with revelers.

The friends we were with hadn’t seen the cauldron yet, so we walked to the foot of Thurlow Street to see it the night before it was extinguished. On the way, we passed the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion that still had a long line even at 9PM. I was very relieved to hear they’re going to try to reopen the pavilion – in another location – during the Paralympic Games. I’d really love to see those medals in person.

Ok, so we made it to the cauldron. Thanks to the rain that was just starting to fall, the crowds weren’t too thick and we were able to get right up to the chain-link fence with the six-inch gap in it. I stuck my camera through it, and here you go: Olympic cauldron. What a sight.

From there, we walked straight across town to the Burrard Bridge to get a good view of the Vectorial Elevation lights installation. It was impossible to photograph with my wee point-and-shoot, but I took a little video. It’s very X-Files-like with the rain and clouds, eh?

From the bridge we headed east to Yaletown, just in time to catch the fireworks at the end of the night. Not since seeing a double-header Mets game at Shea Stadium on the Fourth of July when I was seven-years-old had I had that unobstructed a view of fireworks so close by. It was a breathtaking show.

And finally, there was yesterday. The last day of the Games. I watched the GOLD-MEDAL hockey game with friends in a swank home theatre, complete with surround sound that shook the room whenever the players hit the boards. After Sidney Crosby so perfectly ended the game, we knew we had to go downtown. We tried to catch a bus at W. 4th Ave. and MacDonald, but when we saw a B-Line go by we realized something was up. Enter that ever-useful Translink Twitter feed to let us know they’d stopped running buses into downtown. So even though we drove to Burrard Street and walked across the bridge, I consider it a transit-ride-in-spirit.

One of the first things I saw when we got to Granville Street were these two people waving their flags. It was a friendly celebration, which is the very best kind.

A very big thank-you to Vancouver Is Awesome and TravelSmart 2010 for the transit pass, and for contributing to such a very, very good time.