around the village

after our welcome to the athlete’s village lets have a bit of a wander, starting with the village green which was the hub with a space for fun events, the avenue of flags and surrounded by key places like the medical clinic and dining room.

One of the funniest events was the mascot race which was open to any team mascot – some teams bring a full mascot outfit and a few bought one when they heard about the race (and yes one of the mascots will feature again in my scavenger hunt photos).  The meeting in the top left photo had us clutching our sides with laughter – one of the volunteers had a trainee guide dog for the blind with him and they came along the watch the mascots; well the cat mascot wandered near the dog who sniffed it and got quite excited so the cat mascot stopped to speak to the dog and ended up rolling on the ground with a very happy dog.

Behind the village green were some more photo opportunities with a statue of the games mascot – Clyde the thistle and a clever painting that looked 3D through a camera lens (modelled by 2 of the Samoan athletes)

Moving off around the village I enjoyed the different ways in which each country decorated their space.  Scotland, as the host, were central and as well as lots of flag bunting, they had decorated the end of their Porto cabin offices

other decorations I liked included the dragon logo used by Wales, the New Zealand maps filled with local phrases, the stylised bird of paradise in Papua New Guinea’s banners, the Manx cat cut-outs around the Isle of Man houses (home of the tail less Manx cat) and the inflatable giraffes outside the Tanzanian office.

The village is in the city centre but the site is bounded by the river and the Samoan houses were on the river edge so we had this lovely rural looking view from the houses.  There was a pair of storks on the river and I saw several foxes walk along the pathway, seemingly oblivious to the bustle.  That big fence will be removed when the site is handed over as housing so people will have access to the river side pathway.

and finally on a more mundane, but important note, there were trios of bins everywhere so all compostable and re-cyclable items were separated from the general waste

Hope you enjoyed these glimpses of the village.  Later in the week I’ll share my spectator experience at the athletics and next week I have some photos of life as a volunteer in the village