There’s no escaping the party that’s downtown Vancouver during the Olympics. And that makes it really hard to sleep.

I’m hearing that earplugs work if you don’t live too close to one of the two free public sites that feature live music acts.

Up until about 11 p.m., you can hear everything in your condo’s living room. If you’ve never been to Vancouver, the downtown is a nice mix of condos and businesses. There are strict rules regarding noise late at night. That’s because people on the West Coast have to be early risers to keep up with folks working three hours ahead in the East.

But during the Games, the fireworks follow the music at about 11 at night. Then large groups of people head to bars shouting, cheering and sometimes singing O Canada. After a couple of hours of peace even louder people flood the streets – because the bars closed down – and they head home to bed. Or, in some cases, to somebody else’s bed. According to the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research, the 100,000 free condoms given out to Olympic athletes and officials are running out.

The organization said on Wednesday it shipped another 8,500 to prevent a shortage. With so many hard bodies around, it’s not hard to believe the athletes aren’t getting much sleep either.

More specifically, that makes me wonder how Canadians Charles Hamelin and Chris Del Bosco are doing at night. Despite being favourites in speed skating and ski cross respectively, it’s their girlfriends who wear the medal in their homes.

Hamelin’s girlfriend, Marianne St. Gelais, has won two silvers in speed skating so far. Del Bosco’s girlfriend, Ashleigh McIvor, won gold in ski cross.

They represent two of the 11.5 medals won by Canadian women so far. Not bad when the host country is sitting at 15.

The .5? That refers to the gold medal in ice dance won by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

It’s a great time to be in Vancouver and, if you’re here, there’s no missing the party.