OlymPICS and Travel Tip Tuesday

We happened to fly into London the day of the opening ceremony. It’s great how these things work out sometimes. We would have loved to watch the ceremony in person, but it was difficult to score tickets. I spoke to a man that said his friend had extra tickets that she was selling for £999 each which is approximately $1567. Ha, maybe next time. Instead, we went to a lounge that my mom told us about. Thanks, Mom! 

The lounge had Wi-Fi, large TV’s, drinks, and delicious food. Best of all, everything was free. Every night, we took advantage of the dinner buffet prepared by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.

On the night of the opening ceremony, he was in the dining room at the sushi bar serving guests. I chatted with him a bit about the original Iron Chef and the Olympics. When I asked him what events he had tickets to, I think he named pretty much every sport. Jealous. He also told me about his first time at the Olympics as a young boy in Japan. Why didn’t I think about going to the Olympics when they were in Vancouver or Beijing? So foolish. He offered to take a picture with each of us and sign our badges for the lounge. He drew a mustache on his own photo. He is the best.

After eating numerous plates of food, we watched the ceremony in a ballroom filled with rambunctious Americans drunk on pride for our country and free booze. We headed out about halfway through the parade of nations to catch the subway before it closed. On the way to the tube, we wove through throngs of bystanders crowding the streets watching the ceremony which was projected onto the face of a building.

 It was amazing to see people from all over the world erupt into chants and songs in their native tongue when their country appeared on the screen. I wish I could convey the atmosphere of that crowd. This is the spirit of the Olympics. I am so incredibly lucky that I got to experience it. 

I realize this is a crappy picture but it's the only one I have of the screen. That's the U.S. Olympic Team!

The next day, Sam still felt sick so she took a nap day. I went to a couple museums including my favorite museum in the world, London’s National Gallery. Next, I wandered along the Thames which was filled with activities. They estimate that London will have 1 million extra visitors each day of the games. I stumbled onto an unusual concert. I saw two guys on stage with people behind them holding up giant flashcards of guitar chords. We were on a terrace and when I looked down below, I saw hundreds of people playing along with their guitars and ukuleles. How cool! They had lots of neat activities around the city during opening weekend. (I will upload videos of the crowd in the street watching the ceremony and of the concert whenever I get a good internet connection.)

On Sunday, we had tickets to our first event-all day grounds pass for tennis at Wimbledon. We only watched part of a game because there was rain on and off for the majority of the day. However, we were able to sneak into centre court to watch Great Britain’s Andy Murray against Stanislas Wawrinka (Swiss). That evening, we headed back to the lounge to grab some free Morimoto food. Megan Sinclair joined us for dinner. It is always nice to see familiar faces in foreign countries. We ended up talking to a guy who is dating someone on the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team. Somehow we ended up scoring two FREE friends and family tickets to the rowing races for the next morning. 

 Monday was filled with Olympic festivities. In the morning, we headed to Eaton Dawney to watch the races. We sat down next to the family members of people on the Netherland’s rowing team. Commentators here are hilarious. After one of the heats, the commentator told the crowd not to worry because “they get another chance for a bite at the Olympic cherry.” It was cool to see a couple boats beat Olympic Records. The slight tailwind helped them out. The commentator remarked on it saying “a little wind may be bad news for an infant over your shoulder but good news for these crews.” I learned that they say “clear water” instead of “open water” and call a (stern/bow) deck the canvas. 

In the afternoon, we headed to watch beach volleyball. They constructed the makeshift stadium last month. We had an amazing view of the city. When do you get to watch beach volleyball on the Prime Minister’s doorstep with the London Eye and Big Ben as your backdrop? We ran into the coach for the U.S.A. Women’s Beach Volleyball Team--Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. He gave us his contact information and said he would try to get us tickets to their match later that evening. Connections are everything (even though he told us later they were out of tickets). I loved watching beach volleyball but it was weird at first. I didn’t expect to see a conga line or the crowd doing the wave at an Olympic event. For a second there it felt more like Spring Break (not training camp) than the Olympics.

I loved my time in London and I can't wait to go back.

Three things I’m grateful for:    
1. The kindness of strangers (We made friends with one of the security guards at Wimbledon. He kept us entertained when the games were delayed due to rain.)
2. Free Pimm’s sample in the airport (They also had samples of whisky and bourbon at 8:30am. Yolo?)
3. Sneaking into centre court at Wimbledon and sneaking into awesome seats at beach volleyball

Travel Tip Tuesday Topic: Don't get your stuff stolen

Last summer when I traveled through Europe, I laughed at the tourists that carried two backpacks. I now realize why they did it. I had no idea how to pack for a 10 month adventure. Hopefully somebody will visit me when I'm in China and bring me some of my stuff. Any takers?

Anyway, I am traveling with a 60 litre backpack. Sam told me to stand against the wall to protect my belongings because you usually cannot feel it if someone is trying to get into your backpack. I felt like I was in the time-out corner but I think it's a pretty good idea. Thanks, Sam!

I'm in Madrid right now but in a few days I'm heading to the pickpocketing capital of the world-Barcelona.