The arrival was very smooth. On the plane from Budapest, I overheard several people talking about the chaos that London is going to be. A British couple next to me talked about it the entire flight: "I just hope we make it home ok, I am gonna be so mad if there are crowds everywhere!" I think the general opinion of Londoners was that they needed these Olympics like a hole in the head. Well, it turns out that London was relatively empty. At passport check at Stansted airport, I was my own line. On the train to Central London, I had a whole car to myself. On the underground, I sat the whole time. No chaos, quite the opposite indeed. Thousands of volunteers all over the city (all but one I interacted with were very nice but not always very helpful), amazing organization - for example, many train stations around the olympic sites were made one-way: one station for entrance, one for exit. This way, the crowds are never going at each other, only nicely flowing in one direction. I was not too happy though when they would not let me enter an empt train station to get onto the trian I needed one monring. Oh well, in 10 minutes, I walked to the next one.
ExCel is the largest convention center I have ever been in. Since it was also one way, and the fencing venue was in one end, I got to walk the whole length of the building, several times. Took about 15 minutes from one end to the next. There were 7 sports in ExCel, fencing being one of them. The morning I had a ticket for went smoothly too. The trains were crowded, but mostly because it was morning rush hour. Security was like at an airport except that the people in charge were very nice. Everyone got a "Welcome to the Olympics" smile, the volunteers were chatting with people in line, it was rather pleasant. Once inside, I realized I could no longer leave. One ticket was only for one entry. Considering how large the arena was and how small the fencing area, I was a little upset about that. I wish I walked around some more before entering the fencing section, but anyway, it wasn't the end of the world. Of course, each area had all the essentials: food, beer, bathrooms and souvenir shop. For most of the morning, I was in and out of the venue. Watched a round of fencing, then went out to try to find people I knew. There were a few. Some unexpected. It's funny when you run into people you know at the Olympics. At one point, I was just sitting around, waiting for a friend when the guy sitting next to me turned to me: "Don't you think fencing is rather boring? I wish I had gotten tennis tickets!" I looked at him puzzled, thinking why anybody who doesn't know fencing would come to watch it. All I could say was that the next round should be a lot more exciting. I doubt he thought so.
For me, it wasn't that different from another fencing tournament. Of course, the atmosphere was amazing, but there was no Hungarian team to cheer for, and the US girls, some of whom I knew a little, lost early on. For the rest of the day, I was cheering for the referees, and whoever was fencing the Italians. I managed to get a last minute ticket for the finals, which were pretty exciting. Italy versus Russia. We sat right in the middle of the Italian cheering section - although I think the whole arena was a gigantic Italian cheering section. Every time the Italians scored, there was a minute of screaming, flag waving, craziness!! They have a crazy strong team in women's foil: they took gold, silver and bronze in the individual, and then won the gold pretty easily in the team even as well. They are nearly unbeatable at this time. I was so proud of my friend who refereed this final with class and confidence!
A word about the official Olympic goodies: I would be so happy to just get all the great outfits the participants received! The referee suits looked nice, the volunteers wore purple themed uniforms while the officials had blue ones. There were Adidas tennis shoes with London2012 logos, umbrellas, bags, all really fun and nice! I managed to score an umbrella and am pretty happy about it :)
The general atmosphere in London was very special. It really did feel like London was welcoming the world. According to some locals I spoke to, more Londoners tried to leave the city for these three weeks. I think it's insane! If I lived in a city that hosted the Olympics, I would invite all my friends to come stay with me and try to get as many tivűckets as I could. But that's just me. The mayor managed to scare half the city into leaving, with all the talk of chaos before the games began. So walking around in the city, if really felt like the only people there were somehow involved in the Olympics. Every other person I passed on the street had an accreditation pass around their necks, was wearing national warm-ups or flags. There were more languages spoken in London than on any given day in NYC. One evening, I went out to Hyde Park for a run. It was my second time running there: about a month ago, I went for a lap with Daniel one weekday night: then, it was pretty empy, not like an evening with good weather in Central Park. This time around, however, the park seemed like a buzzing, crazy Central Park. Part of Hyde Park is set up as a huge spectator cheering zone. There are large screens and anyone can go for free to watch among thousands of other people. I can imagine the atmosphere there.
I never realized that the Brits were so patriotic! So many people were wearing the British jerseys, flags, tattoos on their faces. It was good to see so many of them cheering in the fencing venue for the mediocre women's foil team, also out on the streets when I went to watch a little bit of the women's triathlon and marathons. When the British athletes were running or biking past the crowd, everyone was going absolutely nuts! It seems to be working because the British team is doing awesome, third in the medal standings currently.
One night I went to a party with my friend, Jeff. He is quite international himself: an American who grew up in many countries, went to college in Chicago, and settled in London afterwords. He has a super international group of friends in London too. The party he invited me to was hosted by a Japanese-American and a New Zelander. There were people from every corner of the world. Naturally, everyone was talking about the Olympics. One guy who was British but probably from an Indian family volunteered at the opening ceremony: he was a dancer in the "current music" section. Another girl I spoke to was from Italy: she said she loved fencing! I was intrigued. I asked if she fenced. No, never. But in Italy, fencing is a star sport! Valentina Vezzali is a national hero. Everyone knows that Elisa Di Francisca just won two gold medals. She said she watched on TV and it was very exciting. For someone who had never fenced, she knew about the rules and the people like someone who has been involved in the sport for years. Later on, the heptathlon final was on TV, with Jessica Ennis being the favorite before the final event, the 800m run. I had even heard of Ennis before, who was profiled in some video I watched months ago as a rising star in athletics; also a very sweet charming young girl. When her final was abou to start, nearly EVERYONE at the party crowded around the one TV in the flat and cheered for her as if we were all British. She won by a lot and we all watched her make her many victory laps, wrapped in the gigantic British flag. What a great moment!
The marathon course in front of Buckingham Palace:
Caught just a glimpse of the runners:
More marathon course:
Overall, what an experience! Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. To me, the Olympics represents so many of the things that matter: not just athletics, but hard work and perseverance, people with common interests coming together, people from all over the world coming together. It brings people together. Literally and metaphorically. And for a few days, I felt like a really tiny part of it.
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