London 2012
The tl;dr version of this entry:
N and I escaped the Olympics to Finland for two weeks and managed to avoid most of the chaos they brought into the ordinary Londoner's life. Before we left, they'd just opened the Olympic lanes that drove taxi drivers to protest on the streets and started getting into the meat of the disaster that was the G4S security fail.
But we came back for the third week, and were lucky enough to score tickets via N's workplace to the women's and men's beach volleyball semifinals held yesterday at Horse Guards Parade, i. e. the former tournament grounds smack in the middle of Whitehall, flanked by St. James's Park and 10 Downing Street.
An interesting place to build a temporary stadium to seat 15,000 people and dump 2,000 tonnes of sand, definitely. I doubt we'd see the same at the front steps of the White House.
The security measures were pretty intensive, though. Tickets were checked several times and the security check measured up to any airport, complete with conveyor belts, xray luggage scanners and armed military personnel.
Once on the grounds, we skipped most of the overpriced Olympic trinkets but did pick up a copy of the official programme and two rain ponchos. Also some sightseeing; there were some seriously detailed sand carvings there, below an intricate copy of the stadium:
Our seats were pretty high up on the stands but we weren't terribly bothered. Neither one of us knows (or really cares) anything about beach volleyball, so the heights were actually pretty nice for admiring the gorgeous sights and taking in the atmosphere of being a part of the Olympics (I doubt this is a chance we'll ever get again).
The stadium in the picture is mostly empty but filled out completely by the time the game started. Subsequent photos just turned out a lot darker.
And then, London being London, it started to rain. Whose brilliant idea was it again to give the games (for the third time, even!) to a city not exactly known for its sunny, welcoming climate? But at least people seemed to be very well prepared. It doesn't come across particularly well from the picture but it was pouring down at times.
Pink being one of the official colours for the Olympics, all the official rain ponchos were also pink. The commentator kept making fun of everyone huddled in their pink ponchos all through the event.
Others were simply opting for umbrellas.
The women's semifinals were first, USA against Brazil. We were rooting for Brazil simply because USA already had one team through to the finals. Plus the commentator was constantly asking the audience to 'make some noise for U - S - A! oh and Brazil, too, I suppose' (I'm paraphrasing a little but that's how it felt). I'm convinced a lot of people were cheering for USA just because it's much easier to chant than Brazil.
Between the games we got to enjoy cheerleading. Just look at the photo and imagine how much fun the dancers must have been having:
A few people left before we got to the men's semifinals, probably because it didn't start until eleven. It was the Netherlands against Germany, and again our guys lost, as Germany took the game in two sets.
And lastly, some WTF in the audience:
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
N and I escaped the Olympics to Finland for two weeks and managed to avoid most of the chaos they brought into the ordinary Londoner's life. Before we left, they'd just opened the Olympic lanes that drove taxi drivers to protest on the streets and started getting into the meat of the disaster that was the G4S security fail.
But we came back for the third week, and were lucky enough to score tickets via N's workplace to the women's and men's beach volleyball semifinals held yesterday at Horse Guards Parade, i. e. the former tournament grounds smack in the middle of Whitehall, flanked by St. James's Park and 10 Downing Street.
An interesting place to build a temporary stadium to seat 15,000 people and dump 2,000 tonnes of sand, definitely. I doubt we'd see the same at the front steps of the White House.
The security measures were pretty intensive, though. Tickets were checked several times and the security check measured up to any airport, complete with conveyor belts, xray luggage scanners and armed military personnel.
Once on the grounds, we skipped most of the overpriced Olympic trinkets but did pick up a copy of the official programme and two rain ponchos. Also some sightseeing; there were some seriously detailed sand carvings there, below an intricate copy of the stadium:
Our seats were pretty high up on the stands but we weren't terribly bothered. Neither one of us knows (or really cares) anything about beach volleyball, so the heights were actually pretty nice for admiring the gorgeous sights and taking in the atmosphere of being a part of the Olympics (I doubt this is a chance we'll ever get again).
The stadium in the picture is mostly empty but filled out completely by the time the game started. Subsequent photos just turned out a lot darker.
And then, London being London, it started to rain. Whose brilliant idea was it again to give the games (for the third time, even!) to a city not exactly known for its sunny, welcoming climate? But at least people seemed to be very well prepared. It doesn't come across particularly well from the picture but it was pouring down at times.
Pink being one of the official colours for the Olympics, all the official rain ponchos were also pink. The commentator kept making fun of everyone huddled in their pink ponchos all through the event.
Others were simply opting for umbrellas.
The women's semifinals were first, USA against Brazil. We were rooting for Brazil simply because USA already had one team through to the finals. Plus the commentator was constantly asking the audience to 'make some noise for U - S - A! oh and Brazil, too, I suppose' (I'm paraphrasing a little but that's how it felt). I'm convinced a lot of people were cheering for USA just because it's much easier to chant than Brazil.
Between the games we got to enjoy cheerleading. Just look at the photo and imagine how much fun the dancers must have been having:
A few people left before we got to the men's semifinals, probably because it didn't start until eleven. It was the Netherlands against Germany, and again our guys lost, as Germany took the game in two sets.
And lastly, some WTF in the audience:
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.