London 2012

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!!!!!

We said all along that going to the Olympics would for sure be a once in a lifetime experience and oh was it! We took the train into London on Friday to meet up with one of Nick's friends from High School who was in town for a layover on her way back stateside from Sweden. It was our first time on the tube. Compared to NYC the tube train is much more comfortable than the Subway. We watched the Opening Ceremony at a pub just about a mile from the Eye. It was so exciting to be in London for it! During the ceremony the street which was pretty busy before the ceremony started was all but silent during it! Our bartender was so nice and gave us all sorts of insight to the monarchy and how the queen operates. When the queen (who is 86 years old) then Charles will take over the throne even though he will be well into 60's if not nearing his 70's even though the popular choice would be for William to take over, it won't happen until after Charles passes.

On the way home, we had a short wait for our next train in Paddington. We rushed to use the restroom before finding our train to find a charge to use the toilet! We were both shocked at the charge! Though I guess its common.

We ended up missing our train and had to wait over an hour for the next one! During our now long wait, we saw a woman in costume on her way back from the ceremony. She was part of the opening ceremony!

We finally made it back home at around 230am. The next day we slept in and woke up with just enough time to get ready and head back into London to see our Volleyball match! 

Outside of Earl's Court! Ready to watch the Olympics. I was wearing my USA Flag scarf which came in handy for waving as well as wearing!!! 

Nick gave in to my demands for millions of pictures while there. We found this silly little mascot guy (Do they show them on TV in the states? He's everywhere around here!) 

When we finally made it to our seats, he thought he was done having to take pictures but I wasn't about to give in quite yet!!

When the USA v Korea match finally started the crowd went absolutely insane. We really enjoyed the match and by the time the fourth set came up we were both really into the game! USA won which is all we could have asked for!!! What an experience!

All in all it was quite the experience!! We have tickets for the single canoe sprint finals two Saturdays from now! It will be quite the experience to see a medal ceremony too! 

We are starting to get homesickness and miss everyone at home so much!!