Our Olympic experience!

The Olympic Rings on Tower Bridge

Josh and I at Tower Bridge (Josh's head is covering up the Olympic rings!)

 The Olympics have arrived!  Josh and I welcomed the start of the Olympics by having some friends over to our flat to watch the opening ceremonies.  Our original plan had been to go to Victoria Park to watch on a big screen along with 30,000 other people, but changed our minds after the weather took a turn (rain).  The four hour ceremony was much more comfortable to watch from our couch than a blanket on the grass!  One of my favorite moments of the opening ceremony was when 6 jets flew over our flat in formation...reminded me so much of visiting Sam out at the Air Force Academy...love that stuff!  I loved the opening ceremony, I thought it was really well put together, apart from the bizarre tribute to the NHS (National Health Service).  Once the fireworks started we raced out to see if we could catch a glimpse, but we could only hear the booms going off.  Stratford ( where Olympic Park is) is only a few miles away from our home in Islington.

The hype surrounding the Olympics here in London has been quite high.  For months, the media has been warning Londoners (holy cow, I'm a real Londoner!) about how busy and crazy and plain mad it is going to be during the Olympics.  Basically warning us all to either stay home or walk everywhere.  It hasn't been bad for Josh and I though, we've used the bus and tube system since the Olympics began and haven't had any issues.  On Monday, Josh and I took the tube from Angel to Earl's Court for our first Olympic game!  We were lucky to have gotten tickets back in June, I'm so glad that we looked into buying tickets because our experience was amazing!

Almost to the stadium!

Earl's court in West London (near Kensington)

We made it to the games!

 Josh and I were prepared to wait to go through security for a while, our tickets said the wait could be a couple hours long, but that wasn't the case at Earl's Court and we got through right away.  The security was similar to going through an airport minus the taking off of shoes.  No liquids over 100 ml allowed and we had to go through metal detectors.

Security at Earl's Court

National Guard troops manning the checkpoints.

After getting into the stadium we still had a few hours to kill before our session started.  Josh and I wandered around for a bit, checking out the food vendors and licensed apparel.  While walking around we found out the the women's USA volleyball team was playing Brazil.  Josh and I tried to get a couple glimpses of the action.

The USA women's volleyball team!

America VS Brazil

We found a decent spot where we could kind of watch the game (we weren't allowed into the seating area because our tickets were for the next session).  It was fun to hear the roars from the crowd as the game progressed, and were please to hear that team USA won in the 4th set!

Go America!

Finally, it was time for us to take our seat and watch the first of two volleyball games.  The first was Japan VS. Italy.  Josh and I decided to root for Italy since we had recently visited Venice, it was fun to join in the IT - TAL - LIA chants throughout the game.

Josh at the Olympics with a Bulmers :)

Line up of the Japan and Italian women's volleyball teams.

The flags of the women's volleyball teams.

My two favorite flags!

The first volleyball game was really intense.  Japan and Italy were really good competitors, very close games, but at the end, Italy won!  Soon after the win, the stadium cleared of all the Japanese supporters, which was kind of sad.  Lots of empty seats.  The second game was Great Britain vs. Algeria.  The players for these teams were not up to the same standard as the Italian and Japanese teams, but it was still fun to watch.  After the third set, Josh and I decided to leave.  It was midnight and we had a 45 minute tube ride back home.  We were happy to hear that Great Britain won in the 5th set!

Italy VS. Japan

Josh and I at the Olympics!

Team GB

Team GB VS Algeria

Josh taking in the game.

Overall, Josh and I had a great experience at Earl's Court.  We feel very privileged that we were able to take a part in such an awesome event.  Later on in August, Josh and I will be going to the ParaOlympics.  We have tickets to watch athletic events at Olympic Park.  I am really looking forward to being inspired by the ParaOlympic athletes...seriously, I think after watching them compete I will have zero excuses for my running laziness/complaints!  We are still searching online for other Olympic tickets and plan on going to watch the marathon on August 12th.  It is an exciting time to live in London!

Rachel