With just 24 days until London 2012, Olympic fever has definitely hit London. There are new signs in the tube stations, tickets have been sent and the instantly recognizable Olympic rings are now suspended off the almost-as-famous Tower Bridge. I don’t think it’s possible to live in this city and not be caught up in some of the hype.
Brendan and I were lucky enough to buy some tickets in the latest release; we will be seeing the women’s basketball gold medal match, which will hopefully be between Australia and USA. We’ll also be making the most of all of the free events (marathon, road cycling, triathlon) and taking in all of the atmosphere in this great city.
In 2010 we lived in Vancouver, where the winter Olympics were held. We were skeptical about the event, especially as we weren’t able to get tickets, and we were concerned about transportation, disruption and the general annoyance of having millions of tourists hanging around in our home city. When the games began, however, we were swept up in the hype and had an amazing couple of weeks; we managed to get some tickets to see Sweden and Finland play ice hockey and we spent our evenings and weekends exploring our own city, participating in public celebrations (see the picture below) and watching the sporting events on the big screens that were dotted around the city. I’m now an Olympic convert, and I urge you, if you’re feeling skeptical, to wait and see!
This past weekend I went to Birmingham to see the Torch Relay city celebration, featuring The Wanted, Loick Essien and Morning Parade. We watched the torch entering Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park, the cauldron was lit – look for it in the bottom right corner of the photo below – and The Wanted began their set, much to the delight (not really strong enough a word) of the thousands of fans who had run into the park 8 hours earlier to get a front row position.
And in case you weren’t convinced of how excited I am for the Olympics, here’s a little proof:
Do you live in London? Are you excited or apprehensive about the upcoming Olympic Games? If you’re not in London, how will you celebrate the Olympics? Let me know in the comments below…
My football tickets came this morning, whoop whoop! :)
Becky | life.style.flash. x
I’m so excited about the Olympics! I’m jetting over for the foodie scene surrounding the big games, plus I’ve got fistfuls of tickets to my favorite sports: two days of equestrian eventing (my competitive sport at university), diving and tennis. I can’t wait!