Euro Trip Part 1 of Many

The Olympics
That's right, Team Raptor went to the Olympics! We were there for the last week. Our plane touched down August 7 in London, and we didn't leave the UK till August 13. There were so many people there! A people-watcher's paradise.

~~Side note, Troy posted a lot of pictures from our trip on facebook, so there will be some overlap, if you've already seen his albums.~~

Watch out for the dead cyclists!

Troy, chilling in Hyde Park on our way to see what BT Live was all about.

This is part of what it was. They walled off a section of Hyde Park, and set up several large screens throughout the venue to show different Olympic events that were happening simultaneously. Also, lots of trash.

This was more of BT London Live. They had a Cadbury house, apparently. With a tiny Cadbury truck outside.

When we got bored of BT London Live, we wandered around the rest of Hyde Park. Here is Troy looking dapper while a family plays 3-person tennis in the background.

Hyde Park, Lake Serpentine - empty before the swimming marathons start.

Troy with Lake Serpentine behind him.

For some reason people paid money to sit in seats for an otherwise free event.

Part of the lap the swimmers had to take several times during the marathon.

Day of the Women's Swimming Marathon - look at all those people on the path! And a soldier (?) with a feather in his cap.

Olympic swimmers!

Can you guess where these ladies are from?

More British pride.

This man loved Australia so much, he used the flag as his cape... and shirt. He wasn't wearing a shirt underneath.

So many British flags in one picture!

This man loves America.

Not totally sure what this boy is wearing... or why...

Also, a dog.

The women's swimming marathon came to an end. USA got silver. Our poor Haley Anderson was beat by Hungary by 4 milliseconds.

Part of the reason London got the Games again was because they said they were going to be as green as possible. Here's an example of some of that alternative energy! Cool, right?

On our way to see the only event we bought tickets for: Handball! And that sign lied to us... it was closer to a 45 minute walk by the time we sat down.

Part of our walk to the Olympic Park. According to some guy walking around, the building in the background used to process sewage. Troy looked it up, and it's called "The Cathedral of Sewage".

Wootz and cheese!

!!!

Inside the Olympic Park.

Apparently, superheroes go to the Olympics as well.

Some dudes walking around in the Olympic Park.

This little boy seemed excited for the Olympics. Check out his hair.

And then finally - Handball! ...Which we had never heard of till we got the tickets. It's like soccer (football), but with your hands. And on a smaller court.

Some excited fans.

More of the crowd.

Goal! It's a goal! (...Badger, badger, badger, badger...) 

A dressed up someone dancing for the cameras.

Some more handball action!

Handball is surprisingly rough. A player went down every couple minutes, and about half the time they would need an extra minute or two to get back up. And apparently the only medical knowledge the team medic needs is how to spray icy hot on a player. That's all they did. Spray, rub the injury, and help the players back up.

Half-time, before the (American) cheerleaders came out to perform. Apparently cheerleading is a thing in the Olympics, during half-time. But maybe it's only an American thing... why else would they have American cheerleaders for an event that had no American players competing?

The basketball arena (where handball took place) as we walked away.

In the middle of Olympic Park were giant screens showing other Olympic events going on, for people who didn't get tickets to see them. Tae Kwon Do was the only other thing happening by the time we got out of handball (around 10:30 or 11pm).

The Olympic Stadium and Troy.

Some excited Brazilians we saw in Victoria Station. With watermelons on their heads.

The next day - Men's Swimming Marathon! Back in Hyde Park, Troy still recovering from all the walking we did the day before.

All the coaches lined up and ready to feed snacks and/or water to their swimmers.

More Olympic swimmers!

Some fans from Tunisia (all the folks with red and white). They were very excited about their swimmer and chanted/sang his name the whole race. Laura still occasionally hums or whistles their little diddy: "Mellouli, Mellouli, Oooh-oh-oh!"

On our way out of Hyde Park, after the swimming marathon ended, we wandered into the Korean House.There they gave us a bunch of free stuff (tourist books, a flash drive, fancy ear cleaners), and told us South Korea will be hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics. Guess where we'll be January 2018?

Yes, we dream topether of going to South Korea!

Also in our wanderings around London, we saw lots of these statues. They're so cute! They were the official mascots of the Olympics and the Para Olympics. This guy was near the London Eye/Big Ben area (you can see Big Ben in the background).

And this guy needed a hug.

Saturday held the Race Walking events.

Don't they look like they're dancing?

Some supportive fans on the sidelines, cheering on the race walkers.

We came back for the women's event, and watched from a different section of the track.

This race walker used the port-o-potty in the middle of the race. You can kind of see the door closing (it's almost closed in this picture) as she exited to continue race walking.

Go USA! We stood behind her family during the race, and cheered her on with the rest of the Americans.

More of our wanderings around London.

Sunday was the last day, but we were still able to catch some of the Men's Marathon after church. Laura's co-worker asked her to hold up a sign saying, "Hi Jose!" during the race, which is what's blocking part of the runner in the bottom of the picture. When she got back to work, he said he saw it. Cool! We were on TV!

A very cool picture. Looks like this guy is running out of his skin.

This lady brought her Japanese flag and fan out and waved it at any Asian runner. Not just Japanese, but any Asian guy she saw in the race.

Watching the marathon made me (Laura) want to start running again.

Some Olympians about to pass by.

There were a lot of people there to watch the race. So many that the runner in the background almost blends into the crowd.

Team Raptor posing with the marathon track in the background. We thought the race had ended at that point, but we later learned there was one or two runners left that finished almost a full lap after everyone else. Good for them, it would've been hard to keep going after seeing and/or hearing the other runners finish.

After we lunched, we went back to Hyde Park to the fenced off BT London Live to watch some more Olympic stuff on their giant screens. That was the only day that required tickets to get in, because they were having the "Closing Ceremony Celebration Concert". When we bought the tickets, we thought they were going to show all of the closing ceremony. Nope. Just the first few minutes. It was a celebration concert. Emphasis on the "concert". Their headlining band was Blur, and they had 3 bands leading up to them. It was great music all afternoon/evening, but we were pretty disappointed they didn't show the closing ceremonies. And Laura was cranky by then because we didn't have much cash left, and the only way to get (expensive) food inside the venue was with cash. So we left after Blur's first song to get dinner. Eventually we wandered inside a sports bar that was still serving food (it was around 10:30 or 11pm by the time we ate), and watched the closing ceremonies on their TV screens. It was a much better arrangement.

The bark wasn't very comfortable, so we got beach mats to sit on. The park was SUPER crowded, and continued to fill as the afternoon/evening wore on. As you can see in this picture, people in the park weren't super classy - there was a group of around 5 people sitting behind us that left their trash on the ground when they decided to find a different spot to sit. Ghetto! Who does that? And then Laura saw someone puke into a beer cup. He stuck his fingers down his throat and puked. And then left it on the ground. He didn't throw it away till someone almost tripped over it. I (Laura) just gagged a little at the memory.

Overall, though, this was how we felt about being at the Olympics. And now we want to go to all of them. But we'll settle for some of them. South Korea, here we come! (...in 6 years...)