A tourist-y type of day and an Opening Ceremony

My day yesterday basically consisted of me being a completely unashamed Olympic tourist, just minus the massive suitcase which there seemed to be a lot of around. I got the train out to London Bridge, accidentally forgetting that the torch relay had taken place there... So ended up in a massive crowd of people who were waiting for the torch (which had actually been through already, but I let some policemen break the news to them instead).

I walked along the Thames for a bit, finding the Wenlock models on the way, and there seemed to be a lot more athletes than anywhere else I've been yet, so because I was without uniform, the camera very much came out and I now have a heck of a lot of pictures of the backs of a lot of tracksuits! So much picture-taking was such tiring work (or just an ok excuse), that I then had an afternoon nap in Jubilee Gardens before heading to Trafalgar Square. Not only is Trafalgar Square my favourite place in the country, but yesterday I think that it may well have been one of the busiest places in the country. The oh-so-British queue for the countdown clock had dissolved into a bit of a push and shove crowd situation, but I found a less push and shove-y type person to take a picture for me. There was a massive buzz in the Square and, when the clock neared the 5 hour mark, the whole square began to count down, which was so exciting, and made it very hard to motivate myself to move from Nelson's Column.


Eventually, though, I did move, and I did find Waterstones, which was the whole reason that I had even been in in the first place! And, when I arrived back at the flat, I found a GB cyclist outside the front door (and the camera was whacked out again)!

We BBQ-ed in time for the ceremony, which, despite us laughing about how British it was, was actually amazing and fantastically thought out. Also, to my delight, the guy from LOCOG HQ (who will remain unnamed) who I had met on the train the other day, and who had told me a lot about the ceremony and showed me a lot of pictures, actually hadn't told/ shown me everything, so I was pleasantly surprised that some of it was still a surprise!

Anyway... I am now off to go and climb out of a window, sit on a windowsill and watch some cyclists whizz past! If you watch the cycling on TV: look out for the window with an English and a German flag.

Also, if you're going to the badminton/ Wembley: the hall is absolutely boiling, so don't wrap up too much!