Day 9- Olympic Park, London Eye & M&M's!

Not gonna lie. Missing the US a little bit today (I miss normal plugs, and US money! It still take me a few seconds to figure out which coin is for which amount here!), but it's no big deal. Especially since we had an EPIC day! Let's begin. 

Water Polo meant Olympic Park. Olympic Park meant Stratford station. Stratford station meant we needed to leave REAL early to avoid the pandemonium. The event was at 10, so we shot to leave between 8 and 8:30. We left at 9. No big deal, though, as the traffic today wasn't NEARLY as bad as it has been. We think that it was bad the first time we were there because basketball was about to begin. Today, there was no morning basketball. It was just a cloudy, sprinkling Saturday morning of Olympic water polo and athletics. 

I forgot how popular athletics are at the Olympics. When you exit Stratford station, you are directed down a pathway to Olympic Park. The Gamesmakers (hahaha- Hunger Games) make it VERY CLEAR, however, that no ticket equals no entry into the Park. We spotted a few people on the pathway holding signs saying that they needed tickets to the athletics events. Apparently, athletics tickets are hard to come by- much like EVERY SINGLE OTHER EVENT at the Olympics. After watching some BBC action tonight, I can understand why, but more about that later. 

The staff at Olympic Park kept up the streak of awesomeness that we've encountered while we've been here. EVERY staff member (ticket taker, security, etc.) we spoke to this morning greeted us with HUGE smiles, asking where we were from and what tickets we had and how Team USA was doing. They really did do a great job of hiring these volunteers; everyone seems to genuinely enjoy every moment of what they're doing. Even one of the soldiers at security walked up to us and said, "I know its security, but I want BIG SMILES when you go through, okay?" I know it's just them being nice, but their kindness and the fact that it's so genuine just adds an extra touch. 

Olympic Park is HUGE. So huge that from Olympic Stadium, the walk to the basketball arena is approximately 30 minutes. Thankfully, Water Polo Arena was right around the corner from Olympic Stadium, and it only took us approximately five minutes to walk over.

Walking up to Water Polo Arena.

Our session originally featured both the USA and Great Britain (not against each other), but the schedule changed at the last minute and the USA and Team GB got moved to the evening for TV coverage. The first match of our session was Montenegro v. Romania. 

Water polo is not nearly as difficult to understand as fencing- so Amy and I caught on right away and had a great time. Montenegro was clearly the stronger team against Romania and won the game with no problem. 

The second match was Australia v. Croatia. The Aussies had a great fan presence there complete with blow-up kangaroos and everything, but when it came down to it, they just couldn't hold onto the early lead. 

The Aussies about to bust out a synchronized swimming routine.

After water polo, we headed over to the London 2012 Megastore inside Olympic Park and did some damage. I got a t-shirt, a water polo pin, a hockey pin (tomorrow's event) and a pin set I saw at fencing last night that I absolutely fell in love with (2012 logo in gold, silver and bronze). 

Announcements kept coming in over the P.A. system at Olympic Park that Stratford station was incredibly busy, and that it might be a better idea to head to Westham station, instead. I kind of want to hit whichever person who thought this would be a good idea in the face. Remember the part about me and Amy doing A LOT of walking? Yes, it is good for you, but it gets pretty damn old after a while. And our legs are sore! And it was warm today. Just not very pleasant to take a THIRTY MINUTE walk to the train station when (a) it's warm, (b) you're in jeans and (c) you're tired of walking so much. But it's okay. We made it to Westham station around 2 and set out for The London Eye. I might've fallen asleep on the Tube. I know I conked out hard on the ride there. That's what I do; the Tube tends to lull me to sleep. Weird, right? Anyways.

We had Fast Track tickets for 3 PM at the London Eye. Instead of exiting on Westminster, which we had planned to do, we instead exited one stop early. The only thing worse than one accidentally long walk is two in one day. We walked FOREVER. And it was still warm out. And I was still in jeans. Yeah, I'll admit it, I was feeling pretty cranky at that point. We eventually made it to the London Eye, but the London Eye and the surrounding area was PACKED with people. We figured out where to get our tickets and ended up breezing through the line since they were Fast Track. We were in line and on the London Eye in about five minutes while the normal line stretched forever and snaked around about five or six times. 

The views, as you would expect, were stunning.

Horse Guard's Parade.

You can see my sunburn from yesterday. I don't think its that bad. You can barely see it. I definitely feel it, though.

Once we got off, we came across two more Wenlocks on our way back to the Tube, but what might have been the funniest part of our day happened when we came across a group of locals feeding their McDonald's fries to the seagulls. They would hold out the fries and the seagulls would swoop in low and take them right out of their hands. We stood behind and watched for a little, but when they saw us watching (and laughing our asses off), they made sure that we got in on the action.

One of the guys handed me a fry, but the minute the seagulls swooped in, I screamed like a little girl, set the fry down and backed away. The local who invited us to join in was determined to get me to feed a seagull, however, as they don't hurt you at all- they literally just take the fry and go. He pretty much had to hold my hand to get me to do it, but it turned out hilarious, as you can see:

Look closely! The fry is in the seagull's mouth! This picture makes me laugh out loud, and I think it might for a little while. I couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes after. 

One more picture with Big Ben and it was back on the Tube to head to Oxford Street so Amy could pick up her pins from John Lewis. After John Lewis, we headed over to Leicester Square to hit up the M&M's store. Yes, the M&M's store. We wanted candy! If you've never been to an M&M's World store, it is MASSIVE. Multiple floors of M&M related merchandise. I'm not even kidding! Amy and I zoned right in on the bottom floor with the walls of M&M's. I picked up some red, white & blue peanut M&M's (along with a splash of pink, come on now, it's still me). After a brief stop in Piccadilly Circus, we headed back to the hostel about 7 PM; the earliest we ever have. Say what you want, but we needed this exceptionally early night. We're exhausted, and really tired of walking. Our bodies needed this break. 

We've been hanging in the hostel lounge for the past few hours- which has actually been really cool because we got to watch some other events live on TV. We got to watch Michael Phelps win his last race ever- the 4x100 relay, and then got to watch three Brits win three gold medals in a span of about 30 minutes. It was pretty exciting to hear the hostel lounge erupt in cheers when both Jessica Ennis and Mo Farrah won their respective races. 

Not really sure what we're doing tomorrow since our only event is Field Hockey at about 7 PM. We are going to get to Olympic Park early, however, to explore and see everything it has to offer. I was hoping to tour a soccer stadium, but Stamford Bridge is closed on Sundays, and you have to book in advance at Craven Cottage. Hmm. 

So now, we are all caught up on the blog. YAY! I think deserves a few comments, what do you think? You know I miss you- come on! Help me out here! Leave me some comments, and I will see you guys tomorrow! GO GO USA!