Today was my “day off” from the Paralympic Games, aka the only day that I didn’t have tickets to any events, so I decided to do some exploring. It feels really nice to be back in a big city and have a subway system to utilize and people to dodge while walking (although the level of tourism right now is a little ridiculous). I love Bavaria, but it’s always nice to come back to my roots of being a city girl. I am always reminded of how much I miss that.
So, first step today was to go and pick up my closing ceremony tickets. However, I found out that I can’t pick them up until Thursday at the earliest, so basically the trip was fruitless aside from allowing me to become more acquainted with the rail system. I didn’t really know where to start from there, so I figured that Westmister Abbey would be a good start. Coming out of the subway, the first thing I hit was Parliament and then the Abbey. I’m sure the Abbey was beautiful inside, but I was not willing to pay 16 pounds to go and see it....
From there it was on to some aimless wandering over to Buckingham Palace. I was in time to see the changing of the guards, which I am glad to be able to say that I’ve seen. However, in terms of military movement precision, the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery is far more impressive, and I’m not just saying that out of bias. I chock it up to working around the military for so long, my anal-retentive attention to detail, and gait analysis that I have that opinion.
After that, more wandering, to include Picadilly Circus, the National Gallery, The Guard’s chapel, and several other random spots, including lunch in a park.
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| The Olympic and Paralympic mascot |
Then, in search of a sports bra so I can finally go for a run/workout tomorrow, I braved the mall during mid-day. Dear Lord, it was like going to the mall on Black Friday. Ridiculous. And to top it off, this is no ordinary mall. This is the largest mall that I have ever seen in my life. There was an older British gentleman that I overheard say to his wife, “I can’t believe how huge this place is. It’s like something you’d expect to find in America.” I had to laugh at that, especially because that was the first though that I had when I walked in the first time the other day. And the strategic planning of location is phenomenal on the part of a business marketing standpoint: you literally have to walk through the mall in order to get to one of the Olympic Park gates....It’s good to know that consumerism and superficiality aren’t only concentrated in North America.
And, what did I learn from all of this? Well, I love traveling and even sometimes being a tourist, but what I realized was that I was a little sad to not be at the Games today. The amount of inspiration that I have been surrounded by in the past few days alone is palpable. This whole trip, especially today, has reiterated how much I love adaptive sports. They allow people who would normally be looked at as incapable the chance to, in so many words, look that thought and those nay-sayers in the face and say, “fuck you”. That, plus it’s awesome to be around sports again and watch live events (which is the only way that I really like to watch).
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