Tuesday was awesome. The highlight of my time here in London! To be honest, I didn’t sleep well on Monday. I was WAY too pumped for my journey to Manchester to see the USWNT take on the N. Koreans at…. Old Trafford. This is one special pitch! Over 100 years old (102 I think) this is the home of the infamous Manchester United Squad. Honestly that was half of the reason that I was so excited!
I could sleep in some which would be nice on any other morning, but I was so excited that I wasn’t sleeping anyways! I got ready early, donned my USA gear and went to pack a lunch. I opened the bag and my bread was green. Gah. It made me a little nervous considering that I had eaten that bread the day before. Ewww….. So instead I headed to Sainsburys and got the 3 pound lunch deal (sandwich, crisps, and coke) and got on the tube. I got to Euston without a problem, got to the train without a problem, found my coach and my seat and at 11:20 we were off!
It was a train of Americans which was fun. I sat behind a family that were going to the game. The ride went really fast (it was a 2 hour ride) and before I knew it we were in Manchester. I had bought a ticket for Legoland so instead of heading to Old Trafford I needed to go to Piccadilly Gardens to catch a bus. I found the metro link really easily and bought my one pound ticket. I LOVE trams. They are so fun! I looked at the city on the way to the next stop. It was kinda weird because I felt like I was in Europe, not the UK. I think the tram had something to do with that!
I got off and found the bus stop easily. I saw that the 250 was coming in 5 minutes and the X50 in 15 so I took the 250 when it came. I had looked at the route map and noticed that Old Trafford was the halfway stop. We were riding along and it was taking forever. We stopped at the stadium and while we were pulling away I looked at my watch… 2:30. Crap. It had taken 30 mins to get this far, so if I got to Legoland at 3, I would be there for 30 mins. It wasn’t worth the stress. So I got off the bus at the next stop and walked back to the stadium.
I have to admit…. From the outside it isn’t all that impressive. Wembley beats it in that regard! I wandered and took some pictures. The doors hadn’t opened yet so I hung out and waited. Then I realized that the bag check people were starting so I went over to a table and got it searched. Then they zip-tied it closed in a plastic bag and sent us on our merry way. I found my section entrance and waited for them to open the turnstile.
When they opened I got patted down, and was the second one through. It was epic. I went over to my block and no one was following. I walked up the steps and through the tunnel and then the stadium got impressive. I don’t think I have ever seen a pitch so green. I wanted to leap the barrier and touch it! (there was a security guy in my way though!) It was so awesome to be the first one in my section. I took a lot of pictures (some of which are on facebook) and then went down to my seat in the FRONT. ROW. I found my seat and it was ONE seat in from the aisle. (That is the hardest word in English to spell). I was so pumped. I had an hour and a half until the game so I hung out, stalked a nice woman who took my picture, took pictures, chatted with the security man and people watched. A girl came and sat on the other side of me. Then the awesome started to happened! Alex Morgan’s mom and another mom (don’t know whose mom she is) came down and said hi and that we had great seats. They snuck by us to get a picture of themselves in Old Trafford with their banner. One their way out the mom I didn’t know talked to Carli Lloyds. It was kinda awkward because I was basically in the middle of their conversation.
Eventually a girl sat on the other side of me and the team came out to practice. Pia was goofying around and scoring goals. I had fun being so close to Abby’s warm up group. It was so awesome being that close! Then they went away and 15 minutes later they came back out for the anthem. My section was ALL USA supporters (I think the majority of the stadium was actually) We chanted, did the wave and everyone as ready to go!
It was a good game. SO fun. The USA didn’t play the whole 90 minutes, but they pulled off the win. I was SO close to the action when it came on my side of the field. There was a throw in that happened RIGHT in front of me. Epic. We won (woo!) and after the team came over and said hi. Literally. Rampone came and talked to her family who were 2 rows up from us, and the best…. Carli Lloyd jumped the barrier to get pictures with her family! She was 10 inches away from me. I told her I would see her in Wembley and she smile and said yup. WOOOO!!!! It took everything in my power to not touch her… :)
I wanted to stay and get autographs after when they came out but I had the last train out of Manchester and I didn’t want to miss it. They had a great system of free shuttle buses that went to the train station. It was really well organized and done! I got there without a problem and grabbed some Burger King food for dinner. Right when I was done eating my train was boarding so I hopped on and settled in for the ride back.
Just as I was closing my eyes the guy across the aisle asked where I was from. We started chatting (him and his 3 buddies) and they were from D.C. We talked about Olympic tickets and how I wanted in to the aquatics center to see Michael and Ryan. Then the guy said that his two friends used to swim with Ryan Locthe! (cant spell his name) The guy (guy number 2) was from Ithaca and that is how they swam together. I didt get the other guys story. We talked for a bit then didn’t, and then with about 15 minutes to go they started playing a card game and they were being crazy so we started talking again. It was fun, and they 2 of the 3 knew Ryan!
After that crazy awesome day I came home and was wide awake! I couldn’t fall asleep. After posting pictures and chilling I think I went to bed around 2:30am. And I had to get up the next morning for beach volleyball!!
P.S One Olympic day blog down, two to go. Ill post at least Wed. tomorrow but will try to get both done. It just depends how my thesis goes too!
No comments:
Post a Comment