Mind the Gap

Sorry for the long delay in posts! The reason is that Levi sent me on an awesome trip to London to support his cousin in the Paralympic Games! He wasn't able to come because of all the practice and games he had :( I was there from Thursday to Sunday so it was a quick trip. I stayed with Levi's aunt and mom at an awesome hotel right in the middle of all the action. At the main entrance to the Olympic Park they built a brand new, fancy, shmancy outdoor mall. There are hundreds of stores, restaurants, cafes, ... everything. And of course it's packed because people are constantly going in and out of the Park. Our hotel was about 100 yards from the Olympic Park entrance. The reception of the hotel is on the top floor and that's where the lobby is and breakfast is served. They have an awesome balcony up there that looks right out onto the Olympic Park.

The first thing that really hits you is all the people!!! Hundreds of thousands of people going in and out of the events every day. Whenever the events were over for the night, there was a constant stream of people coming out of the park for at least 2 hours. It was crazy! Yet very organized. The city did a great job corralling people into the right lines and having tons of helpers around to answer any questions. They were everywhere around the city so you never felt like you were lost.

We didn't really have any particular plans when I got there. Levi's mom, Jil, had already been there for a week and a half and his aunt, Jana, was out all day at the events. His cousin, Roy, swam prelims and finals each day I was there. Prelims in the morning and finals at night. Jana was awesome and got us tickets to all of the finals. The first day we walked around the city a bunch. We decided to go visit the Wimbledon Stadium since neither of us had seen it. We got off on the wrong stop and made a few too many detours because we ended up getting there 5 minutes after is closed :( We still got to see the outside but we were kinda disappointed. Then we decided to go on the London Eye. We went at night so we could see all the lights. It was really cool! The funny and unexpected thing is that the London Eye is far from being like a ferris wheel. We honestly had to try really hard to even see it moving. Basically it goes so slow you almost can't even tell you're moving. So its definitely just for observing which was fine for me who happens to be slightly afraid of heights.... That ended the first day as I was pretty tired from traveling.

Since London is so giant, there were lots of places for me to find gluten free food. We went to a grocery store in the Westfield Mall area call Waitrose. They had a great section of gluten free food like bread, cereal, granola bars, candy, baking stuff, etc. I bought some yummy rolls, turkey, and cheese in case I ever needed a quick meal. Honestly, whether or not you have Celiacs, it's always cheaper when traveling to buy a loaf of bread, meat, and cheese to make sandwiches a couple days than to eat out every time. There did happen to be a couple restaurants right next to our hotel that served food for me. There was a Mexican restaurant, Wahaca, that served a lot of gluten free options. They literally took a crayon and circled all the things I could eat (about 3/4 of the menu). We ate there twice and I was fine both times. The second restaurant had items on the menu labeled GF. It was called The Real Greek and had traditional Greek food. It was really good and they served it tapas style which was fun. I had a small stomach ache afterwards but I think it was from eating rich restaurant food and not from cross contamination. Otherwise we stopped one day for lunch at a small grocery store/market that had pre-packaged salads. Those are always good when traveling because you can read all the ingredients. Another day we ate at Starbucks of all places. They had a pre-packaged tuna and potato salad that was delicious. Starbucks is pretty good about carrying items that are GF. In the states, they always have granola bars I can eat.

Day 2 we looked in the guidebook and found a walking city tour (self-guided). We started at Trafalgar Square where there happened to be a huge Paralympic watch party with a giant screen, food tents, ping pong tables, etc. We walked east along the main road and walked for a couple hours. We stopped at the Royal Courts building which was way to fancy to be a court building. Across the street is the original Twinnings Tea shop. I really like tea so I had to get some :) Then we went into the main London cathedral, St. Paul. It reminded me a lot of St. Peter's in Vatican City. Really huge... Then we walked across the London Bridge, stopped for some lunch, and headed to the Tower of London. We had to walk across the Tower Bridge of course. We stopped to ask about tours at the Tower and decided we would go the next day. Then we headed straight back to our hotel to get ready for the finals. We got there pretty early, since crowds are pretty unpredictable and we didn't wanna miss Roy's event. We stayed for all the races that night and it was amazing to watch. Roy just got out-touched for gold in the 50m Butterfly! He had an awesome race and it was really exciting. The stadium gets REALLY loud, especially when there is a British swimmer.

Something interesting I learned about the Paralympics is how everyone is grouped into different categories based on their physical condition. There are a bunch of different categories that are a combination no arms, partial legs, dwarfism, blindness, etc. It's incredible to watch these athletes. Have you ever tried to swim a length of a pool without using your legs? Your arm muscles start burning in less than 30 seconds. And they go so fast! It was amazing! Roy is in category S5. He has no hands and no feet so his limbs end just below the elbow and just below the knee. He's at the lower end of his category physically but he won 2 bronze and 2 silver metals!

Day 3 we got up early and visited with Jana for a little while before she left for her busy day. We had breakfast up on the balcony of our hotel. Then we headed to the Tower of London to do a tour. It took about an hour and then we spent maybe another hour looking at the Crown Jewels and walking around to some of the different rooms. It was fun to hear the stories from the Guard who gave us our tour. He was crackin jokes the whole time. We went from the Tower straight to the Portobella Market. It was Saturday so the market was HUGE!! We walked for several hours and never got to the end. It started with antiques then went to clothes, food, and basically everything you could think of. It was awesome and I wish I had had more room in my suitcase to bring stuff home. Then we went back to the hotel to get packed up and get ready for the last finals event. Roy was swimming in the 100m Freestyle S5 finals. It was not his strongest event but he was still hoping to metal. Not only did he metal but he got another Silver! He had an awesome last 50 meters to beat out the 3rd place swimmer.

The next day was solely a travel day for all of us. Jil & Jana back to the US and me back to Polska. My trip took a really long time. I took a bus to a plane to a taxi to a train to a taxi with a lot of waiting in between. Luckily I found Starbucks twice during all those transfers so it wasn't terrible. I also had a great chance of getting lots of good GF food from London and on the way home in Gdansk. Levi had an exhibition away game the night I came back so he wasn't there when I got home but a beautiful bouquet of flowers was waiting for me :) Not sure how I got spoiled enough to go to London without him and get flowers when I got home.

Maura