[2012] London Summer Olymics, Great Brittain

We went to the London Summer Olympics in 2012 to check off something from my partner's bucket list: to watch the 50 free and 100 fly finals. We went to London on an Easyjet flight that cost exactly 9 GBP, less than the processing fee, stayed at our friend's brother's apartment and only had a ticket to the swimming daytime qualifiers. This was after scouring the Olympics website for re-released tickets only days before our flight. We ended up being able to get tickets for our friends too. We were basically in the nosebleeds for the prelims, but it was still really fun watching. Once we were in Olympic park the atmosphere was contagious, everyone was just so happy and positive.

About an hour or two before the evening swimming finals, we sat outside the aquatics center and made a sign that said "tickets?", within 3 minutes we were approached by an American and asked us to promise that we'd be cheering for Missy. We promised and purchased our first ticket. Another 5 minutes after that, a sweet Japanese woman asked us if we'd like to buy her ticket, except that it was very expensive. Her tickets were for the best section! We ended up getting a real bargain on the ticket and took it off her hands. Although the tickets weren't together, we ended up just sitting in the front section (because it was so empty). We took photos with Phelps' mom, threw the 50 free gold medalist our American flag and even got him to pose for us. Considering we went to London without tickets to the event we wanted to go to, we think we were quite successful, but we learned a real lesson, it's really easy to go to the Olympics, just show up! It's not as hard as you think. We spent a magical 24 hours in London!