We do get up eventually, grab a breakfast double cheeseburger for me and an egg and ham Puff from McDonald’s for Aaron, then head towards the Olympic Park. We want to see what’s going happening there.
McDonald’s old-school fried pie update – another flavor option here: sweet taro.
The mass transit system here is the best transportation bargain I have experienced in the world. You can ride anywhere on the Metro (subway) for two yuan. That’s equivalent to less than thirty cents in US dollars. You can ride the bus (the ones we were on) for one yuan, or about fourteen cents in US dollars.
Seen on the subway. Some things you can't get away from!
We reach a certain point on the subway, then have to take a bus toward the Olympic Park. As we’re boarding the bus, we notice a tank and some other military gear in a field by the bus depot. I thought it was perhaps a park like we would have with some old armament in it, but I would discover more about that later.
We ride the loop around the entire complex for over an hour, only to find out that no one is allowed in except ticket holders on the days of their events. What a disappointment. A huge appeal of the Olympics to me is the gathering of people from all over the world, hanging out and meeting each other. That’s not going to happen at this Olympics on these grounds.
We meet a man from Ft. Worth on the bus and another gentleman from Melbourne, Australia (so far, this is where the community is happening!). They direct us to a place to get off the bus where at least some people are gathering. Michael from Melbourne is here staying with his son, who works at the Australian Embassy here. He invites us to join them at a place called the Goose and Duck to watch the opening ceremonies tomorrow night. Having no other plans, that sounds good to us.
We got off the bus in front of the new natatorium and the Bird’s Nest, the national stadium. We are asked to pose for some more pictures, and immediately start to meet people.
Among the pin traders, we met Shelby, the girl below. She works at NBC and will be here a month and half before she goes home.
Didn't see too many smiling police, as the road sign below says:
We walked for a long time, still hoping to find a way in. The heat is sweltering and the humidity is very high. We didn’t bring water or food, thinking there would be tons of places to get those things. After five hours in this heat, we never found either one.
We finally found a bus out of there and drove about thirty minutes to Tiananmen Square. As we passed the place where we thought we saw the military park, we realized they were setting up security positions. Tanks, surface-t0-air missles, the works - and covering them in camo netting.
We found some water and a bag of potato chips in Tiananmen Square. It helped. We looked around, posed for some more pictures, then grabbed the Metro back to the hostel.
The countdown clock on the China National Museum showing just over three hours to go before the Games begin:
We decided for dinner tonight to try a regional specialty, crispy roast duck, at the Bianfyang restaurant. We took the Metro to that area. Before we even got out of the subway station, an Olympics volunteer (they are everywhere) came up to us and cheerfully asked if she could help us. We told what we were looking for. She didn’t know where it was for sure, but said she would take us there.
Let me pause to say here that the frustration of the incredibly tight security here is balanced out by the unbelievable length to which the volunteers have been trained to help. The volunteer who saw us in the subway, Megan, a medical student, asked other people around about our desired location, walked us six blocks to a mall where the restaurant was supposed to be, took us to floor it was on, walked us into the restaurant, and talked to the seating staff to make sure we were taken care of and that they had an English menu for us. How about that!
We had a great dinner. The crispy roast duck was delicious. It was rich, which made us hope the Yak Attack of a week ago wouldn’t be followed by a Quack Attack tonight! But, everything went fine.
As we walked out of the restaurant, we ran into Megan, the volunteer. She had walked back to the restaurant to give us some information on visiting the Great Wall. We had mentioned it to her as we were walking. Talk about going way over and above the call of duty!
We came back to the room, watched the second episode of Flight of the Conchords, searched eBay for more Olympics tickets, then hit the beds for some sleep.
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