We Accidentally Went to Paris for the Olympics: USA! USA! USA!

 When we were scheduling our flights out of Mumbai we decided to add a rest stop in Europe to break up the long travel days and seemingly endless flights. When I was talking to the travel person from work they asked me where I wanted to stop. On a spur-of-the-moment decision I said, "Paris." It is a place we all love and we know that we can get around Paris easy. 

Then I was trying to book a hotel a few days later and I could not figure out why the hotel prices were so high. I mean, Paris is usually expensive, but this was extraordinarily high. I mentioned it to Lady Hiva as we were eating lunch and she told me, in a way that told me I should have known this, that it was during the Olympics. So I was faced with either calling the travel person back and saying something along the lines of "just kidding...I want another city..." or just make the best of it. 

I told Lady Hiva let's make the best of it. We have been to Paris several times so we do not need to do the touristy things again. Let's go to the Olympics! She was not so sure at first. She did not think that we needed to go or that it would be worth it. But I kept looking at tickets. I wanted to go watch gymnastics as that is something Koala Bear is interested in and both Lady Hiva and I love to watch that sport But due to the late timing of buying tickets there were only tickets that were WAY MORE EXPENSIVE than I would have ever imagined. 

So I shifted to looking at swimming. Both Muggles love to swim. Those tickets were half the price of gymnastics but STILL too expensive. I searched for other sports for anything that we could cheer on USA. There were several options but the one that looked the most promising was the USA Women's basketball team was playing Belgium. The tickets were a good price...the only difficulty is that the venue was in Lille, on the border of Belgium. About a 1.5 hour drive out of Paris. Again, Lady Hiva was not sure it was a good idea. 

But we have drive to and through Lille so many times I knew that we could make it work. So I bought the tickets and rented a car! We were going to the Olympics! 

It was so much fun to prepare. We had some t-shirts made for us to wear. I made sure that we found a way to watch the Olympics once they started. We had it streaming in our house 24 hours a day. It was fun to see the Muggles get excited about it. They were so into tracking the medal counts. Soon our wall was full of tracking papers by country with detailed drawings of flags and tallies for medal counts along the wall. 

We watched the opening ceremonies and cheered for all the countries we love. And to quote Sam Eagle from the Muppets, we cheered for all countries, "but mostly America!"

It was fun to see Tonga represented. They had a whole conversation with the new anchors about Pita Taufatofua. (It was funny in DC the other day someone asked where Lady Hiva's family are from...when she told them Tonga, they asked, "Is that where the muscled oily guy is from?!") hahaha

These two tracked medals and watched. They did not have much of a choice, there was not many things left in the house. They even started to try their own athletic stunts in our empty home. haha. 

If we were out, they would want to check the stats. First thing in the morning, they would check to see who was leading in medals. They would cheer when a new country came on the leader board. They would stress when USA would fall behind another country. 

We stopped in Paris and Lady Hiva found cookies in her bag from one of the young women in our branch. They had an inside joke and she wanted Lady Hiva to find it. It was a good snack after a long flight. 

We changed our clothes and made our way towards Lille. Our first stop was a cute little village to eat some delicious food and walk around. This is the France we all love. 

We were all in awe of the blue sky and the clean streets. Things we have been missing! 

It was so much fun to be at the Olympics. There is such an amazing energy. We had fun standing in line with everyone to get into the venue. We cheered and sang and laughed. I will say if you ever want to feel short, go stand in line with a bunch of European basketball fans! They were all towering over us! 

Watching the game was so much fun! We cheered and cheered and cheered. The security guy told us that they were not expecting a large crowd because it was just a play off game. But Lille is just over the border from Belgium and we were playing Belgium. The place was PACKED. We were glad that they sat a few other USA fans near us so at least we had some noise from our section. 

It was such a good game and we finally won! The only thing we did not like was how the Belgium fans booed our players off the court after the game. That one and only time that we saw there was not good sportsmanship the whole Olympics. 

I just happened to look online late one night for tickets and they had just opened up a bunch of swim tickets. And they were cheap! So I hurried and bought four tickets. I knew it was crazy, but hey...when have I not done things a bit crazy! 

We got back to Paris late after the basketball game. I returned the car while Lady Hiva and the Muggles prepared for bed. Then we slept a few hours and got up early. We checked our bags in for our flight later in the day. We were so happy that Paris Airport has a place that you can store your carry-ons while you go explore the city. Then we rushed to the pool arena. 

This was AMAZING! Saying that doesn't really do it justice. The energy in the room was unexplainable. We were sitting with people from six different countries and we all cheered each other's athletes. We gave high fives and nods of approval when their athletes did well. We, of course, cheered loudest when an American was swimming. 

It was so cool to be in the building watching live what we had been watching on the TV the last few days. 

We cheered so loud that our voices hurt by the time that we left. It was so inspirational to see these people give up everything they had for their countries. At one point we saw a swimmer who had pushed herself so much that she passed out when we got out of the pool. She literally gave everything she had. Another swim there was one racer who was a full lap behind by the time she finished. The crowd gave her the biggest applause because she did not quit, she did not slow down, she kept pushing. 

These are the people I wanted our Muggles to see. We had many conversations about doing your best and how you can do anything you want to if you work at it. 

We made a mad dash back to the airport to catch our flight. All of us were sweaty and still sporting our USA gear. It was so worth it. The whole experience was one that none of us will forget. I think had we known just how truly amazing it was going to be and how much we all would love it, we may have stayed longer to enjoy more! 

I am glad that we accidentally made it to the Olympics! We cannot wait until we have a chance to go again.