WHAT a weekend. I decided this would be way better if the days were separated by posts, and since they feel like two completely separate trips anyways, it'll be easy.
To start, WE MADE IT TO WIMBLEDON!!! We left the Shannon airport at 9:30, and between flight delays, trains, night buses that smelled like vomit, and a 30 minute walk to the Queue, we made it to the Queue (place where people camp out to get tickets) at 3 a.m. I had hopes that since we were getting there so early we might get Centre Court tickets, but when we got there and saw rows upon rows of tents, I realized we'd be lucky if we got tickets at all. Apparently people set up camp the day tickets are released and camp for the ENTIRE 2 weeks so they can go to matches every day. The volunteers told us that we could camp out all day Friday and that we'd for sure get Center Court tickets (which I was strongly considering), but we decided that watching tennis was going to be cool either way and we'd rather get our Wimbledon experience and then have some time in London too. Here's a summary of our day!
Phase 1: Camping
We found our spot in line, got our Queue tickets, and set up camp. The volunteers told us that they'd wake us up at 6:30 to pack up our tents and the line would start moving around 7:45 - we just laughed because we definitely hadn't packed tents, and only 3 of us had blankets. The guys who were staying in the tent next to us thought it was really funny (not only did they make fun of us, but we also heard them talking about it when they got in their tent to go to sleep. Turns out tents aren't soundproof).
We all fell asleep with no problems because we were so exhausted, but it didn't last long. I woke up to the sun shining and more people getting in line - I felt sure that it was time to pack up. Turns out it was only 5:00 a.m., so I think we got a whole hour of sleep!
 |
| Victoria was well prepared with a blanket AND pillow. |
Phase 2: Standing in Line
We stood in line from 6:30 - around 10:00. It wasn't bad at all - they did a really good job at moving us every so often, and we met some really cool people in the lines next to us that were fun to talk to! When you enter the queue (aka when we started camping) you are assigned a queue number - this number is what gets you a ticket once you've waited in line for 3 hours and finally reach the front entrance of Wimbledon. Until you've bought your ticket, there is no guarantee that you will get one. The tickets are given out first-come, first-serve: the first 500 go to Centre Court, next 500 to Court 1, next 500 to Court 2, and then the remaining 500 or so go towards the non-show courts (3 through 17). We had initially been told we would be on Court 2, but when we got to the front of the line, we had made it far enough to get tickets to Court 1!!! To say we were excited is a HUGE understatement, but it didn't match the feelings we had when we found out our tickets were all together on the 6th row right at the net. It was unbelievable and made camping, standing in line, and the price of the ticket TOTALLY worth it.
 |
| This is how we get through standing in line at 7 a.m.... |
 |
| The line-up for the day |
We got our tickets and got inside the club around 10:00. They didn't open the grounds until 10:30, so we grabbed food and headed to the gift shop. I don't know what I was expecting, but Wimbledon was pretty much just a big country club. There were the big show courts, and then the other courts were normal tennis courts with a couple benches along the sides to watch the matches. You could walk through these courts and watch several matches at once, and since the matches on court 1 didn't start until 1:00, that's exactly what we did. I got to watch a men's doubles match (I sat in the "reserved for players" section because no players were sitting in the seats... it was a quality view), and then at 1:00 headed to Court 1 to watch Li Na, the #2 women's player in the WORLD, play her match. She ended up losing to Barbara Zahlavova-Strycova (try saying that 5 times fast)... it was a GREAT match. The coolest part was the first rally when the entire stadium was silent during the point. It was crazy - a giant crowd went from very loud to zero noise as soon as the players stepped up to serve. I enjoyed Wimbledon because it was a very respectful environment. While it was clear that people had picked favorites to cheer for, people cheered for every good point regardless of who won. When Dogopolov lost to Dimitrov (the 2nd match we saw), he received a standing ovation when we walked off the court because he had played so well. I very much appreciated it. The only problematic fans were the 8 college students who would occasionally doze off to sleep, but we had a good accountability system of elbowing each other when we saw the eyes closing and heads nodding (I got really good at watching tennis with my eyes closed! I could follow the sound of the ball and everything).
 |
| Strycova when she beat Li Na |
 |
| Dimitrov and Dolgopolov at the end of the match. |
 |
| Our seats!! |
No comments:
Post a Comment