The Commonwealth Games II
Aug. 2nd, 2014 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeHaving detailed the first three days of our Commonwealth Games adventure, and taking the best part of 90 minutes to do it, here is an account of the fourth and final day we spent in Glasgow as I ran out of time on Thursday evening. Before I do detail it though, it's worth mentioning that we popped into an atmospheric craft beer bar in Edinburgh on the Monday night called Hollyrood 9A once we had returned to the city from the Glasgow. Famous for its 21 different burgers, we had some delicious high strength brews surrounded by old fireplaces with huge melted candles dripping off the mantlepieces. The staff were brilliant, although one struggled to look me in the eye for some reason, and this is definitely a place to which we will return.
It was another early start on Tuesday as we had to head over to the SECC for the Wrestling, which started at 10am. We also had to check out of our hotel and leave our bags there, where they had the temerity to charge us £2 to keep the luggage in storage. No other hotel has ever done that so I was quite shocked the Edinburgh one did. We then headed to the station to discover that First's 'Personal Best' meant another cancelled train, necessitating a journey on a different train which took almost twice as long to get to Glasgow. Many people were funnelled on here due to the cancellation so it was quite packed, but at least we got talking to some people, specifically two women who were quite high up in Badminton circles. They were going to the Wrestling too and related their Games experiences with us. It was nice talking to them for an hour - a testament of how such events often get people coversing and exactly why I love going to them - as they regailed us with stories from Glasgow and other experiences. I particularly liked the tale of the 92-year-old in a fruit market with the fat bottom.
We arrived at Glasgow Queen Street with about 45 minutes to get to our event, so we opted to walk as we would have had to gone to Central anyway and wait in a long line for another train. We thought it would be quicker but it was at this point that Wolfie's ankle really started to play up, finally cracking after walking three days straight with no padding in the shoe underneath it. The walk became more of a limp as octagenarians and whole families passed us, but it was rather pleasant walking beside the Clyde, seeing the vestages of its industrial past and approaching the futuristic world of the SECC complex with its Hydro and the distinctive armadillo shaped building. We also saw quite a few of te Clyde statues down here - a nice nod to Bristol's Gromit statues - and I had my photo taken at them. We had also hoped to get some food along the way as we had been told by a Clydesider that there were many cafes en route but we didn't see any. We were then told there was food inside the venue as opposed to the main entrance. Thinking it would be like the Weightlifting, where we got a hot dog, we held out to find all we could buy was one large bag of Cheese and Onion Kettle Chips. So that was our breakfast.
In the end, we were only about ten minutes late for the Wrestling, meaning we missed a couple of the opening bouts, which last six minutes maximum if a fall had not been achieved. There were two mats and we were at the side, nearest to mat A. Both mats resembled an archery board in soft play, like the soft play you used to go to for kids' parties when you were growing up.. Unfortunately, it seemed that a lot of the home favourites were on mat B but we had to look through the action on mat A to see this, making it difficult. I quickly decided to focus all of our attention on the mat that was straight in front of us. It took a while to appreciate the point scoring system and the rules - and I needed some help from the Games website - but I soon grasped the general concept and I admit it was quite exhiliarating watching the speed of these athletes. We saw three different weight classes, both men and women; 58kg, 77kg and 128kg. The latter were big buggers with bellies but huge muscles and were perhaps the most interesting to watch. They had an extraordinary quickness of speed and reflexes as they tried to capitalise on any slight chink in their opponent's armour. The round-of-16, quarter-finals and semi-finals (as well as the reparacharges) were being played out in this session so we saw the same wrestlers three times if they mananged to progress through their rounds. We adopted Bebo, a Nigerian boxer with huge muscles, who we really enjoyed watching. I guess we liked him because he was a little distinctive in his tight blue leotard but we also warmed to his personality - it was a shame he crashed out in the semi-finals. He was extraordinarily good though. The crowd was also quite stoked for the event - like with boxing, the primeavael nature of the sport seems to rouse the emotions - particularly when wrestlers from the home nations were performing. I soon came to dread the Welsh coming on though as there was a little boy behind me who was very entusiastic in his encouragement, shouting 'Go Wales' and 'Ewch Cymru' every five seconds. The pitch of his voice soon caused ringing in my ears. There was also a very loud group of Americans from Michigan who were supporting the Canadians some three rows back, so loud that the Canadian wrestlers acknowledged their support every time they gave it. The session lasted three hours, which was enough really, despite watching athletic men in tight lycra grappling with each other. I thought perhaps there would be more throwing involved, but it largely seemed to be a case of diving at a weakness, bringing your opponent down and trying to pin him. I guess I have been tainted by watching WWE on the TV.
On the way out, we bumped into Skavi, who had also been in the crowd watching the Wrestling, slightly higher up in the stands than we had been. He managed to get to three events in the end and said he was enjoying his time in Glasgow. He had also tried a lot of haggis, which is something that we had largely failed to do, although once we had bid goodbye to him, we headed back into the centre of the city where we were surprised to discover that Greggs sell a haggis pie in Scotland. It was very much like a Shepherd's Pie, with the haggis replacing the mince, and obviously we had to buy one. It was very good, far better than Greggs usual fare, with fluffy crispy mash potato on thick seasoned haggis. Despite Wolfie's ankle, which by this point was looking very black and swollen, we had opted to walk back to the centre for convenience as our ninth and final event, another Hockey session, was on the other side of the city. On the way, we stopped off at Boots to pick up some padded foot insoles which we hoped would at least alleviate some of the shock which had caused the inflammation. It worked to a point although it wasn't ideal.
Walking was by far the best way of getting around the city due to the crowds so we opted to head to the Hockey Centre beyond Glasgow Green, where a huge funfair was taking place to run concurrent with the Games. There was also a Games Zone here where you could watch all of the action on big screens. I remember the one in Hyde Park for the Olympics was rather good, but our schedule was so crammed with events we were going to see, we didn't get chance to enjoy some time in the park. We saw the entrance though and were directed through the rundown Gobels area of the city and on to the Hockey Arena, to which we arrived 35 minutes late and had missed the first half of the first game. As we were late, someone had already stolen our seats so we were directed to some other seats by the steward, with mine sat right behind a huge metal safety bar near the steps, which severely obstructing my view. I had to duck up and down more times than, erm a duck I guess. The first game was India v Australia, which the Australians eventually won 4-2, a penalty stroke sealing the deal. The game was very fast paced and full of quality, with the Indians giving as good as they got, despite being the underdogs. It could have swung both ways in the second half but the Aussies just edged it, and this roused the crowd to get behind both teams, particularly the Indians. At the end, it was great to see both teams come over and applaud the crowds. The final game of the session was Wales v South Africa, which the African side won quite comfortably 5-1. The Welsh had lost all three of their games so far but still proved a tough nut to crack. Three players on the pitch - one from SA and two from Wales - received special presentations for attaining their 50th or 100th caps and the action was no less frenetic than the first match had been. Sadly, due to the need to get back to Edinburgh and then home, we had to leave this game at half-time, which was quite a tear. I had really gotten into Hockey during my time at the Games and I may go and see some more independently at some point in the future. The same is the case with Ice Hockey, another exciting and action-packed game which I enjoy far more than I do Football. Indeed, the more sports I watch, the more I realise that Football isn't that good, at least relative to some of the other games you can observe.
We headed to Bridgeton station, being funnelled the long way round before spotting crowds just cutting across the grasss. Outside the station, we saw yet another Clyde statue before we headed back to Central. Feeling hungry and knowing Pinto's was just around the corner, we had to try this delectable Mexican restaurant one more time, where I had a burrito. It didn't disappoint. We stopped off to take a picture of the giant G in the centre of the city and to explore the huge Merchandise Shop which was set up in the main square. Here we could buy a giant Clyde for £100 - no doubt they will be cheaper on Ebay next week although I was sorely tempted to purchase one as I had fallen in love with the cheeky thistle over the course of the four days. I also wanted to get some Clyde T-shirts playing a range of different sports but sadly they are all for kids and my belly cannot accommodate children sized clothing. We then hoped back on a train to Edinburgh and then drove south back to Leeds, with Wolfie's foot playing up for the whole journey. We got back just after midnight, confirming we had made the right decision to leave the Hockey when we did as we both had work the next morning.
We have plenty of happy memories from the Commonwealth Games, which were organised superbly and were an awful lot of fun. Perhaps we were a little ambitious in the number of events we went to (nine sessions across seven different sports) as it was quite tiring commuting from Edinburgh every day and we didn't get an awful lot of sleep. Still, it was all worth it though, even though we didn't get to do much else beyond Games stuff. It confirmed my love of sport and huge sporting events, and has made me more determined to see more live sport in the future. I may even go to the Olympics in Rio if money allows. The Clydesiders, like the Games Makers in London, were a credit to Glasgow and the Games and due to the situation of the venues, we got to explore an awful lot of a fantastic city that we had not really discovered before. I love Scotland and fell in love with Glasgow too, and I hope to be back in the very near future. It is a very special place.
It was another early start on Tuesday as we had to head over to the SECC for the Wrestling, which started at 10am. We also had to check out of our hotel and leave our bags there, where they had the temerity to charge us £2 to keep the luggage in storage. No other hotel has ever done that so I was quite shocked the Edinburgh one did. We then headed to the station to discover that First's 'Personal Best' meant another cancelled train, necessitating a journey on a different train which took almost twice as long to get to Glasgow. Many people were funnelled on here due to the cancellation so it was quite packed, but at least we got talking to some people, specifically two women who were quite high up in Badminton circles. They were going to the Wrestling too and related their Games experiences with us. It was nice talking to them for an hour - a testament of how such events often get people coversing and exactly why I love going to them - as they regailed us with stories from Glasgow and other experiences. I particularly liked the tale of the 92-year-old in a fruit market with the fat bottom.
We arrived at Glasgow Queen Street with about 45 minutes to get to our event, so we opted to walk as we would have had to gone to Central anyway and wait in a long line for another train. We thought it would be quicker but it was at this point that Wolfie's ankle really started to play up, finally cracking after walking three days straight with no padding in the shoe underneath it. The walk became more of a limp as octagenarians and whole families passed us, but it was rather pleasant walking beside the Clyde, seeing the vestages of its industrial past and approaching the futuristic world of the SECC complex with its Hydro and the distinctive armadillo shaped building. We also saw quite a few of te Clyde statues down here - a nice nod to Bristol's Gromit statues - and I had my photo taken at them. We had also hoped to get some food along the way as we had been told by a Clydesider that there were many cafes en route but we didn't see any. We were then told there was food inside the venue as opposed to the main entrance. Thinking it would be like the Weightlifting, where we got a hot dog, we held out to find all we could buy was one large bag of Cheese and Onion Kettle Chips. So that was our breakfast.
In the end, we were only about ten minutes late for the Wrestling, meaning we missed a couple of the opening bouts, which last six minutes maximum if a fall had not been achieved. There were two mats and we were at the side, nearest to mat A. Both mats resembled an archery board in soft play, like the soft play you used to go to for kids' parties when you were growing up.. Unfortunately, it seemed that a lot of the home favourites were on mat B but we had to look through the action on mat A to see this, making it difficult. I quickly decided to focus all of our attention on the mat that was straight in front of us. It took a while to appreciate the point scoring system and the rules - and I needed some help from the Games website - but I soon grasped the general concept and I admit it was quite exhiliarating watching the speed of these athletes. We saw three different weight classes, both men and women; 58kg, 77kg and 128kg. The latter were big buggers with bellies but huge muscles and were perhaps the most interesting to watch. They had an extraordinary quickness of speed and reflexes as they tried to capitalise on any slight chink in their opponent's armour. The round-of-16, quarter-finals and semi-finals (as well as the reparacharges) were being played out in this session so we saw the same wrestlers three times if they mananged to progress through their rounds. We adopted Bebo, a Nigerian boxer with huge muscles, who we really enjoyed watching. I guess we liked him because he was a little distinctive in his tight blue leotard but we also warmed to his personality - it was a shame he crashed out in the semi-finals. He was extraordinarily good though. The crowd was also quite stoked for the event - like with boxing, the primeavael nature of the sport seems to rouse the emotions - particularly when wrestlers from the home nations were performing. I soon came to dread the Welsh coming on though as there was a little boy behind me who was very entusiastic in his encouragement, shouting 'Go Wales' and 'Ewch Cymru' every five seconds. The pitch of his voice soon caused ringing in my ears. There was also a very loud group of Americans from Michigan who were supporting the Canadians some three rows back, so loud that the Canadian wrestlers acknowledged their support every time they gave it. The session lasted three hours, which was enough really, despite watching athletic men in tight lycra grappling with each other. I thought perhaps there would be more throwing involved, but it largely seemed to be a case of diving at a weakness, bringing your opponent down and trying to pin him. I guess I have been tainted by watching WWE on the TV.
On the way out, we bumped into Skavi, who had also been in the crowd watching the Wrestling, slightly higher up in the stands than we had been. He managed to get to three events in the end and said he was enjoying his time in Glasgow. He had also tried a lot of haggis, which is something that we had largely failed to do, although once we had bid goodbye to him, we headed back into the centre of the city where we were surprised to discover that Greggs sell a haggis pie in Scotland. It was very much like a Shepherd's Pie, with the haggis replacing the mince, and obviously we had to buy one. It was very good, far better than Greggs usual fare, with fluffy crispy mash potato on thick seasoned haggis. Despite Wolfie's ankle, which by this point was looking very black and swollen, we had opted to walk back to the centre for convenience as our ninth and final event, another Hockey session, was on the other side of the city. On the way, we stopped off at Boots to pick up some padded foot insoles which we hoped would at least alleviate some of the shock which had caused the inflammation. It worked to a point although it wasn't ideal.
Walking was by far the best way of getting around the city due to the crowds so we opted to head to the Hockey Centre beyond Glasgow Green, where a huge funfair was taking place to run concurrent with the Games. There was also a Games Zone here where you could watch all of the action on big screens. I remember the one in Hyde Park for the Olympics was rather good, but our schedule was so crammed with events we were going to see, we didn't get chance to enjoy some time in the park. We saw the entrance though and were directed through the rundown Gobels area of the city and on to the Hockey Arena, to which we arrived 35 minutes late and had missed the first half of the first game. As we were late, someone had already stolen our seats so we were directed to some other seats by the steward, with mine sat right behind a huge metal safety bar near the steps, which severely obstructing my view. I had to duck up and down more times than, erm a duck I guess. The first game was India v Australia, which the Australians eventually won 4-2, a penalty stroke sealing the deal. The game was very fast paced and full of quality, with the Indians giving as good as they got, despite being the underdogs. It could have swung both ways in the second half but the Aussies just edged it, and this roused the crowd to get behind both teams, particularly the Indians. At the end, it was great to see both teams come over and applaud the crowds. The final game of the session was Wales v South Africa, which the African side won quite comfortably 5-1. The Welsh had lost all three of their games so far but still proved a tough nut to crack. Three players on the pitch - one from SA and two from Wales - received special presentations for attaining their 50th or 100th caps and the action was no less frenetic than the first match had been. Sadly, due to the need to get back to Edinburgh and then home, we had to leave this game at half-time, which was quite a tear. I had really gotten into Hockey during my time at the Games and I may go and see some more independently at some point in the future. The same is the case with Ice Hockey, another exciting and action-packed game which I enjoy far more than I do Football. Indeed, the more sports I watch, the more I realise that Football isn't that good, at least relative to some of the other games you can observe.
We headed to Bridgeton station, being funnelled the long way round before spotting crowds just cutting across the grasss. Outside the station, we saw yet another Clyde statue before we headed back to Central. Feeling hungry and knowing Pinto's was just around the corner, we had to try this delectable Mexican restaurant one more time, where I had a burrito. It didn't disappoint. We stopped off to take a picture of the giant G in the centre of the city and to explore the huge Merchandise Shop which was set up in the main square. Here we could buy a giant Clyde for £100 - no doubt they will be cheaper on Ebay next week although I was sorely tempted to purchase one as I had fallen in love with the cheeky thistle over the course of the four days. I also wanted to get some Clyde T-shirts playing a range of different sports but sadly they are all for kids and my belly cannot accommodate children sized clothing. We then hoped back on a train to Edinburgh and then drove south back to Leeds, with Wolfie's foot playing up for the whole journey. We got back just after midnight, confirming we had made the right decision to leave the Hockey when we did as we both had work the next morning.
We have plenty of happy memories from the Commonwealth Games, which were organised superbly and were an awful lot of fun. Perhaps we were a little ambitious in the number of events we went to (nine sessions across seven different sports) as it was quite tiring commuting from Edinburgh every day and we didn't get an awful lot of sleep. Still, it was all worth it though, even though we didn't get to do much else beyond Games stuff. It confirmed my love of sport and huge sporting events, and has made me more determined to see more live sport in the future. I may even go to the Olympics in Rio if money allows. The Clydesiders, like the Games Makers in London, were a credit to Glasgow and the Games and due to the situation of the venues, we got to explore an awful lot of a fantastic city that we had not really discovered before. I love Scotland and fell in love with Glasgow too, and I hope to be back in the very near future. It is a very special place.
