Welcome and thank you for joining me along my journey traveling and learning about the Olympic games!
For the past week, I’ve been touring the land of Eire with my mom who has wanted to visit ever since she was a girl. Our departure from the US hit a bit of a snag, however, as it happened to coincide with the Crowdstrike update and subsequent disruption of Windows OS-based systems. Not to worry – we were at the front end of the issue and escaped with a flight delay of only a couple of hours .
For those that don’t know (I didn’t), Ireland is in the middle of their All-Ireland, a.k.a. inter-county, championship games. The hurling final was on Saturday and saw Clare defeat county Cork where we happened to be staying at the time! (Side Note: I actually met a son of Cork after the loss, in Dublin, and we had a lively discussion about why the Gaelic Athletic Association hasn’t petitioned hurling as an Olympic sport. Tldr; it is tied intrinsically to Irish identity despite being played around the world. Perhaps I’ll go more into it in a later post!) By complete accident we were able to see firsthand the celebration and eventual pall that overtook the entire region. County flags were hung everywhere you looked – kids even had their faces painted. On the day of the final, there was a large outdoor viewing party in the city we visited, Cobh, where many people gathered. Normally this would be unremarkable but it was 60 degrees fahrenheit, windy, and raining!
We also toured Croke Park, the stadium where the championships take place, and its museum on Irish sport leading to a surprise find of an Olympic exhibit on Marathon silver-medalist, John Treacy (see below).
Later on, we were lucky to find more Olympic factoids at EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum where we learned about athletes born in Ireland and those from Irish descent. Going back to Ireland is always a treat for me but finding references to the Olympic games ahead of my arrival in Paris makes me appreciate my journey even more. The pride that people have for their countrymen and women, especially in such close-knit communities, is something that we see glimpses of in the US but rises to another level in countries that are a fraction of its size. I am anxious to see how their passion compares to that of the French on a world stage.
Now – I’m off to London by way of ferry and national rail. From there, I will take the Eurostar into Paris. I have started a tradition of experiencing as many forms of public transit as possible when traveling abroad because I get to spend more time around the locals and get a sense of how it compares to our own. So far so good! The train feels like it’s moving at twice the speed (in four times the comfort).
Tomorrow — we will meet with Team USA for our orientation as volunteers and then prepare for the spectacular opening ceremony. Stick around to hear all about it!