Andy Murray Won Wimbledon (and I saw him play)!!

Continuing in the spirit of the last post I gave you all, I'm just going to view this post and the next 2 after this as "catch ups" for everyone since I let myself get so behind. That said, it's worth noting that to continue the previously mentioned craziness, I returned from my trip to Ireland last weekend to find out that *surprise* even though we thought we were moving, and then didn't have to move, but they did need to do renovations on our apartment that turned it into a construction zone but was seemingly going to be worth it in the end... that's not the case. We actually have to move again. I also learned around the same time that I'm not actually that great at writing research papers...so if anyone wants to lend me their services for completing my Master's thesis it would be greatly appreciated! ;)

Ok, all kidding aside here's what I owe updates on (recall my love of bullets and paragraph organization):

1. Going to Wimbledon
2. Going to Amsterdam
3. Going to Ireland and Michelle's visit

Whew, So About Wimbledon
My mom is arguably obsessed with tennis. Truly. Obsessed. Growing up Kyle and I have talked about how some of our most vivid memories on the weekends (and weekdays I suppose) were when we had to do chores during the day, but Mom would turn on the TV all day long to peek at the updates on whatever said tennis tournament happened to be playing. This was in the days of Stefi Graph and Pete Sampras mind you (who I had a huge crush on), but I'm pretty sure it hasn't ceased. Breakfast at Wimbledon was something that was part of our childhood memories. It's about the only time I can remember my mom glued to the TV and ignoring us. I'm also pretty certain she's forever disappointed that one of her 4 kids didn't play the sport competitively....but se la vie.

So given that I'm only here for one summer, it seemed that I had to make an effort to get to Wimbledon, if only for Mom. However, what most of you Americans don't realize is how much of an ordeal this can be. Yes, it's awesome that they don't sell out the grounds tickets therefore allowing us "commoners" to get tickets the day of. But what this means is that people literally camp out in the queue lines overnight, the guards wake them at 7:30 and then the day begins with hours of queueing alongside thousands of people. Also - another shocker - Wimbledon isn't actually IN London. It takes about an hour to get there. So this means that to attend, one basically needs to wake up at 5:30, be on the train by 6:30 and get to Wimbledon by 7:30 to get in line with thousands of others for what could be just an hour or two but could be half a day (I've heard horror stories). And it's during weekdays. Not that many people can take off work to wait in line for hours. So I wasn't sure it was going to happen. However, my friend Veronica's mom seemed to be almost as obsessed as my mom so she also felt like we should give it a go. So.... we did!

The last British Wimbledon winner prior to Andy Murray's win this year.

In all actuality, the day worked out for us fabulously. First off some of the "big" stars got knocked out early, so it was a bit calmer. We got there early, got our queue tickets and prepared to camp out for a couple of hours.

These tickets allow you to leave line, go to the bathroom, buy food, etc and get back in at the same spot.

Also, Wimbledon actually allows you to bring your own food and alcohol on the grounds, and is admittedly extremely well organized. So the first two hours of us waiting passed by fairly quick with us getting cardboard boxes to put under our blanket (wet grounds), and drinking mimosas in the queue.

Veronica fetching boxes

We came well-prepared. We actually realized we brought TOO much food in the end.

Getting comfy for our long campout

In the end, we only ended up waiting about 2 hours before they let us in. Once you start moving things go really quickly. You do have to go through metal detectors and such, but then you're in. I do have to say one of the funnier things we heard on the loudspeaker was the announcer pleading with people "not to run" when they opened the gates. We snickered but the woman next to us told us that every day for some reason - even though games don't start until around 11 - people inevitably push and try to run through the gates. You walk into Wimbledon and it's seriously like a mini city. It was pretty incredible. They had a wall of flags so we of course had to stand by ours.

Veronica is half Scottish and half Bolivian

Inside they have a convenience store, banks, many restaurants, and all of it is so well-kept and just LARGE that it was pretty incredible to see in itself.

One of the many restaurants

Center Court is one of the first things you see when you walk in.

Actually the whole day was awesome. This blog (per the usual) will get too long if I tell you all the details of things, so I'm going to hit on the highlights and just post some pics to speak for themselves.

Some Inside Photos

The grounds folk prepping for the games to begin

One of the extremely well-manicured walkways where we had some strawberries and champagne.

One of the doubles matches we watched on the "free" courts

Too pretty not to post 

Our "Nadal" Sighting

I still find this hilarious. We were trying to figure out who the hell was playing early in the day (we aren't that up on our tennis schedules) and one of the groundsmen told us that one of the players was warming up on the court next to us. So we walk over to check it out. We figure that's more entertaining than the 17 year old juniors double match next to us. It's a Spanish-looking guy. He's far away but we can tell he's got a very specific routine complete with Bose-lookalike noise-blocking headphones. So we snap some pics, laugh, say we should post on Facebook that it's Nadal.

We both are snickering thinking that we are going to get totally busted out by the Facebook community. Nadal was knocked out in the first round. It would make no sense for him to be warming up. Not so! I swear I had 31 likes on that photo!! Everyone thought it was really him! We were dying all day. The funnier part I will explain to you in like 3 paragraphs.....

The Djokovic Match

Somehow we thought that Murray (who was the big match of the day) played at 1 pm. We obviously couldn't get into Centre Court, so they have this huge screen TV on the side of a hill where everyone camps out to watch the matches they can't see live. Silly us. It was actually Djokovic. I'm not going to pretend that I stayed awake for this entire match. The sun started beating down. I was lying at a 45 degree angle on this hill squished like a sardine and we'd killed a bottle of champagne and wine AND we'd been up for 7 hours at that point. A nap was in order. However here's what that viewing hill looked like. 

Promise this doesn't properly show how crowded it did in fact get. 

As a side note, we met these women in their 50s who took our photo who told us they were meant to come first thing in the morning, but they drank too much with their daughters the night before and overslept. So they came strolling up to the courts at noon thinking they'd be lucky to get in, and apparently there was NO LINE! They just walked in! We were like WTF!?

Strawberries and Cream leads to Andy Murray Match

Around 3:15 pm Veronica and I are ready to call it a day. We'd been there for 6 hours. We had only come hoping to experience Wimbledon. Check. So before we leave, we decide we have to get strawberries and cream or our moms will have our heads. But when we get to the restaurant the queue is SOOO long (seriously, like 70 people) that Veronica and I are like 'forget this'. We turn around and directly run into two older men who look at me and ask if I'm Spanish. I laugh. No. They ask if I speak Spanish. Another no. Hardly. And what's better, Veronica is from South America and Spanish is her native language. Anyway, they ask us if we want to see the Murray match where he plays "the Spaniard". Before I know what's going on they are putting their VIP passes on our heads, chuckling and walking away. I seriously think I was dumbfounded. Then we started freaking out.

Clearly, we are no longer going home. The Murray match started at 4, so we excitedly make our way inside only to find out we are in like the 10th row!

And it keeps getting better. We didn't actually even know who Murray played: Fernando Verdasco... the "Nadal" fake out we saw warming up earlier!

Verdasco's serve, right in front of us.

Needless to say we were in a state of shock. It was a pretty incredible day, especially since Murray went on to not only beat Verdasco but beak Djokovic in the final match!

And before we left we got our strawberries and cream too Mom! (Although really, they aren't very good! They don't sweeten the cream. And it's not whipped cream. It's just.... heavy cream poured over strawberries!)

 All in all, pretty awesome experience!