Sometimes the best adventures are the ones that fall into your lap, and that is how we found ourselves in London during the 2012 Olympics. As a precaution, it is not advised to follow any of these guidelines if you are a neurotic perfectionist that creates daily todo lists...it's basically asking for a breakdown. And for you sporadic wanderlusters out there, you're welcome- here is my guide, you can live vicariously through me.
Step 1: Planning the trip
About a year ago, as my family sat around the breakfast table an article from the Wall Street Journal really caught my eye. As I scanned the article I decided to share with the rest of the family. "I guess there are still tickets available for Olympic Games." As the words slipped out of my mouth ears began to perk up. My mom and sister immediately grabbed their iPads...my mom began checking hotels and my sister started looking at flights. My poor dad just chuckled and kept reading the paper. Flights were reasonable (we were day 2 into the Olympics) and since my mom is a Hilton Diamond Member we are guaranteed a room...anywhere. Mom, "Looks like we're going to England?" Dad (chuckles, never makes eye contact and more importantly never denies or accepts our outlandish request). So we booked it.
Step 2: Mates
When preparing for a trip it is extremely important to be very selective with choosing travel buddies. Well, we had a week, who would travel around the world with us, on a whim? "I think I have someone," Shelb murmurs as she grabs her phone and texts her friend Amy. After a little coaxing and schedule adjustments Amy and her mom Tricia decided to "just go with it." (In retrospect this could be a very dangerous mantra, but fortunately for us, it resulted in great opportunities and grand adventures). Now we had a group of five fearless females but we decided to extended an invitation to one more individual...Alisha. Alisha never really traveling outside of the US was a surprise addition; we booked our reservations a week in advance...when Alisha finally got the green light for travel she booked hers days in advance...we assured all of our travel companions, from past experience it's all you really need. The uncertainty and randomness is one of the most alluring qualities of last minute booking.
Step 3: Tickets
As the Wall Street Journal assured us, there were plenty of open seats...just not for Americans. Yeah that's right, we have completely booked our Euro adventures with one goal in mind, cheering on America in the most patriotic way we can think of. But, and this is a good one...each country is allotted a certain number of tickets and guess who bought all their tickets, you guessed America is totally sold out. Well, we could panic or we could just go with it. So I'm going through my insta and I see one of my friends posted a pic at the games...so I shoot her a message asking how she scored the tickets. She informed me she was studying out there for the summer and she had used her dorm address...well after that we had no problem getting tickets. Now, because we decided to go week 2 (championship week) our newest issue is figuring out which games we we're going to place in. We decided on the men's beach volleyball championship (the Americans did not make it), the men's basketball championship (obviously the Americans were going it...obviously it was incredibly sold out...so we didn't get tickets) and the closing ceremonies (America dominated). We purchased the volleyball and closing and decided to try our luck with the men's basketball closer to the game (spoiler alert we got tickets).
Step 4: Lodging
After reviewing all the different Hilton locations available we decided on the Waldorf Astoria...and being that my mom is a Hilton Diamond Member the oversold hotel was obligated to lodge us. Generally when we book a room we receive an upgrade and with the size of our crew we were banking on it. However, when we arrived at the hotel what we ordered is what we got...a double bed. Confused we caravanned into the hotel in groups...we had only reported 3 people in the room...we now had 6 people for 1 double bed, and that is how we managed to turn the Waldorf Astoria into the Waldorf Hostel. Whatever, we can make it work. After we had settled into our room we made our way to the Hilton Honors Club, and who do we find lounging in the club? None other than the American women's gymnastics team and a couple members of our men's swim team...well now we know why we couldn't get an upgrade. Aside from the Olympic village the American and Chinese Olympic teams had set up camp at the Waldorf Astoria...lets just say not being affiliated with an Olympic team made us a minority...and so begins day 1 of our week trip to London.
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