For the first Olympic Games to have officially sold out, there seems to be quite a few empty seats. This is what it really looks like to be sitting in some Olympic venues (see photo).
When we arrived at the Australian women's hockey on Tuesday morning (after another day of ticketing dramas – more on that shortly) we were confronted with row upon row of empty seats staring back at us. Not even the Chinese rent-a-crowd volunteers, who arrived in convoy on the back of army trucks, could fill in the gaps.
However, if not for them, the atmosphere could have been quite dull. The volunteers also got into the spirit of the game. Their version of an Australian chant – - consisting of Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oh Oh Oh - was very amusing to listen to.
The seating situation seems to be the case at quite a number of venues. At the swimming on Sunday there were empty seats around us, while a whole section beside the diving pool had not been filled.
An Australian commentator at the beach volleyball also told us they were having trouble filling the stadium. Compared to the Sydney 200 Games, there's a completely different vibe. There are few open-air television screens in Beijing where crowds gather to watch.
Security is also ultra tight, as would be expected. Before we venture down into the subway everyone must have their bags X-rayed at every station, while at Olympic venues the lines are so long people are being delayed getting into their events. We almost missed Michael Phelps' world-record swim on Sunday due to the security delays.
But the Chinese volunteers, and people in general, have been so friendly. We,ve had children in the street approaching us timidly in the street to welcome us to Beijing, while the volunteers are on every street corner wanting to help out. Were getting a few odd looks on the subway thanks to our Aussie get-up, and we're forever being stopped for photographs. You can be delayed in one spot for 10 minutes posing for photograph after photograph.
So we made it to the hockey on Tuesday (Australian women vs Spain) despite being on the phone to London until 1am the night before the event. The online company we booked through did not know where our tickets were, so we demanded a full refund, made up some dodgy signs (Hockey tickets wanted!) and stood outside the hockey pitch on the morning. It worked! We scored four tickets, for cost price as well, so we saved ourselves quite a bit of money. We cheered on the Aussies as they stormed to a 6-1 victory over Spain. Local girl Casey Eastham looked a little startled during warm-up when we yelled out a big “Go Albion Park” during warm-up (see the wry smile in the photo). We later bumped into her mum, who said Casey mentioned there were some crazy people cheering on Albion Park at the game, and she was clueless as to who it was. We owned up – and we'll be back for more this afternoon when they play again.
So the Olympics leg of our adventure is nearly over. We're boarding the trans-Mongolian train on Saturday bound for Ulan Bataar – although I really wish we could stay here and catch the rest of the Games. It's been well worth the lack of sleep, losing my voice (from too much cheering) and ticketing dramas we've had. Bring on more Aussie gold.
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