Day 3: May 15, 2014

     Day 3 of the Olympic Odyssey included ALOT of  walking... My legs when I woke up this morning felt like the witched witch from the west splashed with water.  I don't know how I'm going to survive the rest of the trip without a segway (haha).

     We started off by going to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London.  Our tour guide for the park was Sally.  She wasn't a fan of our group because of our lackadaisical stroll compare to the ten +50 year old British people in our group.  Every stop she took to talk about the park she needed to wait an extra minute for the Americans to catch up.  Sally explained how a big part of getting bid for the Olympic site was because of the idea of revitalizing a rather skeptical area of London.  She told us a lot of interesting facts about the park like how the West Ham Football Club's home pitch will be at the Olympic Stadium.  She also went into how after 2012 London Olympics the Aquatics Center was minimized by 15,000 seats.  This is because outside of the Olympics swimming isn't the biggest spectator sport so there are only 2,500 seats today.  The main thing I got from the tour was the idea of rebuilding and leaving a legacy for years to come.  
The best part of the day was the first picture shown below.  At the Olympic Park they have a wall filled with blocks that were half black and half white that could spin.  Professor Ryan and Kyle had the idea of creating the greatest Syracuse University picture ever taken.  

     We traveled to some tourist attractions  including the London Eye, House of Parliament, and Buckingham palace right after the Olympic Park.  Since this is my first time in England it was a great experience to go to most of the popular sites in London.  When we were at the House of Parliament it was 18:00 so we got to hear Big Ben which is something I will remember for a very long time. One thing I have noticed while here is that the British love their parks.  We must have walked through at least 4 parks throughout the day.  Since London doesn't really have houses with backyards; a park is a great place to for Londoners to be outdoors. 

     This trip has packed so much into just a few days and I cannot wait to see what else is in store for us in the near future.  Please be sure to check for updates daily to follow our great venture!!!