Tuesday morning, July 30

This morning we headed back to the place where we saw the kayak races, this time for rowing on “calm waters”.  Unfortunately, the weather has turned super hot – over 90 degrees.  I thought we would be fine, as the races started early, but even arriving just after 9:30am, it already was pretty bad.  We were sitting in unshaded stands.  We had a great view of the finish line, but the big screen was not well positioned for us to be able to see the rest of the race and for some reason the audio was simply not audible where we were sitting.  Without the screen to give you context and without the audio narration which was really great at explaining things, it mean just sitting there sweltering and watching the occasional exciting finish, while not being sure exactly which boats were from which countries.  We watched a few races of single and double sculls.  Then we decided that the enjoyment to misery ratio was not high enough, so we left after an hour.  As we walked along towards the exit, we could hear the audio and see some other screens, and definitely appreciated the racing more, but were happiest once we got to the air-conditioned train.  

I should note that we are doing a heck of a lot of walking.  Each venue requires a ton of walking just to get to your seat.  This rowing venue required particularly long treks (with only part of it shaded).  For going to and from the venue, we walked 4 miles today!  There is a handicap access somehow, but it’s not very visible, and, surprisingly, one doesn’t see little carts taking people back and forth who would have trouble with the walk.  I cannot imagine an event in the U.S. that would assume people could walk 4 miles in order to participate.  Even people with canes or in surgery boots were just walking along with the rest of us.

Our apartment (AirBnB) is great.  It is in a wonderful neighborhood – lots of grocery options and bakeries.  Good metro access.  It has some little oddities – it is somebody’s home, who they vacated for the games, but on the whole, it is serving us well.  Thankfully there is a portable air conditioning unit that we move from room to room now that it is so hot outside (we didn’t need it until last night).  However, the unit needs to be vented, which means we have to leave a door to the outside open, which seems to let in hot air, too.  Hmmm. 

I had intended to go to the “urban park” this afternoon to see break dancing and skate boarding, but, alas, it is simply too hot to be outside in the afternoon, so we are back at the apartment resting.  Tonight the big excitement is getting to see gymnastics …..

amazing temporary infrastructure everywhere