I saw Jackie Chan. And Leehom. And Andy Lau. All in the one place.

Yes, that's right. And the big bunch of celebs was only a tiny detail of the giant, no, gargantuan spectacle that was the Olympic closing ceremony. And me and my boyfriend were two of the 91 000 people who had the pleasure of witnessing it at the National Stadium. How did we manage to do that? Himself, when he was back in Dublin a couple of months ago, bumped into a friend of his dad who happens to work for the Irish Olympic Committee. That very man remembered my man early last week and gave us tickets for the Athletics on Saturday night and the closing ceremony. The luck of the Irish indeed.

Anyway, so we ended up being the owners of two of the tens of thousands of open mouths in the stadium. And we never shut them for a second. What Zhang Yimou and his thousands of artists and crew offered their audience was simply beyond amazing. The colours, the shapes, the movements, the music- it was exciting, moving, happy, sad and perfect in every way. It's two days ago now, and I'm still relishing in the memories of watching this epic show from our very good seats. I still cannot pick a favourite part or aspect of it. I loved the drums and bells at the beginning, was stunned by the flying, hopping and twirling bodies, amazed by the fireworks, left speechless by the hundreds of acrobats on the giant tower, and moved to tears by the wonderful atmosphere of all the wonderful performances.

Though there was a hint of regret to the evening, as two weeks of unforgettable events were coming to a close. All the people who made this possible (and don't forget the fantastic volunteers here!) ensured that the wonderful time that was the 2008 Beijing Olympics went out with a bang, and that people who left the stadium, the city and its people would keep them in their hearts forever.

A good friend of mine said I was blessed to have been a part of this event, and she was absolutely right. The closing ceremony with all its colours, sounds and people is an event that I will never in my life forget.

Thank you Zhang Yimou, thank you staff, thank you volunteers and thank you Beijing!

Bis dann,

Nadine


PS: Now, of course, for the photos! There are two commented galleries here and here. And I'll add some of my favourites below, including a short video. Hope you'll enjoy it even half as much as I enjoyed being there!

All in blue this time

Drummers (in red) and dancers with yellow bell dresses

All the shapes !

The athletes have marched in once again.


Images like these, to me, are a testimony of the amazing things that people are capable of .

Beautiful, quite simply.

Bye bye, Beijing 08!

Athletics on Tuesday Evening

Yes, this bird has been to the 'Nest! After purchasing a single (class A!) ticket for, ehm, black market money, and after a crowded U-Bahn odyssey, I proudly stepped on to the Olympic Green and finally began to feel like the Olympics are really happening. The Olympic Green is the area that comprises the famed Bird's Nest and Watercube venues as well as the National Indoor Stadium, Hockey and Archery fields. It's a massive area, and it was full of people of all possible nationalities. Japanese, Lithuanian, British, Romanian, German and Swedish were only some of the flags I spotted. On the agenda for the evening were various mens and womens races (5000m, 400m and 200m with Usain Bolt) as well as mens highjump, mens 110m hurdles (though, alas, no Liu Xiang!) and mens disc throw (cooooool!)

The stadium appeared to have been sold out, and about half an hour into the events all seats were filled and the place was packed. The atmosphere was great, and I let out the Japanese in me, taking over a hundred photos until the battery gave in on me.

The events were scheduled to take from 19h to 22:40, but I left at ten, sweaty and tired from the heat and all the photography, and happy to have been a part of this big event. Find some of my pictures below.

Himself is coming over tonight for a long weekend, and it looks like the two of us may just be able to get tickets for another couple of events (one of which may just be the closing ceremony, but nothing's confirmed yet). That'll be some pictures! Poor battery.

Bis dann,

Nadine

There is it, in all its beauty!

Even all these people werent' able to hide the Watercube behind them.

Line-up for the womens 400m.. or was it 200m?

Gut gesoffen ist halb gewonnen!

A medal ceremony for one of Monday's events- of course my seat was on the wrong side!

Another womens race

Ja, wo laufen sie denn?

Mens high jump

This was our high jumper- like any respectable German, he lost miserably.

Mens 110m hurdles

A big old fella spinning around to throw a heavy old disc. Quite majestic indeed.