Friday was a yuck day… windy, overcast, and quite a bit of rain. Not the best conditions for the Opening Ceremony at all. We actually drove past the site earlier in the day and apart from everything being wet, there was of course still work going on. As the afternoon rolled into evening the weather continued being pretty horrible, but dry and warm at home we flicked through the numerous Al Jazeera Sports channels and found one that was doing the English language telecast.
It actually started… hhmmm… interestingly is the best way to describe it all. Orry’s riding around on bicycles and running around in the rain being chased by children. Very Sydney Olympics, minus the kangaroos… looked like “insert national animal mascot here” sort of thing. But after a little while of that and come the “official” start time, the rain finally stopped and the whole thing got under way with the sell-out crowd looking like they were having fun, albeit wet and wind blown. We couldn’t here it from home, but it was all very impressive and made us wish we were there. Although the sitting in the rain for a few hours before the ceremony got under way would have been no fun!
I am guessing that most of the world saw the flame being lit… the horse (which was bought and trained in Australia) nearly slid over just before it made it to the top, but obviously someone was looking down on the whole event. As a side note, the reason stated for using Australian horses was that Arabian horses are far too intelligent and stubborn to perform a feat such as running up the number of stairs and the ramp… also there are no hills high enough in Qatar to train them on (suppose that makes sense).
Once flames (both the one in the stadium and the other on the tower) were lit the fireworks started, which dragged just about everyone from the compound on to the street to watch… the normal firework-type “oohhhssss” & “aahhhsss” were heard in many languages!
Overall the ceremony was impressive… the best money can buy! Admittedly some of it didn’t seem to make sense but that was probably because the enormity of what was going on was better to see in person rather than on a little TV screen. I still like the guy’s furry hat with the lights in it… he looked like he was having fun – for anyone who saw the ceremony you would know what I mean!
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