Opening ceremony

So, as some of you will already be aware from my emails home, the opening ceremony was NOT what we were expecting! As you can see from the photos above, it was essentially a gig. And not just any gig - a rave gig! Cue a massive DJ, a huge amount of noise and a large, pretty much drugged up crowd who were not there to see the opening of the Rowing World Champs but a rather famous Dutch DJ called Armin van Buuren. Whoever he is.

So, first we annoyed the huge crowd by all being ushered in by a side VIP entrance for free when we quite clearly had no interest in (or, more accurately, no clue) what was going on, and then we further angered them by holding up the DJ they had all come to see who exasperated them by rocking up on stage after 5mins of 'Armin, Armin' chanting and said 'Hey guys, who wants to hear some real trance...? Well, first of all, we have to get this stupid rowing thing out of the way...' Nice one, Armin. You really helped matters there!

Thus followed 40mins of firstly some boring chatter by some rowing officials (essentially lame fake banter with Armin, who made it pretty clear he was TOTALLY disinterested), then something about Poznan's recently deceased deputy mayor followed by EVERY single country being announced (and there are nearly 100) along with a lame firework and a flag. By Azerbijan the crowd was back to chanting 'Armin' and we were fearing for our lives! At least we aren't German I suppose - they got massively booed. All in all, the best bit was the massive firework display at the end (which was pretty fitting) and then the mad dash out of the gig to our beds!

So, not what I was expecting but definitely an interesting experience!