A DAY OUT IN WIMBLEDON (II)

We woke up the next morning quite late. Shahbaz prepared the english breakfast while we took shower and prepared ourselves. Al spent some precious energy from his dying camera on Shahbaz's cat. We enjoyed our meal, which was very important, since food inside the championship ground must be ridiculously expensive. Having a heavy breakfast means that we did not need to take any lunch while being there.

Nunu the cat

We left the house at 10.15, and caught the next bus towards wimbledon station. It did not take us very long to get there, roughly 25 minutes. Initially, we were thinking of riding the shuttle bus to the championship. Upon looking at the crowd in wimbledon town, we decided that it would be much quicker if we walk. The place was simply packed with people of all kinds, and even queueing for the bus would take more than 30 minutes.

Federer or no Federer?

We walked as quickly as we could towards the championship groud, which lays about 2 miles from wimbledon town centre. It was a journey uphill, and was supposed to be rather exhausting. However, we were simply too excited to be bothered with the consequent fatigue.

20 minutes later, we arrived at the ground and were directed to gate 3: for non-ticket holders. We were so excited upon getting there, only to be told to walk towards southfields, and join the back of the queue. The line was really long that stretched almost one mile away from the gate.

Line as far as eyes could see

A stewardess informed us that at the rate we were going, we would only enter the ground after 5pm. This piece of information really disheartened me. Feeling dissappointed, I told Al that I was thinking of leaving the place. There's no point queuing for 5 hours, since there's so much more can be done over 5 hours. Thanks to Al who's always cool, he insisted on staying, and so we stayed.

I went to the toilet, and when I got back, I simply could not find Al. Apparently, the line has progressed very quickly beyond our expectation. Within 30 minutes, we were already beyond the luggage x-ray point, and few minutes later, we were already queuing at turnstile no.2, paying for the ticket. Few seconds later, we were already inside the ground. Yay, we made it. WE'VE MADE IT INTO THE CHAMPIONSHIP GROUND

Past the turnstiles

to be continued...