Brazil says 'Thanks'I attend the closing ceremony at Croke Park with mixed emotions - happiness to be there and to have experienced everything that's happened, but sadness at its ending. Our seats turn out to be very close to where the athletes come into the stadium, so we can easily attract the attention of the many athletes we've come to know over the past 10 days.
Sadly, the Bahrain team can't be there as a mix-up over their flights means they departed earlier in the day. The ceremony is specatcular*, but we all feel a little flat when the Special Olympics Flame of Hope is extinguished.
I catch the DART train back to Dun Laoghaire** with a number of my new friends and we all get our carriage singing along to the Special Olympics anthem***, which has just reached number 1 in the Irish charts.
* = Mainly Boy Band heaven from what I recall - Busted, Blue, Boyzone, West Life plus Samantha Mumba and Liberty X!
** = I'd had to move out of Stillorgan the day before as my host had 3 Italian students coming to stay and needed my room. So I went to stay at Ann Tynan's house, where the BBQ was on Day 1. We had a fantastic walk along the sea front at Dun Laoghaire (part of the famous Bloomsday walk) and a meal from the best Indian takeaway in Dublin!
*** = "May We Never Have to Say Goodbye" - very Irish, very sentimental, but surprisingly good. I guess it summed up the feelings of the Games pretty well - I wonder if I'd still like it if I heard it now, 5 years later? You couldn't move in Dublin without hearing it the whole time I was there.
Click here for Day 12.
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