futbol

After a few missed emails, I finally was able to meet up with Reed and his girlfriend Bridgette, but even this was a difficult process as I could not find the cervezaria in which they were eating. After catching up with the two of them, we met up with the Brits by Plaza del Sol, and then went for some tapas up the road. The Sangria was delicious and strong.

Cramming into the metros like sardines, we funneled through the doors and recounted seeing the Japanese officers whose sole job is to shove people into the metro cars there. Exiting the subterranean station at the stadium, we were confronted with thousands of people swarming into the arena. The energy was pulsating and we could hear the crowd already roaring from within.

After a quick beer, and the purchase of a cheap jersey, we headed in and climbed forever to our nosebleed seats. The first half was weak, no goals. The second half was chalk full of three great goals, and Real took the match somewhat easily after they began their roll. The loudest the arena got was, surprisingly enough, when the crowd didn’t like a call that the ref made, and everyone was bickering and shouting. Ed and I thought this was quite funny. Hearing the cheers of these some 80,000 people was amazing, and I am definitely glad that I went.