Partido de Barça

When you think about Europe, what are the things that come to mind? For me, it's old churches, fun-to-drive-but-expensive-to-maintain cars, and soccer, among other things. As I mentioned in another post, I've seen a whole buncha' churches already, own a Euro car (actually a few), but, up to now, I had never been to a professional soccer game. Well, on a VERY rainy day last week, I got my chance to visit the famous Camp Nou (New Field) stadium to watch a partido (match) between Barça and Tenerife.


To say that people of Barcelona (and many others around the world) are fanatical about their team would be to undersell the idea of fanatical. Everywhere you go in the town you will see FCB (Futbol Club de Barcelona) logos, colors, flags, and so on. I was very excited to finally get to experience first-hand one of their matches. Even though it was raining, the show of support for the home-town team was obvious...


Here's a shot of the stadium and field (with a view of the university and hills beyond) during the match:


The match ended up being very exciting to watch. I was actually pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Soccer definitely seems to move faster (for me) live than it does on TV. Maybe it helped that Barça ended up winning 3-to-1? Nah...it woulda' been fun either way.

Oh yeah, did I mention that it rained during the match? A LOT??? It may have limited the attendance, which was only 57,401 compared to its largest-stadium-in-Europe potential capacity of 98,787. I think the picture below with the stands, lights, and Tibidabo Cathedral in the background gives you an idea of how hard it rained (hint: A LOT!!!).


All in all, a great time was had. Given another opportunity to go, I know that I will in a second. I'd like to thank Juan and Carol for the free tickets (woohoo!!!) as well as Diana and Ana Lucia for being my guides for another great adventure.