It is now Friday and it's officially my last week here in Spain. At 1pm, Nery and Danny arrive in Malaga. I have some things planned for us to do, but hopefully the weather holds and we get to spend time enjoying the weather.
I actually planned a trip to Sevilla for Monday and Tuesday thinking it would be a fun place to go that is relatively close. Turns out that Feria starts on Monday in Sevilla and is basically their version of Carnival or Mardi Gras. Pretty damn lucky if you ask me. So I'm really excited about that and then also showing them around the area I've been living for three months.
Tomorrow we have our last game of the season as well. We play the Barcelona Bufals for the second time. This time it's at home and they have to deal with the 12 hour bus ride. This is the team that beat us by 5 points which eventually led to the collapse of our season. So we some unfinished business one might say.
We have a solid gameplan and are really excited about playing them, because we are expecting over 20 players. With those kind of numbers for us, comes a legitimate shot at winning... While I know there is a 99% chance that no one sees this before Saturday if ever, I do not want to reveal our gameplan. This is probably just ridiculous, but some guys on a few of the teams we play have added me on Facebook and also, you can find this blog if you google search the Marbella Sharks and probably Barcelona Bufals too. I can't afford to give away any advantages to deciphering the artistry that is going to take place on Saturday. Haha. But seriously, we're all very excited. We had two good practices this week and everyone really wants to finish up with a win.
We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Italy
After the Coslada game, AJ and I took a trip to Italy. We spent Easter weekend in Rome, then he went off to visit a friend abroad in India, while I headed north to Florence for 3 more nights.
Rome was amazing. One of my favorite classes at Harvard was about the Roman Games and we learned all about the munera, which were originally funeral games to celebrate that person's death but came to be the gladiatorial games. We also learned a lot about each of the Caesars, what they did, who built the Colosseum and how and why. (This website talks more about it: http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/arena.html) To finally go there and see that was very cool and I had a lot of fun. We had some really nice weather there too and hung out at the Trevi Fountain for a while. We saw the Vatican - St. Peter's Basilica was just incredible - as well as the Pantheon and all of the other tourist junk. We went to a restaurant that had been recommended to us and it did not disappoint. The food there really is incredible.
We stayed in some tiny hostel, but the location was awesome, very close to everything. The first night we were packed into a room with 6 bunks with about a foot in between the beds. We were there from Thursday to Sunday, and we went to some of the popular American study-abroad bars in the Campo di Fiore. Those were fun, but it's almost like being at home. Then again, when you walk by the Colosseum on your way home, it's not just like being home. We found a bar that had the NCAA Final Four, and ended up having an awesome night watching Butler upset Michigan State. Needless to say, people at the hostel were happy to see us go. Apparently coming home at 4 in the morning is not standard procedure with some of those folk.
On Sunday, I got a rental car and headed north to Florence. As it turned out, my hostel wasn't in Florence but 15 minutes South. The easiest way to get there was to take the main highway into Firenze and then take a highway south to Siena, and get off at the right exit. Unfortunately, I didn't get on the Firenze-Siena autostrade, but another road that led to Siena. I had planned on getting a GPS with the rental (they had said one would be available) but when I arrived, the only one they had was broken, so I had to use a map of the entire country to get around, not exactly what you'd call detailed. It was raining and foggy and I made it to Firenze by 10 pm. Should have been to the hostel no later than 1030pm. At 1230am, I was driving through Tuscany, and had been for a few hours and I decided I would just stay at the next villa that I found. 5 minutes on a dirt road through olive fields and I show up at this place. Turns out I couldn't afford the 350 euro/night price, but the guy there spoke English and drew me a great map with good directions to the place. He admitted the area was nearly impossible to navigate, especially with this fog and rain at night. At 1am, I get to the hostel. Alive. Unfortunately the place closes at midnight, so without a phone or key, I was stuck. So I spent the night in my baby blue Fiat Panda - great car, surprisingly spacious.
After the miserable start, Florence ended up being quite nice. I spent the next day there and was able to hang out in the Boboli Gardens, see the Duomo, and a few museums. At the Academy Gallery though, I hit a speedbump, or perhaps a wall. In order to rent the car, I had to put a deposit down. This exceeded my daily allowance so I could not use my debit card to get cash for 24 hours. Unfortunately the Academy Gallery does not accept credit cards, and there was no way to get cashback at any local places. Matt did not get to see Michelangelo's David. However I did see a copy of the statue that stands in the original location of David, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
My hostel was in a small town called Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, situated right in the middle of Tuscany, and I found a little restaurant there that was probably the best meal I have ever eaten. Some red wine, spaghetti bolognaise, lambchops with potatoes, and gelato. Unreal. Back at the hostel I made some friends and we went out to a bar nearby. This place was a tiny little town and we were the only ones at the bar except for a few high school aged locals who were out messing around on a Monday night. It was a fun experience.
The next day I drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower. That thing is pretty cool. I felt kind of lame knowing that Galileo had figured out gravity there and I was just taking pictures of people pretending to hold it up, but it was a nice day so I took a nap on the grass. After that I drove north along the coast to Cinqe Terre. The place was amazing. I'll put up pictures later but here's a good one from the internet: http://www.nomaders.com/blog/index.php/recordando-un-mes-de-mayo-de-hace-unos-anos/
It's a small region of five villages built into the mountains on the coast. They are tiny little towns that have recently become a popular tourist spot because of how cool the area is and how beautiful the landscape is. You can hike back and forth between the villages or take a train that runs back and forth. It was a nice day so I hiked and the whole time I was just loving it. I'd love to go back some day and stay right there in the villages. Unfortunately my budget doesn't exactly allow for that just yet.
On Wednesday, my last day, I drove back south towards Rome, stopping at Siena for lunch. That's a cool place but I didn't stay too long there. I wanted to first go to Ostia Antico before getting back to the airport.
Ostia is a port city on the mouth of the Tiber River that goes directly into Rome. It was very important in ancient times when all global transportation was done by boat. It wasn't a huge city, but there were something like 40,000 inhabitants. In the 7th or 8th century though, a case of Malaria spread through the town and it was eventually abandoned. Everyone just picked up and left. No one ever built over it, and the ruins have since been excavated and studied and is now a park. Like the Colosseum, I really enjoyed getting to see the ancient Roman ruins. That type of stuff really interests me and it was amazing that so much of the stuff was still intact from over 1200 years ago.
That night I flew back to Spain and have been hanging out here for the last few days. The weather has been nice, and I went to my first bullfight yesterday. That was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Very interesting, especially since there was a female matador who failed to kill the bull and was eventually boo'ed out of ring when her sword got flung up into the crowd and almost impaled the beer vendor. Haha. Time to go outside.
Rome was amazing. One of my favorite classes at Harvard was about the Roman Games and we learned all about the munera, which were originally funeral games to celebrate that person's death but came to be the gladiatorial games. We also learned a lot about each of the Caesars, what they did, who built the Colosseum and how and why. (This website talks more about it: http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/arena.html) To finally go there and see that was very cool and I had a lot of fun. We had some really nice weather there too and hung out at the Trevi Fountain for a while. We saw the Vatican - St. Peter's Basilica was just incredible - as well as the Pantheon and all of the other tourist junk. We went to a restaurant that had been recommended to us and it did not disappoint. The food there really is incredible.
We stayed in some tiny hostel, but the location was awesome, very close to everything. The first night we were packed into a room with 6 bunks with about a foot in between the beds. We were there from Thursday to Sunday, and we went to some of the popular American study-abroad bars in the Campo di Fiore. Those were fun, but it's almost like being at home. Then again, when you walk by the Colosseum on your way home, it's not just like being home. We found a bar that had the NCAA Final Four, and ended up having an awesome night watching Butler upset Michigan State. Needless to say, people at the hostel were happy to see us go. Apparently coming home at 4 in the morning is not standard procedure with some of those folk.
On Sunday, I got a rental car and headed north to Florence. As it turned out, my hostel wasn't in Florence but 15 minutes South. The easiest way to get there was to take the main highway into Firenze and then take a highway south to Siena, and get off at the right exit. Unfortunately, I didn't get on the Firenze-Siena autostrade, but another road that led to Siena. I had planned on getting a GPS with the rental (they had said one would be available) but when I arrived, the only one they had was broken, so I had to use a map of the entire country to get around, not exactly what you'd call detailed. It was raining and foggy and I made it to Firenze by 10 pm. Should have been to the hostel no later than 1030pm. At 1230am, I was driving through Tuscany, and had been for a few hours and I decided I would just stay at the next villa that I found. 5 minutes on a dirt road through olive fields and I show up at this place. Turns out I couldn't afford the 350 euro/night price, but the guy there spoke English and drew me a great map with good directions to the place. He admitted the area was nearly impossible to navigate, especially with this fog and rain at night. At 1am, I get to the hostel. Alive. Unfortunately the place closes at midnight, so without a phone or key, I was stuck. So I spent the night in my baby blue Fiat Panda - great car, surprisingly spacious.
After the miserable start, Florence ended up being quite nice. I spent the next day there and was able to hang out in the Boboli Gardens, see the Duomo, and a few museums. At the Academy Gallery though, I hit a speedbump, or perhaps a wall. In order to rent the car, I had to put a deposit down. This exceeded my daily allowance so I could not use my debit card to get cash for 24 hours. Unfortunately the Academy Gallery does not accept credit cards, and there was no way to get cashback at any local places. Matt did not get to see Michelangelo's David. However I did see a copy of the statue that stands in the original location of David, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
My hostel was in a small town called Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, situated right in the middle of Tuscany, and I found a little restaurant there that was probably the best meal I have ever eaten. Some red wine, spaghetti bolognaise, lambchops with potatoes, and gelato. Unreal. Back at the hostel I made some friends and we went out to a bar nearby. This place was a tiny little town and we were the only ones at the bar except for a few high school aged locals who were out messing around on a Monday night. It was a fun experience.
The next day I drove to Pisa to see the leaning tower. That thing is pretty cool. I felt kind of lame knowing that Galileo had figured out gravity there and I was just taking pictures of people pretending to hold it up, but it was a nice day so I took a nap on the grass. After that I drove north along the coast to Cinqe Terre. The place was amazing. I'll put up pictures later but here's a good one from the internet: http://www.nomaders.com/blog/index.php/recordando-un-mes-de-mayo-de-hace-unos-anos/
It's a small region of five villages built into the mountains on the coast. They are tiny little towns that have recently become a popular tourist spot because of how cool the area is and how beautiful the landscape is. You can hike back and forth between the villages or take a train that runs back and forth. It was a nice day so I hiked and the whole time I was just loving it. I'd love to go back some day and stay right there in the villages. Unfortunately my budget doesn't exactly allow for that just yet.
On Wednesday, my last day, I drove back south towards Rome, stopping at Siena for lunch. That's a cool place but I didn't stay too long there. I wanted to first go to Ostia Antico before getting back to the airport.
Ostia is a port city on the mouth of the Tiber River that goes directly into Rome. It was very important in ancient times when all global transportation was done by boat. It wasn't a huge city, but there were something like 40,000 inhabitants. In the 7th or 8th century though, a case of Malaria spread through the town and it was eventually abandoned. Everyone just picked up and left. No one ever built over it, and the ruins have since been excavated and studied and is now a park. Like the Colosseum, I really enjoyed getting to see the ancient Roman ruins. That type of stuff really interests me and it was amazing that so much of the stuff was still intact from over 1200 years ago.
That night I flew back to Spain and have been hanging out here for the last few days. The weather has been nice, and I went to my first bullfight yesterday. That was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Very interesting, especially since there was a female matador who failed to kill the bull and was eventually boo'ed out of ring when her sword got flung up into the crowd and almost impaled the beer vendor. Haha. Time to go outside.
Update
My time in Spain is coming to a close, but fortunately I've got 2 good weeks ahead of me. I come home on April 23rd, and I'm very excited to see all my family and friends, but I know that I will miss this place and the friends I've made here.
Anyways the last few weeks have been great here too. The weather is finally been consistent. Instead of beach days thrown into my schedule at random, it is now becoming more of an every day possibility. Haha, cannot complain with that.
We have played a football game since March 26, when we traveled up to Coslada to play the Camioneros. Coslada is right outside of Madrid and takes about 7 hours by bus. The game was Sunday at noon, so we got onto a bus here in Nueva Andalucia at 1130pm Saturday night. We made one stop about a half hour north to pick up a few more players... But something just wasn't right. Why were there only 21 people on the bus? I suppose that would have been fine if 2 weren't Mike's kids, one wasn't a player's girlfriend, 3 weren't friends coming for the bus ride to Madrid, and 1 wasn't a coach. Yeah. So that puts us at 14. One of which had never played a down of football in his life and had only been to one practice the night before. Haha, you can imagine the thoughts going through our head at this point.
At about 12:30am, someone decided to put on 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Hmm. Great idea! Haha. We had a game to play in less than 12 hours, no one has slept, and we're about to watch a horror movie. Ha. It ended by 2am or so and when someone tried to put on 'Disaster Movie' I had had enough and put a quick end to that.
So we arrive in Madrid around 8 o'clock (DST is 2 weeks after the states, and this happened to be the night we 'sprung ahead'! Lucky.) We put our stuff in the locker room and thought we were going to a team breakfast. Mike, our coach said,"Okay guys, its 815 now, be back by 10 to get ready for the game at noon." When asked about the team breakfast he replied, "Well, you have about two hours, so if you have some money I suppose you could go buy some breakfast." Haha. I got a kick out of that.
A contingent of about 8 start walking around this little outskirt town of Madrid. Unfortunately, in Spain, everything is closed on Sundays. And not actually every single place, but about 95% of places. After a decent hike, we find a coffee shops that serves coffee, juice, and churros (fried dough sticks). I really actually can't think of a better pre-game meal. We did end up finding a little sandwich shop after the churros, but it wasn't much better.
Gametime: 14 players. Now, if you know football, you know that it's not like soccer. You can't really play a football game with 14 guys. That would mean that just about every player is playing both ways and every special team. Insane. The one thing we had going for us was that they only had like 23 guys, which is also very difficult. Midway through the first quarter one of our players coming back from an ACL injury reinjured his knee and was out for the game. 13.
We actually put up quite a fight. Despite penalties and linemen going both ways, we hung in there and fought until the end. They were leading 26-14 when Zac threw fade to me in the endzone in the last few minutes for a touchdown. The final score was 26-20. We actually did have a chance at winning that game, which would have been nothing short of a miracle. We were missing our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th string receivers, so after AJ, we put in our backup middle linebacker/defensive end to play wideout. We had a fullback who had never played fullback before. Of our secondary, we had 3 players from the original 7 linebackers and defensive backs from earlier in the season. Our offensive line fought hard and opened up some big holes for me to run through and I did alright carrying the ball. My shoulder held up too, so I'm happy about that.
We ended up having a very fun bus ride home. We had dropped our second game, which put us at 3-3-1 (we ended up having to take a forfeit for the game we missed due to travel isssues) but we were having fun playing football and hanging out together.
We have one game left, this upcoming Saturday against the Barcelona Bufals at home. This would have been a showdown for a chance to make the playoffs had things not fallen apart, but now it is solely our chance at redemption for the team that beat us a few months ago. They are the best team in the league, but I know if we have a better turnout with players, we do have a solid chance to beat them. I sent an email out to the team the other night, asking players to come together for one more game as a team. I addressed the fact that yes, while the season did fall apart, it was still a lot of fun. I had a good response and I think that we may end up having at least 20 players for this one. If that is the case, then I have a good feeling about it. It would be the perfect way to finish the season - and possibly my career. Who knows if I'll play another football game after this one?
Also, my ex-roommates Nery and Danny are coming on Friday for a week, so that's going to be great. And of course I can't let them down by losing.
Anyways the last few weeks have been great here too. The weather is finally been consistent. Instead of beach days thrown into my schedule at random, it is now becoming more of an every day possibility. Haha, cannot complain with that.
We have played a football game since March 26, when we traveled up to Coslada to play the Camioneros. Coslada is right outside of Madrid and takes about 7 hours by bus. The game was Sunday at noon, so we got onto a bus here in Nueva Andalucia at 1130pm Saturday night. We made one stop about a half hour north to pick up a few more players... But something just wasn't right. Why were there only 21 people on the bus? I suppose that would have been fine if 2 weren't Mike's kids, one wasn't a player's girlfriend, 3 weren't friends coming for the bus ride to Madrid, and 1 wasn't a coach. Yeah. So that puts us at 14. One of which had never played a down of football in his life and had only been to one practice the night before. Haha, you can imagine the thoughts going through our head at this point.
At about 12:30am, someone decided to put on 'The Hills Have Eyes'. Hmm. Great idea! Haha. We had a game to play in less than 12 hours, no one has slept, and we're about to watch a horror movie. Ha. It ended by 2am or so and when someone tried to put on 'Disaster Movie' I had had enough and put a quick end to that.
So we arrive in Madrid around 8 o'clock (DST is 2 weeks after the states, and this happened to be the night we 'sprung ahead'! Lucky.) We put our stuff in the locker room and thought we were going to a team breakfast. Mike, our coach said,"Okay guys, its 815 now, be back by 10 to get ready for the game at noon." When asked about the team breakfast he replied, "Well, you have about two hours, so if you have some money I suppose you could go buy some breakfast." Haha. I got a kick out of that.
A contingent of about 8 start walking around this little outskirt town of Madrid. Unfortunately, in Spain, everything is closed on Sundays. And not actually every single place, but about 95% of places. After a decent hike, we find a coffee shops that serves coffee, juice, and churros (fried dough sticks). I really actually can't think of a better pre-game meal. We did end up finding a little sandwich shop after the churros, but it wasn't much better.
Gametime: 14 players. Now, if you know football, you know that it's not like soccer. You can't really play a football game with 14 guys. That would mean that just about every player is playing both ways and every special team. Insane. The one thing we had going for us was that they only had like 23 guys, which is also very difficult. Midway through the first quarter one of our players coming back from an ACL injury reinjured his knee and was out for the game. 13.
We actually put up quite a fight. Despite penalties and linemen going both ways, we hung in there and fought until the end. They were leading 26-14 when Zac threw fade to me in the endzone in the last few minutes for a touchdown. The final score was 26-20. We actually did have a chance at winning that game, which would have been nothing short of a miracle. We were missing our 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th string receivers, so after AJ, we put in our backup middle linebacker/defensive end to play wideout. We had a fullback who had never played fullback before. Of our secondary, we had 3 players from the original 7 linebackers and defensive backs from earlier in the season. Our offensive line fought hard and opened up some big holes for me to run through and I did alright carrying the ball. My shoulder held up too, so I'm happy about that.
We ended up having a very fun bus ride home. We had dropped our second game, which put us at 3-3-1 (we ended up having to take a forfeit for the game we missed due to travel isssues) but we were having fun playing football and hanging out together.
We have one game left, this upcoming Saturday against the Barcelona Bufals at home. This would have been a showdown for a chance to make the playoffs had things not fallen apart, but now it is solely our chance at redemption for the team that beat us a few months ago. They are the best team in the league, but I know if we have a better turnout with players, we do have a solid chance to beat them. I sent an email out to the team the other night, asking players to come together for one more game as a team. I addressed the fact that yes, while the season did fall apart, it was still a lot of fun. I had a good response and I think that we may end up having at least 20 players for this one. If that is the case, then I have a good feeling about it. It would be the perfect way to finish the season - and possibly my career. Who knows if I'll play another football game after this one?
Also, my ex-roommates Nery and Danny are coming on Friday for a week, so that's going to be great. And of course I can't let them down by losing.
Monday, March 22, 2010
A tie?
Yes, the Marbella Sharks tied the Granada Lions 14-14 this past Saturday at their home pitch - Santa Maria de Las Chapas. So you must be thinking, 'Oh, they play NFL rules and no one scored in the overtime period.' Wrong. The higher-ups here in Spain at the LNFA had apparently decided that there is no need for overtime during the regular season. How fitting!
So after 48 minutes of football (I think we play only 12 minute quarters, but I couldn't tell you for certain) the game ended in a draw - what typical Spanish style!
Yes, this is the same team that we beat by 30 a month ago on their home field. So what happened? Well we had our new QB, but unfortunately we were missing about 10 other guys, and anyone who knows football knows that a group of 16 guys, no matter how good, are going to have a tough time against over 30 guys on the opposing team.
The bummer is that we had missed opportunities and didn't score from the red zone a couple times, and were very close to winning. It came down to our defense. We had many guys going both ways, and only 6 of our original 11 starters from the last time we played Granada. There were a lot of things stacked up against us, and we still almost pulled it out.
I personally had one of my best games, but what's it worth when you don't get a win? The line opened up some big holes, and our new 'draw' play worked like magic. I probably rushed for 150 yards on 15-18 carries, but couldn't find the endzone. I did have a two-point conversion that ended up keeping us alive, but we really needed one more score for a win. Defensively, too I played well, but on the whole, we had too many penalties (personal fouls and those damn offisides penalties kill us week after week) and not a single turnover. Unfortunately I busted up my shoulder a bit, but I'll be fine for next week I'm sure.
So after that, it looks like our playoff hopes are gone. We still don't know if we'll be allowed to make up the game against Sueca, and we also need Barcelona to lose or tie their next game which seems unlikely.
Our next game is this Sunday the 28th, in Madrid against the Camioneros and hopefully we'll have more than 16 players... but who knows, road games are tough.
After that, we don't play again until April 17th, so AJ and I are going to Rome for Easter weekend. It should be wild.
So after 48 minutes of football (I think we play only 12 minute quarters, but I couldn't tell you for certain) the game ended in a draw - what typical Spanish style!
Yes, this is the same team that we beat by 30 a month ago on their home field. So what happened? Well we had our new QB, but unfortunately we were missing about 10 other guys, and anyone who knows football knows that a group of 16 guys, no matter how good, are going to have a tough time against over 30 guys on the opposing team.
The bummer is that we had missed opportunities and didn't score from the red zone a couple times, and were very close to winning. It came down to our defense. We had many guys going both ways, and only 6 of our original 11 starters from the last time we played Granada. There were a lot of things stacked up against us, and we still almost pulled it out.
I personally had one of my best games, but what's it worth when you don't get a win? The line opened up some big holes, and our new 'draw' play worked like magic. I probably rushed for 150 yards on 15-18 carries, but couldn't find the endzone. I did have a two-point conversion that ended up keeping us alive, but we really needed one more score for a win. Defensively, too I played well, but on the whole, we had too many penalties (personal fouls and those damn offisides penalties kill us week after week) and not a single turnover. Unfortunately I busted up my shoulder a bit, but I'll be fine for next week I'm sure.
So after that, it looks like our playoff hopes are gone. We still don't know if we'll be allowed to make up the game against Sueca, and we also need Barcelona to lose or tie their next game which seems unlikely.
Our next game is this Sunday the 28th, in Madrid against the Camioneros and hopefully we'll have more than 16 players... but who knows, road games are tough.
After that, we don't play again until April 17th, so AJ and I are going to Rome for Easter weekend. It should be wild.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Kate's Visit
I was very excited for Kate to arrive on Sunday and even though we went out on Saturday night til pretty late, I woke up at 830 on Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep. I was planning to leave to meet her at 1030, so I spent two hours trying to kill time and ended up leaving early. The last thing I wanted was to get held up somehow and have her come out of the terminal all alone and find no one there...
Well that is exactly what happened. That morning, I checked the British Airways website and it said her flight was arriving at Terminal 2. I was at Terminal 2 about 5 minutes before she was to land, so I'm thinking everything is alright... Turns out the terminal had been switched, and about 30 minutes later I'm getting nervous and wondering what is going on. I finally ask someone and sure enough, it had been switched, so I sprint to the other terminal, and there she is all alone, trying to call my Spanish number with her credit card. Smart girl. I felt so bad, but it only went uphill from there.
We spent a night in Malaga at this cool little hotel, then headed to my house here in Nueva Andalucia for a night. She got to experience what goes on here at the house, and we went to the bars where I usually go, and it was a lot of fun. The next day we checked in to our hotel on the beach in Torremolinos. It was a nice apartment with a tiny kitchen, but it was big enough for the two of us. She's pretty small. Jajaja (that's how to say 'hahaha' in Spanish - the J makes the H sound for those of you who skipped your foreign language classes in high school). So we went on all kinds of journeys into different towns and areas and had a few picnics. One day we took a chairlift up to the top of a mountain. It was really cool, because the view is amazing, I'll throw up some pictures of that. And we had a little picnic up there. I was eating an orange and threw the peels on the ground and some crazy Spanish lady told me that I was "RUINING THE PARADISE!" I tried to explain to her that it was an orange peel and that it would fertilize the soil and help more pretty flowers grow, but she wasn't having any of that. I got over that whole situation pretty quickly. We got to go to the beach and lay out by the pool in the sun one day. The weather stayed pretty good for us, but it wasn't terribly hot, so no swimming in the Mediterranean for us.
On Thursday we drove down to Tarifa and took a ferry to Tangier, Morocco, Africa. Place was pretty cool. While they were checking my passport, two guys had already started harassing Kate and telling her they'd bring us on a tour for 40 Euro and that we could "Rock the Casbah" if we went with them. We warded them off initially, but finally ended up paying a guy 20 to bring us on a walking tour of the city. In hindsight, it was a real good move, because he showed us some really cool areas that I never would have found on my own and we avoided being harassed by all the street vendors over there. It was a really cool place to see, but I'm in no hurry to go back.
That night, we drove to Cadiz, which is on the Atlantic Coast. There we met up with one of my teammates, Axe, and stayed with him and his girlfriend at her apartment. The next day we explored the city and then drove home the long way through Ronda. It was amazing - great views and scenery. The road went right through the mountains too, so it was fun driving the winding roads, knowing that a slip-up would send us over the edge of the cliff.
Unfortunately we didn't get to stop for too long in Ronda. Ronda is the town where bullfighting was actually created and is home to the original 18th century bullring. We drove around for a minute, but couldn't quite find it, and had to be on our way back to the hotel to get ready. We had plans to go to one of my teammates house for an authentic Spanish dinner and were already running a bit behind schedule.
Luckily for us, everyone in Spain is late, and being an hour tardy is like being 20 minutes early. My teammate, Oscar, is only 25, but is married and has spent some time in Jacksonville. He had another player over and a few other friends. He made paella, a popular Spanish rice dish with lots of seafood thrown in. We had gambas, carne secreto, jamon curado, y ensalata Ruso (shrimp, secret meat, cured ham, and Russian Salad). The shrimp are a little different than what you get back in the states, mainly because they're still in full shell, heads intact. Kate really enjoyed ripping their heads off and peeling them out of the shell. And the secret meat was delicious (I have learned the secret, but cannot divulge). We told Kate that it was rabbit after she had already enjoyed a few pieces, and she was not happy with me. A few years back I had tricked her into eating 'conejo' at a Spanish restaurant in Cambridge and I had promised that if I was going to give her rabbit again, I would tell her. Anyways, the meal was delicious and it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone. It was a mix of Spanish and English conversations and a few things were lost in translation, but it was a great time.
Saturday we kind of just vegged out and enjoyed the sun. We ended up back in Puerto Banus, and hung out with a few guys on the team at a bar. We couldn't stay out too late because we had an early flight to London the next morning. We got to London Sunday evening and took the Tube (their metro or T) towards our hotel. We ended up going to the IMAX at Waterloo station and trying to get tickets for 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3D, but it was sold out until April, so we settled on an 'Avatar' in 3D at 11:30. With time to kill, we ended up finding the most amazing pizza place in the world. I had the Canberra "Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce, roast chicken breast, garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, mozzarella & marinated mushrooms topped with sour cream & sweet chilli sauce." and it was life-changing. We went to the movie after that, and it was very cool.
The next day we walked around London saw the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace and some other sights, but were a little bummed all day knowing that we were separating. She went through security around 7, and I headed back to the city to kill some time before my bus left later that night.
I was headed to Paris, on an overnight bus. I showed up at the station about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. I don't have a lot of experience on buses, and this would be perfectly fine for the ones I had taken in Spain. It wasn't until I showed up that I realized my computer print-out said to arrive no later than 1 hour before departure. I laughed it off, that is until I see the bus pulling away and after chasing it down, the driver refused to let me onboard. Back inside at the counter, I was lucky enough to get a spot on the next bus, an hour later. Haha, real smooth.
It was a crummy ride, but I made it into Paris around 7am. I had a train leaving at 11pm, so I bought a map and a little guidebook and ventured around the city. It was really cool. I walked some 8 miles I later figured out, but it was fun to see all of the cool buildings and layout of the city. It really is like nothing I had ever seen before. I'm going to have to get down to DC this summer, because I'm sure that will be interesting as well. Of course when I get to the Louvre, I find out that it's closed on Tuesdays, perfect, and then to top it off, some jerk tries to hustle me on the way out. He tells me that he's just starting his caricature business and wants to use me as a model to draw. I tell him I'm all set, recognizing the scam, but he promises I won't have to buy it, just 5 minutes to help him out. I'm alone, just hanging and it's a beautiful day outside, so why not do him a favor? After 5 minutes, he shows me this crummy picture of a guy that's supposed to look like me and I said "Nice, you can hang it to show people." This upset him quite a bit and urged that I give him "A reasonable amount of money, what you feel it's worth." and showed me that he usually charges 25 Euro for drawings. I told him I had nothing and would give him nothing, to which he responded by cursing out all Americans for being cheap assholes. I laughed and walked on.
After that little fiasco, I climbed up the Arc de Triomphe and that was cool because it's basically in the middle of a rotary of 12 intersecting streets, including the Champs de Elysee. All of I could think of was that song "Champs de Elysee" that we listened to a hundred times in Spanish class senior year. It was pretty funny. From there I headed to the Eiffel Tower. You've got another thing coming if you think I'm going to Paris and not going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
However, upon arrival, I found a line longer than most Six Flags roller coaster lines to get to the top. A few minutes later, I noticed that you could also take the stairs up for half the price and there was no line! A free workout and I didn't have to wait? I started yelling to all the people in line that they were lazy idiots and proceeded to run up the stairs as fast as I could. About halfway I stopped, exhausted and out of breath, and walked for a little bit. Apparently the stairs only go to the second level, and then you have to take the elevator from there. So I got in line, I mean, I had made it this far, and eventually rode the elevator to the top. The view was incredible. I could see where I had arrived on the bus, and then all the places that I had walked to, and then to the train station that I would need to go to later on. It was awesome.
After that, I went to the Statue of Liberty; yes, there is a second one, National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets was not completely full of it. I ended up in the college area where I found some cheap food and beer before I had to get to the station. It was Tuesday night at 11pm and I didn't arrive to the Marbella bus station until 11:45pm Wednesday night. I did have a few connections, including 3 hours in Madrid to hang out, but it was a long day.
AJ actually met me at the bus station in a cab, and we headed to an Irish bar, to celebrate St. Patty's day the right way. It had been a long trip, and it was finally over, and it was time to start getting ready for the game against Granada on Saturday.
Well that is exactly what happened. That morning, I checked the British Airways website and it said her flight was arriving at Terminal 2. I was at Terminal 2 about 5 minutes before she was to land, so I'm thinking everything is alright... Turns out the terminal had been switched, and about 30 minutes later I'm getting nervous and wondering what is going on. I finally ask someone and sure enough, it had been switched, so I sprint to the other terminal, and there she is all alone, trying to call my Spanish number with her credit card. Smart girl. I felt so bad, but it only went uphill from there.
We spent a night in Malaga at this cool little hotel, then headed to my house here in Nueva Andalucia for a night. She got to experience what goes on here at the house, and we went to the bars where I usually go, and it was a lot of fun. The next day we checked in to our hotel on the beach in Torremolinos. It was a nice apartment with a tiny kitchen, but it was big enough for the two of us. She's pretty small. Jajaja (that's how to say 'hahaha' in Spanish - the J makes the H sound for those of you who skipped your foreign language classes in high school). So we went on all kinds of journeys into different towns and areas and had a few picnics. One day we took a chairlift up to the top of a mountain. It was really cool, because the view is amazing, I'll throw up some pictures of that. And we had a little picnic up there. I was eating an orange and threw the peels on the ground and some crazy Spanish lady told me that I was "RUINING THE PARADISE!" I tried to explain to her that it was an orange peel and that it would fertilize the soil and help more pretty flowers grow, but she wasn't having any of that. I got over that whole situation pretty quickly. We got to go to the beach and lay out by the pool in the sun one day. The weather stayed pretty good for us, but it wasn't terribly hot, so no swimming in the Mediterranean for us.
On Thursday we drove down to Tarifa and took a ferry to Tangier, Morocco, Africa. Place was pretty cool. While they were checking my passport, two guys had already started harassing Kate and telling her they'd bring us on a tour for 40 Euro and that we could "Rock the Casbah" if we went with them. We warded them off initially, but finally ended up paying a guy 20 to bring us on a walking tour of the city. In hindsight, it was a real good move, because he showed us some really cool areas that I never would have found on my own and we avoided being harassed by all the street vendors over there. It was a really cool place to see, but I'm in no hurry to go back.
That night, we drove to Cadiz, which is on the Atlantic Coast. There we met up with one of my teammates, Axe, and stayed with him and his girlfriend at her apartment. The next day we explored the city and then drove home the long way through Ronda. It was amazing - great views and scenery. The road went right through the mountains too, so it was fun driving the winding roads, knowing that a slip-up would send us over the edge of the cliff.
Unfortunately we didn't get to stop for too long in Ronda. Ronda is the town where bullfighting was actually created and is home to the original 18th century bullring. We drove around for a minute, but couldn't quite find it, and had to be on our way back to the hotel to get ready. We had plans to go to one of my teammates house for an authentic Spanish dinner and were already running a bit behind schedule.
Luckily for us, everyone in Spain is late, and being an hour tardy is like being 20 minutes early. My teammate, Oscar, is only 25, but is married and has spent some time in Jacksonville. He had another player over and a few other friends. He made paella, a popular Spanish rice dish with lots of seafood thrown in. We had gambas, carne secreto, jamon curado, y ensalata Ruso (shrimp, secret meat, cured ham, and Russian Salad). The shrimp are a little different than what you get back in the states, mainly because they're still in full shell, heads intact. Kate really enjoyed ripping their heads off and peeling them out of the shell. And the secret meat was delicious (I have learned the secret, but cannot divulge). We told Kate that it was rabbit after she had already enjoyed a few pieces, and she was not happy with me. A few years back I had tricked her into eating 'conejo' at a Spanish restaurant in Cambridge and I had promised that if I was going to give her rabbit again, I would tell her. Anyways, the meal was delicious and it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone. It was a mix of Spanish and English conversations and a few things were lost in translation, but it was a great time.
Saturday we kind of just vegged out and enjoyed the sun. We ended up back in Puerto Banus, and hung out with a few guys on the team at a bar. We couldn't stay out too late because we had an early flight to London the next morning. We got to London Sunday evening and took the Tube (their metro or T) towards our hotel. We ended up going to the IMAX at Waterloo station and trying to get tickets for 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3D, but it was sold out until April, so we settled on an 'Avatar' in 3D at 11:30. With time to kill, we ended up finding the most amazing pizza place in the world. I had the Canberra "Fire & Stone’s tomato sauce, roast chicken breast, garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, mozzarella & marinated mushrooms topped with sour cream & sweet chilli sauce." and it was life-changing. We went to the movie after that, and it was very cool.
The next day we walked around London saw the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace and some other sights, but were a little bummed all day knowing that we were separating. She went through security around 7, and I headed back to the city to kill some time before my bus left later that night.
I was headed to Paris, on an overnight bus. I showed up at the station about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. I don't have a lot of experience on buses, and this would be perfectly fine for the ones I had taken in Spain. It wasn't until I showed up that I realized my computer print-out said to arrive no later than 1 hour before departure. I laughed it off, that is until I see the bus pulling away and after chasing it down, the driver refused to let me onboard. Back inside at the counter, I was lucky enough to get a spot on the next bus, an hour later. Haha, real smooth.
It was a crummy ride, but I made it into Paris around 7am. I had a train leaving at 11pm, so I bought a map and a little guidebook and ventured around the city. It was really cool. I walked some 8 miles I later figured out, but it was fun to see all of the cool buildings and layout of the city. It really is like nothing I had ever seen before. I'm going to have to get down to DC this summer, because I'm sure that will be interesting as well. Of course when I get to the Louvre, I find out that it's closed on Tuesdays, perfect, and then to top it off, some jerk tries to hustle me on the way out. He tells me that he's just starting his caricature business and wants to use me as a model to draw. I tell him I'm all set, recognizing the scam, but he promises I won't have to buy it, just 5 minutes to help him out. I'm alone, just hanging and it's a beautiful day outside, so why not do him a favor? After 5 minutes, he shows me this crummy picture of a guy that's supposed to look like me and I said "Nice, you can hang it to show people." This upset him quite a bit and urged that I give him "A reasonable amount of money, what you feel it's worth." and showed me that he usually charges 25 Euro for drawings. I told him I had nothing and would give him nothing, to which he responded by cursing out all Americans for being cheap assholes. I laughed and walked on.
After that little fiasco, I climbed up the Arc de Triomphe and that was cool because it's basically in the middle of a rotary of 12 intersecting streets, including the Champs de Elysee. All of I could think of was that song "Champs de Elysee" that we listened to a hundred times in Spanish class senior year. It was pretty funny. From there I headed to the Eiffel Tower. You've got another thing coming if you think I'm going to Paris and not going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
However, upon arrival, I found a line longer than most Six Flags roller coaster lines to get to the top. A few minutes later, I noticed that you could also take the stairs up for half the price and there was no line! A free workout and I didn't have to wait? I started yelling to all the people in line that they were lazy idiots and proceeded to run up the stairs as fast as I could. About halfway I stopped, exhausted and out of breath, and walked for a little bit. Apparently the stairs only go to the second level, and then you have to take the elevator from there. So I got in line, I mean, I had made it this far, and eventually rode the elevator to the top. The view was incredible. I could see where I had arrived on the bus, and then all the places that I had walked to, and then to the train station that I would need to go to later on. It was awesome.
After that, I went to the Statue of Liberty; yes, there is a second one, National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets was not completely full of it. I ended up in the college area where I found some cheap food and beer before I had to get to the station. It was Tuesday night at 11pm and I didn't arrive to the Marbella bus station until 11:45pm Wednesday night. I did have a few connections, including 3 hours in Madrid to hang out, but it was a long day.
AJ actually met me at the bus station in a cab, and we headed to an Irish bar, to celebrate St. Patty's day the right way. It had been a long trip, and it was finally over, and it was time to start getting ready for the game against Granada on Saturday.
Update
My mom has been killing me to write another entry on here, and I swear I've been meaning to, I've just been busy. The last 2 weeks have been quite a roller coaster for me and the Sharks.
After the loss at Barcelona, our Owner/Head Coach, Mike, decided that we needed to make some changes at the Quarterback position. It just so happened that the QB from last season, Zac, who played at Division 1 Colorado a few years back, had moved back into Marbella. Mike was trying to get him to come on as Offensive Coordinator, but soon decided he would have him play as well. This meant that our current QB, Mark, would become the backup and would be removed from the game roster (you can only have 3 Americans on the game roster at a time). Unfortunately, when Mike decided to make this change, he addressed the team via email, since he was still in Barcelona with his family.
Mark, as expected, didn't take the change too well, and since he had done a lot in recruiting many of the players (including myself and AJ) started talking about leaving and starting a new team in Malaga. This idea, while it wasn't a legitimate threat for this season, started to grow and many of the players wanted to quit the Sharks. The week was a complete mess. And to make matters worse, Mike had to return to the States on business and has been there for a weeks on available via email.
After hundreds of emails, a few team meetings, and hours of arguing in both English and Spanish - Mike addressed the team, again via e-mail, that we would be moving forward with Zac as our QB and anyone who was not interested could walk.
This was all finalized on Friday evening. We had a game in Sueca (outside Valencia) at 3:30 on Saturday. We also had no bus or vans or anything. By midnight, we book a van online in Malaga. At 4:30 am, we wake up to go meet up with the rest of the team. There are 12 guys ready to make the trip. Things do not look promising.
Turns out that a few guys were going to meet us there and that we would have enough players in order to not forfeit....
HOWEVER, after about 2 hours of the 6 hour trip to Valencia, we got stuck in a little bit of a rainstorm and Ground Force One did a little bit of hydroplaning into a guard rail. Everyone on board was fine, but the car was not moving. We ended up getting it towed up to Granada only to find out that we would be making it to Sueca for our game any time soon. We quickly called the team and the League to tell them of our unfortunate circumstances.
Instead of turning lemons in lemonade, we said screw it, and 8 of us decided to enjoy the day in Granada. We went and got some lunch and beers, and then walked to the Alhambra, which is a famous old Moorish castle. Not much to look at from the outside, and we weren't about to pay to go inside. But when you take 8 football players and stick them in the middle of a tourist attraction on a nice sunny day with a few beers, things are going to be fun. As it turned out, Granada just so happened to be playing Barcelona at 4 in Granada. And there was no way we were going to miss that.
We showed up and got to scout both teams out a little bit. It was actually very useful since our new QB, Zac, hasn't seen any of these teams and he got a chance to dissect both defenses. But it was also great for AJ and I to get to watch from the sideline. We knew we'd be playing both of these teams again, and it's hard to really see what's going on when you're playing on the field, so this gave us a little more perspective. And plus, it's always fun to watch some American football on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
We are working to get that game rescheduled. It'd be a bummer if we had to forfeit, but it is what it is, and what will be will be.
This all happened on Saturday, the 6th of March, and on the 7th, Kate was arriving at the airport at noon. So I was very excited.
Stay tuned for part 2....
After the loss at Barcelona, our Owner/Head Coach, Mike, decided that we needed to make some changes at the Quarterback position. It just so happened that the QB from last season, Zac, who played at Division 1 Colorado a few years back, had moved back into Marbella. Mike was trying to get him to come on as Offensive Coordinator, but soon decided he would have him play as well. This meant that our current QB, Mark, would become the backup and would be removed from the game roster (you can only have 3 Americans on the game roster at a time). Unfortunately, when Mike decided to make this change, he addressed the team via email, since he was still in Barcelona with his family.
Mark, as expected, didn't take the change too well, and since he had done a lot in recruiting many of the players (including myself and AJ) started talking about leaving and starting a new team in Malaga. This idea, while it wasn't a legitimate threat for this season, started to grow and many of the players wanted to quit the Sharks. The week was a complete mess. And to make matters worse, Mike had to return to the States on business and has been there for a weeks on available via email.
After hundreds of emails, a few team meetings, and hours of arguing in both English and Spanish - Mike addressed the team, again via e-mail, that we would be moving forward with Zac as our QB and anyone who was not interested could walk.
This was all finalized on Friday evening. We had a game in Sueca (outside Valencia) at 3:30 on Saturday. We also had no bus or vans or anything. By midnight, we book a van online in Malaga. At 4:30 am, we wake up to go meet up with the rest of the team. There are 12 guys ready to make the trip. Things do not look promising.
Turns out that a few guys were going to meet us there and that we would have enough players in order to not forfeit....
HOWEVER, after about 2 hours of the 6 hour trip to Valencia, we got stuck in a little bit of a rainstorm and Ground Force One did a little bit of hydroplaning into a guard rail. Everyone on board was fine, but the car was not moving. We ended up getting it towed up to Granada only to find out that we would be making it to Sueca for our game any time soon. We quickly called the team and the League to tell them of our unfortunate circumstances.
Instead of turning lemons in lemonade, we said screw it, and 8 of us decided to enjoy the day in Granada. We went and got some lunch and beers, and then walked to the Alhambra, which is a famous old Moorish castle. Not much to look at from the outside, and we weren't about to pay to go inside. But when you take 8 football players and stick them in the middle of a tourist attraction on a nice sunny day with a few beers, things are going to be fun. As it turned out, Granada just so happened to be playing Barcelona at 4 in Granada. And there was no way we were going to miss that.
We showed up and got to scout both teams out a little bit. It was actually very useful since our new QB, Zac, hasn't seen any of these teams and he got a chance to dissect both defenses. But it was also great for AJ and I to get to watch from the sideline. We knew we'd be playing both of these teams again, and it's hard to really see what's going on when you're playing on the field, so this gave us a little more perspective. And plus, it's always fun to watch some American football on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
We are working to get that game rescheduled. It'd be a bummer if we had to forfeit, but it is what it is, and what will be will be.
This all happened on Saturday, the 6th of March, and on the 7th, Kate was arriving at the airport at noon. So I was very excited.
Stay tuned for part 2....
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Not Undefeated
The Sharks fell this past Saturday at the hands of the Barcelona Bufals 13-8. It was very upsetting even though it doesn't matter all that much for our playoff hopes. We had too many turnovers and penalties and they came at the worst times - at start of drives and on defensive third down situations. My mom and Emily were in town for the game so it was a bummer to play such a crummy game while they were here. However, they enjoyed meeting the team and watching us play, so it was all good. And like I said, we will still make the playoffs if we can win the rest of our games, and most importantly the rematch against Barcelona on April 18th at home.
Home field advantage here in Spain is very important; not only was it a 10 hour drive, but many players have jobs and families and a few starters weren't at the game. Only in Spain right? Well we are glad to have played a close game on the road even though we committed so many mistakes. Since we now play the same four teams again, our confidence is high that we can win the rest of our games.
While we did lose the game, the trip to Barcelona was amazing. I left on Thursday afternoon with Deb and Em, and we flew into Girona on RyanAir. This is a lot like flying into Manchester, NH on Southwest Airlines. The flight was only 20 euros each for a one way ticket. Cheap right? No. You definitely learn a lot on your first RyanAir flight... First was typical, 30 euro to check a bag, but you can't buy an extra seat to put your bag in. Pretty standard in this day and age. So we arrive at the airport and Emily and my mom each have a bag to check and we all a carry on bag. When we go to check in the women says to me (in Spanish) this bag is 13 kilos over the 15 kilo weight limit and will cost 20 euros/kilo.... After realizing that we're looking at $400 to check the bag, we start throwing things away and thinking about solutions. One of the things in the bag were a few bottles of wine that my mother was bringing home for gifts. Well those had to go. So after an hour of reorganizing and drinking, we finally were able to check a 3rd bag instead of a carry-on for only 30 euro more and we were feeling really good about it all.
We get to Girona, still a little giddy and went to our hotel there. We had decided to book a room there rather than going all the way to Barcelona right away. For dinner we went to el casco antiguo, the old town, and found a nice Spanish restaurant. It was a fun trip and I was glad we were able to see that area, but I was excited to get to Barcelona. We took an early train to Barcelona the next morning and find that our hotel is right in the middle of the city - it was great. We got to see Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, a huge monument to Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus for all the nonners), The Cathederal, and of course endless vendors of FC Barcelona soccer jerseys. Barca is arguably the best club team in the world and after winning the Champion's League last year, they went out and spent over 250 million euro on new players... Sounds a lot like the Yankees.
After one guy chased me out of his store yelling he'd "KICK MY ASS!", we hiked back to the area around our hotel and bargained with a guy for 20 minutes before settling on Zlatan Ibrahimovic's jersey for 20 euro. He's the newest addition to the squad, a Swede signed this year for an A-Rod sized contract. I was really looking for Lionel Messi jersey, but they didn't have my size, but I'm psyched about Ibrahimovic, so it all worked out.
The best part of the story is later that night, when I met up with the team at the hotel they were staying at, I decided to wear this new jersey out for our team dinner. When I walked out of the elevator, I instantly heard the roar of a riot forming. Every Spanish curse word I'd ever heard of was being screamed at me, along with plenty that I didn't understand. Two guys grabbed me and tried to carry me back to the elevator and up to my room. At first I was very confused, but then realized wearing the Barca jersey around people from Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) was like wearing a Yankees jersey into a Red Sox Fanclub initiation. Haha, but I didn't care, it was all in good fun. One guy pulled out his lighter and tried to set the shirt on fire while I was still wearing it. After a few guys got everyone else settled down and we walked to the restaurant, I spoke with a few of the guys in Spanish about Barcelona. After an embarrassing exchange of words, I came to realize that the reason everyone hates Barcelona is that they are part of Catalunia - the northern state in Spain, that has basically been trying to secede from Spain for many years. Apparently, when Barcelona goes to the UK to play a match, and they play the Spanish national anthem, the Barcelona fans boo. So this rivalry goes beyond just sports, it's about national pride.
When I told the guys that I also bought a Christiano Renaldo, Real Madrid jersey last week, they laughed. I can't say I'd have the same reaction if some punk bought a Patriots and a Jets jersey and I knew about it.
On Sunday night, after the loss, me, AJ, and Axe - our 240 pound Finnish middle linebacker decided to stay around and go out. Of course I decide to rock the Barca jersey again, considering we were in Barcelona and it turned out that FC Barcelona's basketball team actually beat Real Madrid in the National Championship earlier that night. So instead of being attacked for wearing the shirt, everyone was coming up and giving me high fives in celebration of the big win.
At 6am I heard my alarm going off and realized I had to leave the club and get back to the hotel to say goodbye to my mom and sister, who had an early flight. Emily had decided not to join us at the bar this night, one was enough for her. Haha, she did in fact come out with me on Friday night, but I kept a keen eye on here and made sure she had nothing in her glass except deliciously refreshing Coca-Cola. The Coke is actually a lot better here than in the states, because they use actual sugarcane instead of corn syrup, but that's another story. Well, I almost missed them leaving because we had a "I take the stairs and they ride down the elevator" sort of moment, but when I found the room empty I started running full speed out of the hotel and to the subway. I yelled my mom's name just as she was about to go through the turnstile of the station. Lucky. I said goodbye to them and headed back to the bar to find my friends. I was very happy that they had come to visit. We had a lot of fun together and got to enjoy a bunch of very cool experiences.
The next day we got up and messed around killing time until Mike wanted to drive back south to Marbella. The maids finally kicked us out of the room a few hours after checkout. (Mom, don't worry, you're not getting a charge, we took care of it at the front desk - since doce (12) sounds a lot like dos (2), we pretended to be stupid Americans with poor Spanish skills.... Pretended?) So we went up to El Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's 100,000 seat stadium and then went and found a bar. We finally left Barcelona at 9pm. I took the liberty of co-piloting while AJ and Axe slept in the back. It was an 11 hour journey home, me and Mike spliting up the driving halfway, but we made it. Alive.
The last few days have been real lazy. I cannot believe it's already Friday. Finally though, the rain has stopped and I'm sitting outside shirtless catching some great bene's (beneficial rays of glorious sunshine) as I write this. You'll have to forgive any mistakes, I'm just way too lazy to proofread right now.
Home field advantage here in Spain is very important; not only was it a 10 hour drive, but many players have jobs and families and a few starters weren't at the game. Only in Spain right? Well we are glad to have played a close game on the road even though we committed so many mistakes. Since we now play the same four teams again, our confidence is high that we can win the rest of our games.
While we did lose the game, the trip to Barcelona was amazing. I left on Thursday afternoon with Deb and Em, and we flew into Girona on RyanAir. This is a lot like flying into Manchester, NH on Southwest Airlines. The flight was only 20 euros each for a one way ticket. Cheap right? No. You definitely learn a lot on your first RyanAir flight... First was typical, 30 euro to check a bag, but you can't buy an extra seat to put your bag in. Pretty standard in this day and age. So we arrive at the airport and Emily and my mom each have a bag to check and we all a carry on bag. When we go to check in the women says to me (in Spanish) this bag is 13 kilos over the 15 kilo weight limit and will cost 20 euros/kilo.... After realizing that we're looking at $400 to check the bag, we start throwing things away and thinking about solutions. One of the things in the bag were a few bottles of wine that my mother was bringing home for gifts. Well those had to go. So after an hour of reorganizing and drinking, we finally were able to check a 3rd bag instead of a carry-on for only 30 euro more and we were feeling really good about it all.
We get to Girona, still a little giddy and went to our hotel there. We had decided to book a room there rather than going all the way to Barcelona right away. For dinner we went to el casco antiguo, the old town, and found a nice Spanish restaurant. It was a fun trip and I was glad we were able to see that area, but I was excited to get to Barcelona. We took an early train to Barcelona the next morning and find that our hotel is right in the middle of the city - it was great. We got to see Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia, a huge monument to Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus for all the nonners), The Cathederal, and of course endless vendors of FC Barcelona soccer jerseys. Barca is arguably the best club team in the world and after winning the Champion's League last year, they went out and spent over 250 million euro on new players... Sounds a lot like the Yankees.
After one guy chased me out of his store yelling he'd "KICK MY ASS!", we hiked back to the area around our hotel and bargained with a guy for 20 minutes before settling on Zlatan Ibrahimovic's jersey for 20 euro. He's the newest addition to the squad, a Swede signed this year for an A-Rod sized contract. I was really looking for Lionel Messi jersey, but they didn't have my size, but I'm psyched about Ibrahimovic, so it all worked out.
The best part of the story is later that night, when I met up with the team at the hotel they were staying at, I decided to wear this new jersey out for our team dinner. When I walked out of the elevator, I instantly heard the roar of a riot forming. Every Spanish curse word I'd ever heard of was being screamed at me, along with plenty that I didn't understand. Two guys grabbed me and tried to carry me back to the elevator and up to my room. At first I was very confused, but then realized wearing the Barca jersey around people from Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) was like wearing a Yankees jersey into a Red Sox Fanclub initiation. Haha, but I didn't care, it was all in good fun. One guy pulled out his lighter and tried to set the shirt on fire while I was still wearing it. After a few guys got everyone else settled down and we walked to the restaurant, I spoke with a few of the guys in Spanish about Barcelona. After an embarrassing exchange of words, I came to realize that the reason everyone hates Barcelona is that they are part of Catalunia - the northern state in Spain, that has basically been trying to secede from Spain for many years. Apparently, when Barcelona goes to the UK to play a match, and they play the Spanish national anthem, the Barcelona fans boo. So this rivalry goes beyond just sports, it's about national pride.
When I told the guys that I also bought a Christiano Renaldo, Real Madrid jersey last week, they laughed. I can't say I'd have the same reaction if some punk bought a Patriots and a Jets jersey and I knew about it.
On Sunday night, after the loss, me, AJ, and Axe - our 240 pound Finnish middle linebacker decided to stay around and go out. Of course I decide to rock the Barca jersey again, considering we were in Barcelona and it turned out that FC Barcelona's basketball team actually beat Real Madrid in the National Championship earlier that night. So instead of being attacked for wearing the shirt, everyone was coming up and giving me high fives in celebration of the big win.
At 6am I heard my alarm going off and realized I had to leave the club and get back to the hotel to say goodbye to my mom and sister, who had an early flight. Emily had decided not to join us at the bar this night, one was enough for her. Haha, she did in fact come out with me on Friday night, but I kept a keen eye on here and made sure she had nothing in her glass except deliciously refreshing Coca-Cola. The Coke is actually a lot better here than in the states, because they use actual sugarcane instead of corn syrup, but that's another story. Well, I almost missed them leaving because we had a "I take the stairs and they ride down the elevator" sort of moment, but when I found the room empty I started running full speed out of the hotel and to the subway. I yelled my mom's name just as she was about to go through the turnstile of the station. Lucky. I said goodbye to them and headed back to the bar to find my friends. I was very happy that they had come to visit. We had a lot of fun together and got to enjoy a bunch of very cool experiences.
The next day we got up and messed around killing time until Mike wanted to drive back south to Marbella. The maids finally kicked us out of the room a few hours after checkout. (Mom, don't worry, you're not getting a charge, we took care of it at the front desk - since doce (12) sounds a lot like dos (2), we pretended to be stupid Americans with poor Spanish skills.... Pretended?) So we went up to El Camp Nou, FC Barcelona's 100,000 seat stadium and then went and found a bar. We finally left Barcelona at 9pm. I took the liberty of co-piloting while AJ and Axe slept in the back. It was an 11 hour journey home, me and Mike spliting up the driving halfway, but we made it. Alive.
The last few days have been real lazy. I cannot believe it's already Friday. Finally though, the rain has stopped and I'm sitting outside shirtless catching some great bene's (beneficial rays of glorious sunshine) as I write this. You'll have to forgive any mistakes, I'm just way too lazy to proofread right now.
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