Honeymoon -- Day 3: In Search of Futbol!

(From Brian)
Around 7p we set out to find a place to watch the Espana soccer game. When we had first arrived and asked about places to watch games, the guy at the hotel desk, the salesmen at a souvenir stand and multiple people at information kiosks pretty much answered with blank stares and no information. "Any bar" was the common response with nobody having any suggestions at all. Not even a bad one. "Surely I wouldn't know" was my favorite response as if I was being offensive to suggest that Spanish people would watch futbol. I expected a plaza with hundreds of people and a very large screen. I was told to find any bar. After spending more time in the country and learning about the culture and the people, it turns out that Catalonians are not particularly fond of Spain. Catalonia has its own government, rules and official language and wants to be its own country. But its not. So the best soccer players are on the national team but they would rather have their own team. It also seems that the Catalonian people support FC Barcelona much more than they do the Espana national team. So surely they would not have anything set up to watch the games.

We walked around seeking a good spot with lots of fans and found a lack of compelling options. Eventually, when nearing kickoff, we went into a large sports bar and had many seats to choose from. It turned out to be an Australian themed bar that only served Fosters among Aussie drinks. Just before halftime a group of actual Aussies came and sat at our table and complained about the lack of authenticity. They insisted that Dingo's and Kangaroos are about as rare in Australia as iguanas re in the USA. The Aussies had been to a few world cup games in South Africa and then came to Barca as part of their 6 week vacation. Lindsay, in her typical style, tried to set up the Aussie guys with a group of Aussie girls at the next table over and we had a good time chatting with the groups and watching the game. One funny thing that happened - one of the Aussie girls asked us if we wanted to hear her American accent. We said yes and she proceeded to talk like Cher from Clueless. Apparently to the Aussies this is how they impersonate Americans...awesome!

One of my expected highlights of the trip was to join the locals in celebration of their team playing for the world cup. While we didn't see this from the Spanish people we did experience from people of other nationalities. After the game we saw greater celebration from Chile fans who lost their game but advanced to the 2nd round. We learned a Chilean cheer..."Chi chi chi, ile ile ile, viva Chile" which we've been chanting at random times during the trip. We are bummed to see the lack of support for Espana, but it's fun to see the fans from Chile and Argentina celebrate their countries.