Barca Barca Barcaaaaaa!

March 17, 2013-

Today was the big day, the day I have been waiting for all semester long. Today was the day I got to go to my first BARCA (futbol) game!!!!

Let me give you a little background. 

The people here in Spain are VERY proud of their team and the players that play for them. Everytime there is a Barca game and I am not out watching it, I know when they score because I hear all the yelling from the people in the bars. They have fireworks that go off around the city when they score too. It's great because I don't even have to be watching the game to know how many goals Barca has scored. I can also tell when the refs make a bad call...I'm telling you, these people live and breathe Barca.

Because of their spirit and all the hype around Barcelona I was even more excited to finally have the opportunity to go to a game! ISA has a bunch of mini activities which they put on: they pay for half and you pay for the other half. They have a list of 5 activities and you get to choose which one/ones you want to go to.  For example, some of the activities included: horseback riding, a cooking class, eating tapas at various restaurants around Barcelona, etc. My choice was the Barca game.

Our meeting time was 7:45 p.m. I got on the metro at 7:05 (and thank God I did) because as soon as I got on we were shoulder to shoulder packed in the metro all the way until the stop for the stadium (Camp Nou). For a minute there I couldn't breathe because there was so many people! Everyone was wearing their Barca gear and so excited for the game.

Getting off the metro I found the group and my friends and we walked to the stadium. Everyone was walking in the middle of the street, not caring that cars still needed to get through. 

After arriving at the stadium we got our tickets and made our way to get seated.

On the tickets we seemed to have great seats, and then when we were informed that it didn't matter what seat you sat in, just as long as it's the right section, we immediately ran to the very  first row and that's where we sat for the entire game. Good thing we got there early!
Second section up, first row. I couldn't have asked for better seats!

The game was one of the best sporting events I have ever been to, the energy in the stadium was unbelievable. The people were so passionate about every single goal their scored.

Barca has sort of a "national anthem" which they all sing in Catalan. Of course, I didn't know the words, but there was one part that we all picked up on and that was "Barca, Barca, Baaaarrcccaaaa"!! 

After Messi, their #1 player, scored they all bowed down to him, it was really funny. Or, a player on the other team would trip one of their players and the fans would all give them the finger. It was quite comical!

The Catalans have this saying, something along the lines of  "God is Argentina, God is the heavens." Their favorite player, Lionel Messi, is Argentinean and that is who they are referring to. I wasn't kidding when I said they love Messi, they really do!

Barca won 3-1 which made the energy of the game that much better. After the game people were running around in the streets with the Spanish or Argentinean flag on their backs and going crazy. It was truly a night to remember.