So...Bilbao lost 4-1 but what an experience!! Eva, Leire and I arrived in Bilbao at about 6pm, and the streets were packed with people covered in red and white! It reminded me a lot of Whyte Ave in Edmonton when the Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup final (not the red and white part, but the atmosphere and lots of fanatic people part). Except here, there were several streets jam packed with people, and it's legal to drink on the street, so the crowd was a bit wilder. I've never witnessed so many flares set off. By the end of the night, the entire city was COVERED in garbage. Bottles, wine boxes (wine comes in 1L tetra packs for less than 1€. This is what you mix with coke to make Kalimotxo. This is what thousands of people were doing on the streets), plastic bags, foam fingers, and many other things covered the entire city.
After making it to San Mames, we saw a couple of concerts by Basque bands, some men that could do amazing things with a soccer ball, and the release of many red and white balloons. Then, the game which started at 10pm. The first half was amazing! Bilbao scored the first goal and the stadium went insane! The Spanish have perfected the art of 'GGGGOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL'. Then, Barça scored one and the first half ended at a 1-1 tie. In the second half, Barça scored again, and again, and again... but every time Bilbao even touched the ball, the crowd insisted on going crazy. My favorite part of the second half, was that everytime Barça scored, more and more police enforcement filled the stadium for riot control. Oh, futbol fans - they're just a bit crazy and I would venture to say, even more so in the Basque Country.
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene
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