Real Futbol

Probably one of the coolest things we have done during this whole stint abroad has been going to a Real Madrid football game. Tickets ain't cheap, but it was a bucket list thing for Daniel. Real Madrid is his favorite team. In fact, I think he would dump me for Cristiano Ronaldo if given the chance. It was quite an experience getting to watch them live!

We had to go to the Nike shop before hand to look at all of the Real Madrid merchandise, trophies, pictures, etc. 

Ashley and Kiko didn't go to the game with us, but we were able to find the stadium pretty easily. We took the rowdiest bus we had ever been on. Lots of drunk men pumped up for the game! 

Real played another Madrid team, Rayo. A parade of hundreds of Rayo fans stormed past us on the way to the stadium. They were flicking us off, yelling cuss words, and threatening to fight Real fans. It was nuts! Police men on horses and with batons had to keep the Real and Rayo fans seperated. I was really scared that a horse would back up to me and kick me. 

  Because of the parade of Rayo fans, it took us forever to actually get through the gates (the police wouldn't let any Real fans go through until all of the Rayo fans did, or else a fight would happen). I definitely see how people can get trampled to death at a soccer match. I couldn't believe how much anger and aggression was spent over a game.Quite an experience!

The game itself was great! We stompled Rayo 5-0. Daniel got to see Ronaldo score a beautiful goal within the first 15 minutes of the game I believe. It was really so exciting to be there!

Side note- the game started at 10 PM! I was worried about being able to stay up that late, but it ended up not being a problem at all. And there were tons of kids at the game! At half time, around 11 PM, they all took out their sandwiches and had dinner. I just couldn't get over how late everybody stays up in Spain!

I'll conclude my Madrid posts with this picture of us with our horns up. The guy in the background, Jesus, was the friend who is curing cancer right now. We had THE BEST time in Spain and I am so thankful that we got to explore such a cool city with Ashley and Kiko.