Aupa Athletic

Last night I had the chance to go to the FC Barcelona vs. Athletic Club Bilbao soccer game. Since my host family and I live in Bilbao and the friends with whom I went to the game live there as well and are Athletic fanatics, I felt obligated to cheer them on. The weather was absolutely awful- strong winds and pouring rain. We arrived around 6pm to the Hotel Carlton, where the FC Barcelona players were staying and we got to stand a foot away from them as they walked onto their bus. One thing I learned from watching this: Messi is super short! The game took place at 8pm in Bilbao's home stadium, thus the majority of the people there were against Barcelona. There was an unimaginable amount of cheering, noise makers, and chants. The atmosphere was indescribable..although the weather was horrible everyone was happy, enjoyed themselves, and talked to the strangers around them like they were good friends and had known each other for years. At half-time every person in the stadium pulled out his or her Bocadillo (similar to a sub) to eat for dinner. Seriously, every single person. Barcelona was expected to win but surprisingly Athletic Club almost won! (Barcelona scored in the last 60 seconds of the game to tie it 2-2).