We all took the elevator and still had quite a bit of time before the match so we decided to walk around the city. It really was beautiful. I could not stop myself from falling in love with the city, it was so different. Everyone in the city was smiling, the sun was shining and heavenly scents floated out from cafes. Everywhere we looked there were Barcelona shirts. We didn’t feel out of place, in fact we felt like we always belonged here. Finally our cravings gave in.
“That smell of waffles! We have to buy some!” I said as I ran to a vendor to purchase what smelt like heaven.
“Get me one too!” Elena screamed.
“Hey for Nate and I too!” Matt screamed.
“Okay!” I said.
I went up to the lady serving waffles and attempted to try my extremely limited Spanish.
“Ola,” I said.
“Ola,” she said with a bright smile.
“Me gustaria quatro waffles por favour, “ (I’d like 4 walffles please) I asked praying I sounded decent enough. She smiled and turned around to get 4 waffles and gave them to me. I handed two to Elena.
“Gracias” I said.
“De nada!” she said happily. Elena started eating her waffle immediately.
“These are so good!”Elena said.
“Can you eat with some dignity?” Matt asked.
“Oh shut up. I’m eating fine.” Elena said and then Matt started laughing.
“What!?” Elena asked.
“On your nose Elena, you have some icing sugar, “ Nate said.
Elena rubbed her nose.
“You weren’t supposed to tell her!” Matt said.
“Hey new country, new rules remember? By the way Jade how much do we owe you?” Nate asked.
“Nothing!” I said smiling, “I’m too happy to care about my money for now.”
“Really? So can you give me 50 euros? I really want to buy a couple of things,” Matt said.
“Matt I said I’m not too worried about my money, not stupid,”I said.
“You sure?” he said trying to get me riled up like he did with Elena but I knew this game.
“Oh my gosh, that girl is so pretty!” I said. Instantly Matt turned his head and saw an old man walking behind him. Elena and I started laughing.
“Oh how funny, remember guys, I know your fantasies about the players and since we are working in the same building I could always slip up by mistake,” Matt said mischievously.
“Matt you wouldn’t!” Elena said.
“Oh bring it on,” I said.
“Jade! What the hell is your problem?!” Elena said.
“Well if he did ever say that, we could say he is gay, and Nate could agree that he hits on him all the time right Nate?” I asked.
“Yeah sure, that would be funny,” Nate said.
“What happened to the bromance?” Matt asked Nate seriously.
Just then we heard people on the street screaming and singing the Barcelona anthem. The whole city was excited. It was the first match for La Liga so everyone was getting excited. After beating Manchester United at the Uefa final, which was known as one of the best matches in history, it was no wonder why the people of Barcelona were so excited.
“Oh my gosh!” I said.
“What?” Elena asked.
“Look!” I said as I pointed to a 20-something wearing a Barcelona shirt.
“Well that confirms it then,” Matt said.
The shirt had a number 4 with the name Fabregas on it. This meant he must have transferred and naturally all the people of Barcelona could not be happier.
“We might see him play tonight guys!” Elena said.
“That would be crazy!” I said.
“Hey guys, it looks like there is a lot of people, we should go now if we want to be on time. We’re not too sure about the lines at the metro,” Nate said.
We all began walking towards the nearest metro and went downstairs into the underground station.
“I’ll buy our tickets!” Elena said as she went towards the machine. She pushed some buttons and soon enough we had four tickets. We all scanned our tickets and went through the barriers.
“We have to take the Navy line to Collerblanc and from there Camp Nou is a couple blocks down,” I said.
“Ok let’s go!” Matt said.
We walked down 3 flights of stairs and then got to the platform; it was starting to get busy. Most of the crowd had Barcelona shirts, scarfs or flags with them. You could feel the excitement already building in the air.
“This is crazy!” Elena said.
“I know! We are always so used to seeing it on tv and today we will be right there!” I said.
“And don’t forget, right in the front. Now just so we’re clear, if you guys jump on to the field and get tackled by security guards I swear I will watch you guys and laugh.” Matt said.
“Wow some ladies man you are, “ I said.
“I’m sorry Jade but I have to agree with Matt on this one,” Nate said.
“What?!” I said in a mock hurt voice.
“Yeah, and the bromance is back!” Matt said as he gave Nate a high five.
“Guys! Stop it! Come on! The metro is coming!” Elena screamed.
Soon enough the metro came in and all the doors opened as people started climbing in. At every stop it got fuller of people going to the game. I was shaking from excitement and I’m pretty sure Elena was as well. The metro voice mentioned that Collerblanc was the next stop.
“That’s us guys!” I said.
“I can’t wait! I’m so excited!” Elena screamed.
“We, we, we, so excited, we so excited we’re gonna have a ball to-day,” Matt sang Rebecca Black’s Friday.
“Matt did you have to kill the mood?! New country, new rules remember!” Nate asked.
“But it’s-“ Matt began to sing.
“Not Friday,” Nate, Elena and I said bluntly.
“Jeez you guys are so jealous of her,” Matt said.
“Collerblanc” the ladies voice said.
We all headed towards the door to get out but it took a while since most people were getting out at this stop. We all walked to the end of the platform and then up the flight of stairs. We then went through the barriers again and there were three more flights of stairs that would lead us to the streets. We finally were back on top of the city.
“So where to now Jade?” Elena asked.
“I’m not too sure,” I said looking at the map and then mentally slapped myself,” I’m so stupid, just follow everyone!”
We looked up and all we saw was a sea of red, blue and yellow. Everyone was walking either down the main street or walking up. We chose to walk up for about half a block and then we took a right.
“Look!” I said as we passed a bank poster with Pep on it. There were small stores and ahead we saw a park. After walking straight for about 3 blocks we took another right.
“Are you sure we’re going the right way Jade?” Nate asked.
“Yes we are!” Elena said excitedly as she pointed to a huge stadium.
“It looks a bit better in the pictures don’t you guys think?” He asked.
Elena and Nate both glared at Matt while I laughed.
“Why are you laughing Jade? “ Elena asked surprised.
“Well Matt’s kinda right,” I said.
“What?” Nate asked.
“That’s Barcelona B’s stadium” I said as we started walking past it and after about a block I pointed,”That’s Camp Nou.”
We all stopped for a while to take in the fact that we were right here, the one and only Camp Nou.
“Wait then why is everyone walking around?” Matt asked.
“This is the basketball court side, if we walk with the rest of the crowds we’ll see the stadium!” I said.
We all walked with the crowd feeling overjoyed and full of life. After about five minutes we came to a place where the silver fence became gates that are open.
“This is the entrance to Camp Nou,” Nate said admirably.
We started to walk in and immediately to our right there was a massive poster of the whole team in an action shot. Around us there was people selling all Barcelona paraphernalia.
“Ooh I want a scarf!” I said.
“Me too!” Nate said.
“Wait look! I am buying that flag!” Elena said.
“I’ll get one too!” Matt said.
Elena turned around and gave him a look.
“I’ll buy it myself Elena, relax,” Matt said as Elena gave him an approving look. After we all bought our merchandise we were ready to enter the stadium.
“Oh my gosh guys this is it!” Elena screamed as we heard everyone screaming “Visca Barca” and singing the anthem.
“I know!” I screamed.
“This is crazy!” Nate screamed.
“Oh my gosh! We are going to see the Barcelona Legends! In the flesh! In front of us! This is just insane!” Matt said. Elena smiled at him shrewdly.
“You sure you won’t be the one running on the field?” she said but we were all to happy to care at the moment.
“Matt do you have the tickets?” Nate asked.
“No, I told you to take it,” Matt said.
“No Matt, you didn’t,” Nate said.
“I did, I said I’ll leave it on the desk and you should take it because you have an inside jacket pocket,” Matt said.
“No you didn’t! This cannot be happening!” Nate said.
“Matt?!” Elena and I screamed.
“Relax, guys I’m kidding!” Matt said with a smile. We all smacked him.
“Jeez you guys are so violent!” Matt said.
“How could you do that!?” Elena said.
“Because it’s fun,” Matt said with a smile as once again Elena slapped him.
“OK guys let’s go!” I said.
We all walked towards the guards who were standing next to the ticket scanners. Matt gave us all our tickets. We all scanned them in and started screaming. We were about to see FC Barcelona right in front of us.