Just got back from our little adventure in
Barcelona...
We went to Spain for a week (4 days before the game and 3
days after) by car and stayed near Salou, travelling went well.
Stopped over in Sitges for one night; this is the place where
the Barcelona Dragons players are based and is also home of one
of the most active fanclubs of the Dragons; the Sitges-Sack club
(those were the guys playing drums at our home game against Barcelona).
We had lunch at the Sitges sportsbar in full Admirals gear; this
is where the Dragons players stay and have their lunches as well.
You should have seen the looks on some of the players faces;
absolutly brilliant.
Day of Game:
Struggled to find the stadium, which
is situated in a really
nice park. Once we found it we drove
up to some guards at what
appeared to be a parking area to
ask them where we could park,
but they wouldn't even let us start
talking and just waived us
in the parking area. We parked the
car to discover that we were
surrounded by fences and we could
only go two ways; back through
the guards or enter the stadium through
some sort of tunnel.
We decided to do the latter. What
luck it appeared that the parking
area we were on was the VIP area
and the tunnel leaded directly
to the field.... HAHAHA.... So we
got the chance to walk on the
field and around it for half an hour
before the Barcelona Nationals
coach decided the it was a bit wierd
that 4 Admirals fans where
walking around the field fully dressed
up in Orange and asked
us for field passes, after a little
chat and us explaining what
happened and asking directions we
moved off the field to the
Pre Game party. All in all a very
hilarious situation. When we
entered the pre-game party there
was no one else there yet except
for about 7 other Admirals fans;
apparently the Pre Game party
starts at 17:30 with the Dragons.
No problem, we went to get
our tickets and went down into the
Olympic park to grab a cortado
(strong koffie-verkeerd the Spanish
way, really nice). Once we
got back Mike arrived with 2 others.
Later Mike went souvenir
hunting (cheerleaders) and almost
succeeded; the Spanish cheerleaders
where completely surprised by Mike's
action.
Game-Time:
well not much to say here except
that we
didn't do well for 3 quarters,
but had some
really nice plays. Great comeback
in 4th
untill the refs blew it all (lost
about 1
minute in 2 minute offense due
to bad calls,
didn't reset the play clock after
delay of
game of the Dragons, the 'backwards
out of
bounds' stuff, and 3 seconds
on the final
play where Powlus got sacked).
Besides the
game we had great fun teaching
the Spanish
how to do a wave (Mike went all
the way to
the other side of the stadium
to teach them)
and we all had good laugh on
it. A lot of
players came shaking hands and
giving signatures
after the game, which was really
good. After
the game we had arranged to meet
up with
John and Montse of the Sitges
Sack club to
go for beers and dinner in Sitges.
While
waiting for them at the player
exit we had
a chat with Silvio Diliberto,
Francesco Biancomano
(who was more interested in our
girlfriends
then us :o), the DL coach, Robert,
Ronald
and Jasper... After they arrived
we went
to get our cars and chatted with
the guys
from the NOB which costed me
my Admirals
cap in the end (I gave it away)
and left
for Sitges where we had a good
night of fun
and where the laughing stock
for the Dragons
players... We then left back
for Mont-Roig
Bahia at about 3 o'clock, way
to early but
with the 1.5 hour drive ahead
just in time...
In the end we made some new friends
and had
a great time. Whether permitting
we'll be
back next year in Barcelona for
sure.
One great experience richer...
DrAtomic |
