We Have Survived...

Our weekend in Madrid had been characterized by unseasonably cold and wet weather, sadly un-“Mexican” food, and a string of cancellations and closings including our long anticipated bullfight: after showing up at the Plaza del Toros, hoping that our weekend would end on a high note or at least rather intriguing note we were again disappointed to find out that the bullfight had too been canceled due to inclimate weather (or at least that was what we were able to gather from the signs at the box office). Angered, distraught, and too tired to attempt to hunt down an acceptable place to eat dinner, we opted for the stereotypical American option : The Hard Rock Café. As a way of making up for my lack of tacos and fajitas that I had been looking forward to - and had sadly realized were NOT Spanish dishes, I ordered a massive margarita and Quesadillas, while Zach attempted to replenish his cholesterol and further confirm his status of American ordering a Hickory Bacon Cheeseburger and a Budweiser – on tap. We had a lovely meal, eating our American food, listening to American music, and surrounded by fellow Americans…Dog tired, we left about eleven, hoping that an early night could mean an early morning…
As we were leaving the Hard Rock Café we noticed a stream of people walking, and cheering down the street…Apparently there had been a soccer or “futball” game tonight, that ironically enough, had not been rained out…and Apparently this was a pretty big soccer game…and Apparently they, Madrid’s team – Real Madrid (pronounced Re-Al)– had won…and Apparently there was fixin’ to be some kind of a celebration… Curious about this whole soccer culture, and open for any sort of positive experience from our weekend in Madrid, Zach and I joined the crowd…
We walked along with the stream of chanting college kids all the way to the Plaza de la Cibeles where they were going to have a little pep rally…I thought to myself, well this could be cute, I bet a bunch of the fans will come out and the team will show up and we’ll all cheer - maybe there will even be cheerleaders, and they’ll shoot some fireworks and we’ll all go home, safe and sound…I obviously misjudged the level of fanaticism that is involved with European “futball”, because in case you, like I was, are not aware, soccer…It’s kind of a big deal over here…When we arrived at the “pep rally” it was about Me, Zach and about ten thousand fans…but by the time that the team did show up, it was me, Zach and several hundred thousand of our new best drunk, smelly, soccer-fan friends, all cheering in unison...Zach and I attempted to join in just so we didn’t look stupid, but joining in on a cheer that is in a foreign language is a little bit difficult…I was amazed by the crowd, you might even say baffled, and this coming from a girl who is intimately familiar with 100,000 screaming Tennessee fans. The city had set up a huge platform around the iconized fountain at the center of a roundabout right in the middle of town. There were people packed into each of the 6 roads intersecting at this round-about, all cheering the Real Madrid song, sounding off noise makers, and attempting to sing “We are the Champions,” which instead was more of a “We are the Chomp-onions” and a slurring of the words in the verses – obviously knowing the words wasn’t as important to them as the theme. A stunning lightshow of soccer balls and soccer net was being projected up into the sky, soon followed by a mass-release of balloons and a Fireworks display that would put Booms day or the Fourth of July fireworks show on Mud Island to shame.
I don’t mind being in crowds, I have a pretty clearly designated personal bubble, but at an event like this I was mostly comfortable, at least until the pushing began. When the team arrived, the crowd began to literally heave, I was being pushed forward but there was nowhere for me to go. There were streams of people fighting there way to get closer to the stage, and people fighting to get away from it. Boys were shimmying up traffic light poles, street lights, and decorative poles with floral hanging baskets, all in an attempt to catch a glimpse of there favorite players…I’m not gonna lie, I was standing on tip-toes in hopes I might catch a glimpse of David Beckham too… However, once my foot had been trampled on by the man in front of me, and our claustrophobia was growing, we had both had our fill of the soccer celebration and began our up stream exodus from the scene.
As we walked away, after struggling for nearly thirty minutes to make our way through the crowd, I was again amazed by the mass pandemonium that was taking place. There were cars parked everywhere, crooked and illegally in any fashion just so that they could get to the rally. There were Real Madrid flags hung out hundreds of windows, sounds of the teams rally song could be heard all over the city from recordings being boomed over loud speakers to car horns tooting along as they drove. And still, even as the rally was in action, people were still streaming out of side streets and down the roads trying to make their way to the Plaza to show support for their team.
Making it back to the room safe and sound but exhausted, we immediately turned on the local news in hopes that we could see what was still happening back at the victory celebration – Real Madrid had won the Spanish National Championship game. Obviously being unable to understand what was being spoken, when they showed pictures of the stage and roundabout, where nearly 400,000 people had just been gathered, completely empty, we assumed that these must have been shots from earlier in the night, possibly during set up? Then footage began rolling of Police officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, and people fleeing the scene. Those who were not inclined to leave were being forcibly pushed with the policemen’s shields and beaten with clubs…talk about police brutality…From what we read on the internet the next morning, we learned that fans had begun lighting firecrackers in the crowd which the police had thought were gunshots…the obvious course of action would be to fire teargas and rubber bullets into the crowd…this action lead to a mass frenzy of people trying to leave the scene, several of whom were trampled by the crowd. In the end more than 100 people were injured, a quarter of whom were so seriously injured they required hospital attention…Man am I glad that we chose to leave when we did or else this weekend could have ended on a real downer…
This weekend we are taking it slow and going to Paris for the weekend…We’re not going to be doing too much sightseeing, maybe head down to Versailles for the day, but mostly just relax, this pace we’ve been running has been pretty draining and I could defiantly use to sleep in. Pictures from this weekend are up in two albums on my web shots…I hope you’ll check them out.
Lots of Love,
Hillary