okay this is gonna be a huge post so sorry in advance. and like before, please click on the pictures to see them full sized! i cant figure out how to just have them be full sized on blogspot so thats fun. and uploading to facebook takes a super long time. i will get them all on there eventually but for right now, this is as good as i can do.
okay, so last week i went to see the madrid open which is a tennis tournament and i saw fernando verdasco play! he was adorable and lovely and it was so amazing to see him live kasjdfas. the match itself wasn't super interesting and he didn't have his really intense nando!moments, but he won and it was beautiful and i swear i was going to make an entire entry about it but i was entirely too exhausted.
the next day i decided to skip class and go see MORE TENNIS because um. feli and rafa both played. HOW COULD I HAVE PASSED THAT UP. so i waited in line for half of my life and i just. OKAY. I HATE SPANIARDS WHEN IT COMES TO DEPENDING ON THEM TO DO SOMETHING IN A TIMELY MANNER THAT INVOLVES YOU. omfg. they MOSEY. OBLIVIOUSLY. ON PURPOSE. LIKE REALLY ON PURPOSE THEY KNOW THEY'RE IN YOUR WAY AND THAT THEY'RE TAKING THEIR SWEET ASS TIME THEY JUST DON'T CARE. omg. by the time i actually got to my seat, i was practically shoving people. hahahahahaha SCREW THAT. anyway. i love spain and spaniards i really do! but jesus christ. pure stubbornness and douchebaggery.
anyway feli!! adorable!! good match! he was supposed to play roddick but andy retired with a stomach bug so he played this catalan kid and totally beat him so yay! feli (was) is through! i would be lying if i said i wasn't looking for sergio at the match the whole time. i would also be lying if i said i saw him. :(
rafael nadal. he needs to be experienced. like cris needs to be experienced live to get to full effect of his power. rafa is the same way. his strength is incredible. i love him to bits and pieces and he was incredible. i cannot believe i got to see those three play tennis in 24-hours. but i need to talk about the most pressing thing.
while rafa's match was happening, just as it was getting started really, i look down toward the entrance for the VIPS, just glance down and i see the hint of a profile that i knew and my eyes snapped back and i was right. i was. right.
raúl. raúl was there.
i literally started shaking and no one else had seen him yet because i'm a freak and have radar and i hurried and grabbed my camera and took pictures and he was on his crutches and he was smiling and i started crying in the middle of rafa's second game, in a stadium full of rowdy spaniards. just started crying. there is literally no one else i wanted to see there more than raúl. he had cris with him but i didn't even notice that until after they'd sat down. zidane was there too but i didn't notice him until even after that. raúl was there. i just kept thinking "ohmygodmycaptainmycaptainmycaptainmycaptain" and i wanted to just. ohmygod. it was cloudy and raining a little and i was so worried that he was going to get wet and the people in charge kept making them scoot down in their seats and i was getting so angry that they were making him move with his crutches and ohmygod raúl ohmygod it's just now hitting me. i watched him nearly half the match. i couldn't help it. i just... i was just sending him waves of love and warmth and happiness. i really was. so many and so much and i care about him too much, way too much. between sets i ran down and took a couple of pictures from a different angle and he looked over at me and we made eye contact. it was only for a single second and absolutely nothing else happened but. ohmygod i don't even know. i know i'm dramatic and i'm sorry this is just such a big deal to me, to be in the same place as him, to breathe the same air, to see him so close. him. i realized today that i probably don't love anyone as much as him. it's ridiculous. it's overwhelming. i'm stopping i swear.
oh oh juande ramos was there too and i just wanted to hug him.
after the match i went to la latina and wandered around and ate dinner and then went to the bar to meet rey to watch atléti and THEY WON. ohmygod. it was such a tense game and there were atléti fans at the bar and we were all screaming and cheering and god the city just. hahahahaha. rey's apartment is like. right beside the calderón, so the fans were going insane and screaming and honking and cheering and singing in the streets. all day i saw jerseys and scarves for atléti and it seemed like the entire city was behind them. all the way home from rey's i saw red and white and i smiled at all of them and they smiled back. they're so happy and they deserve it and i'm so happy for them. we went to the plaza de neptuno to celebrate with them the next night but more on that after the pictures from the matches:
bonus: here's a soundless video of raúl sitting down. you can't hear the insane screams and gasps and cheers for him but still! :)
here!
okay this is going to be the atléti portion of the post. for those of you that do not know, atlético madrid is the other team in madrid, the local rivals of real madrid. fernando torres who is one of my favorite players, is arguably the best and most famous player in atlético's history. he now plays for liverpool in england but he is still very very very love by the atléti fans. it's not very common or commonly accepted by real madrid fans to love atléti as well, but i can't help it. i fell in love with atlético de madrid through nando and i just. love them. anyway.
it's no secret at all that i really like atlético de madrid, and i've been fortunate enough to be in madrid with two girls who like them as much as i do.
the night of the europa league final was so awesome. the whole day, there were people in the streets wearing atléti gear and i was really astounded by the number of people that really love them. it was awesome. but anyway, so that night rey and i were at the chinese bar in rey and leah's neighborhood where they watch la liga matches (and in turn, so do i). the table that we normally sit at was ocupado by a bunch of young atléti fans who were all dressed up and watching the game and it was just so adorable. when diego scored for the first time, they lost it. i kept taking pictures of them and they were singing and just being adorable. then fulham scored. then they went into overtime. and then diego forlán scored a goal that was simply beautiful and we all just went absolutely insane and ohmygod those kids. i'm so glad i got to just. witness the fans being so happy. it was just so sweet and so adorable and they were beyond ecstatic. people were singing in the streets and honking their horns and screaming chants all on the metros and just EVERYWHERE and it was just so CUTE. hahahaha. the next day, rey and i decided to go to the plaza de neptuno where atléti celebrate their trophy wins to see the players and just to. be a witness to all of it because it had just been so so long since they'd won anything. THE WHOLE DAY i was getting harassed by atléti fans because of my real madrid bag hahahaha. it was cute though. they would just see me and scream "ATLEEEEEEEEEEEETI. ATLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETI." and i would just smile because i really was happy for them. they deserved to have their day haha.
i went to sol to shop for some flats after school because i needed some and the atléti bus was there because they'd started at the calderón and were driving throughout the whole city to get to the plaza. sol was just crazy crazy crazy packed and they had banners up and music playing and fans with their scarves and it was just. alskfjalskf. like i was an observer, you know? because i adore atléti but it didn't feel like my victory. i'm just happy for them. so we went to the plaza de neptuno which is way too close to cibeles for my liking hahaha and OHMYGOD. MAYHEM. mayhem. insanity. we found out the next morning that there were 250,000 people there. and rey and i were smack dab in the middle of them. ohmygod it was just. i have nothing to compare it to. it was really wonderful because of how happy they were and seeing the boys on the bus and hearing spaniards trying to sing "we are the champions" (BEST THING EVER) but you could. not. move. literally. to any side. unless you were being shoved. the fans were screaming and singing and most of the songs were positive ones about their team (except the guti maricón one and the raúl drunkard one? oh and rey told me they were singing a song that basically said "if you're not jumping you're a madridista." rey and i were not jumping and we were like "oh well. it's true!" eheheh)
we left eventually but it was just really awesome to see and to feel all that love. i just wanted to hug the whole team. <3 and thennnn on saturday, i went to the atléti-getafe match! mini-derby! the game was insane and terrible on atlético's part but NACHO CAMACHO PLAYED AND HE IS MY LOVE. AND HE WAS CAPTAIN (!!!!!!!!!!) and muy guapo played for most of the game and soldado and codina and dani parejo and i maybe might've been cheering for getafe by the end but they got into a europa league spot with their win! so adorable. i love getafe hahaha. the atléti fans were just so blindly happy because of the europa cup and they lifted up the trophy again at the stadium and there was confetti again and i'm glad i got to see that. :) just as an aside: atléti fans are CRAZY. crazy. like. real madrid fans aren't as. violently vocal? i mean a few of them are. but not the majority. the atléti fans were just. ohmygod. insane. i was like jesus christ dude CALM DOWN. they were screaming horrible things and singing such negative songs and OH DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY ATLETI AND GETAFE HATE SEVILLA SO MUCH? like seriously. they even had "puta sevilla" scarves. i don't get it? i mean i know copa del rey and all that but the getafe fans AND the atléti fans sang "puta sevilla" the entire game. we have no idea why. anyway. hahahaha so. we were walking by all the scarf stands and i saw a nando scarf and was like "!!!!!!!!! MUST GET MUST GET." and so i run toward it and underneath his lovely name and his even lovelier picture were the words "siempre un antimadridista" and i was like "............oh. guess i'm not gettin' that one." haahahahahah my life. why must i love such a hater of the love of my life. anyway. i found another nando scarf and got that one and i've been thinking about him so much this week because. i can't imagine how atléti's victory must have felt for him. because i feel like he deserved this sort of win with them. he deserved to lift that trophy, he deserved to celebrate in their plaza, to feel that pride and that perfect rush and that beautiful feeling. that was his. ahhh i don't know. it's so beautiful how many people love nando and liverpool here. there are liverpool kits and jerseys everywhere, and tons of them at the calderón. i can't explain how i felt seeing his stadium, his pitch. because atléti is nando to me, and i love them for him. going to real madrid matches felt like a dream, it felt surreal. the atleti match felt real because it wasn't my team, but... nando is my nando and i felt him so much. just how much the team means to him and i just... felt him there. i wish things had worked out for him at atléti. even just... a single trophy. i wish he had felt accomplished at all with them. i don't know i just love him so much.
anyway. pictures of all here:
OKAY. onto more current things. god this entry is so huge. this is like over a week packed into one entry and im sorry. i promise i will be more prompt with upcoming entries.
this next bit is just. me being emotional about real madrid. because we lost the league on sunday to barcelona for the second year in a row. and blah.
i need to write a little something about it because. well, just because.
i'm a worrywart, but i'm also optimistic to a fault. i can't help it. i have no reason to be, really. i think i just always have a feeling that things will work out because... they always do. and in hindsight, things make sense. or... i don't know. i'm rambling. the actual point is that i'm heartbroken and i don't really know how to deal with it.
i honestly thought we could do it. i really did. it didn't feel impossible because we're real madrid, and we can do anything. anything. i never lose faith because they prove over and over and over again that you can have faith in them. i knew it was a longshot, but i had faith. and i don't regret having so much faith, but unfortunately we had to rely on someone else taking down an amazing team, and that didn't happen. we underperformed, probably out of heartbrokenness, out of despair, out of exhaustion, mental and physical and emotional. i'm not upset with them. i understand that must have hurt and it must have been so difficult. i want them to know that i'm so proud of them, that i support them and that i love them. i so wanted to go to barajas monday morning when they landed just to... be there. to let them know. they didn't disappoint me. they need to know that we love them even when they don't win.
there are two things that i can't accept. the first is that 200 culés (barça fans) celebrated in our plaza sunday night. i know i can't expect much respect (or class or tact or any of those wonderful words) in football, but i just think it's disgusting. even atléti who passed BY cibeles en route to their own plaza, didn't celebrate near or around cibeles. they just went by. i understand that it's a different situation and that barça beat us in la liga, but it doesn't change the just... yeah. the disgust i have. that's all it is. i don't want to see pictures of them. i don't want to see video or hear anything about them. the team that performed the most consistently this season won and that's what happened and congratulations to them. i don't want to hear about it.
i've been stupidly emotional about it. i almost started crying on the metro because i saw glimpses of the covers of people's periódicos and just seeing piqué makes me just. lkajsdflasjdflaksj i'm trying not to make this negative or bitter but it's hard. anyway. and then the cover of marca is pellegrini and i just. i don't know. i know the likelihood of him staying is really low but i am truly going to be heartbroken if he leaves. and i don't want mourinho. i don't. want. mourinho. i don't want any huge changes to my team. i completely love my team just the way it is and i don't want pipa in blue next season and i don't want stevie in white or just god i don't know. i don't know. the end of the season is so hard for me because i... i don't know. i hate change. i hate it. i hate that everything has to end. i hate that my boys feel defeated. i hate that they think they've lost everything when they've done so many amazing things this season. i hate that they're going to come away from this season feeling down on themselves. i hope someone made them a video of all their beautiful moments because there were so many. we had so much magic this season. we had so many smiles and so many goals and so much happiness and togetherness and just... madridismo. barça won more games, for whatever reasons, and we're in second. that's okay. because i believe in my team. despite all of our inconsistencies and our changes and the uncertainties. those boys bind together in spite of it all. in the middle of all the insanity, they become a family. and that's why i love real madrid. not for all the trophies and for all the money, i love them because they're a family. because rubén travelled to málaga to see our last game. because our boys in the stands were listening to the barça game. because guti.
god i can't do this but i need to. i can't let go of him. i just can't. in my head and my heart i can't let go of him. yesterday he proved why he loves this team probably more than anyone, he loves it in ways that make him crazy, in ways that are so hard for him to deal with and he's been through more than any of us will probably ever know in the name of real madrid, just to put on our shirt and to go out there and provide us with some moments of true brilliance that we will never see again. he's not perfect, he doesn't do everything right, but he loves real madrid. more than me. more than you. more than probably anyone in the world. and that's why he fights. that's why he gets angry. that's why he is who he is. guti yesterday broke my heart in the very best way because he WILL fight for us, because he feels it. in his last game from the bench, he got a yellow card for standing up for pipa. guti's passion for real madrid will probably never fade, but he's gone from us. without ceremony, without his deserved goodbye, for whatever reason. i don't know how to say goodbye to him. i can't. it just hurts too much.
i have so much more i need to talk about, but this is all i'm thinking about, to be honest. it makes me frantic that guti is in the same city i am but that doesn't make him any closer than he was when i was thousands of miles and an ocean apart. that's so hard to accept. all of this is. i want to go to cibeles and just curl up next to the statue and cry. because i'm pathetic. because i can't accept things. because i can't manage to feel anything but pride and overwhelming love for them. nothing equals real madrid to me. nothing even comes close. and i'm excited about world cup and la selección and i love those boys so so much but nothing fills the void that real madrid leaves when the season ends. i won't feel the same until we come back together for pre-season training and until we're together again.
god i just hurt.
anyway.
i've had the weirdest past couple of days. and i couldn't even really say why? they haven't been bad by any stretch of the imagination. i've just been weird. ever since sunday, really. i'm still not okay with the season being over/the league being decided/whatever.
on sunday, rey, leah and i took a bus to alcorcón and watched the real madrid game in a movie theatre which was an amazing experience because 1) there are other fans, 2) it's a HUGE screen and so you get to see so so so many beautiful boys in massive high definintion and ohmygod sergio ramos 3) NO COMMENTARY. it's so fantastic. i hate that the game i saw was that one because it was a pretty not great game in comparison to a lot of our games this season, but it was what it was. i've already talked about that. i just wanted to tell about the movie theatre. i won't talk about walking along a highway in alcorcón picking flowers though because that was just hilarious and silly. and i won't talk about how we went to buy alcohol in which to drown our sorrows but the stores here stop selling alcohol after 10pm even if it's 10:15 so fml. hahaha. we just went to the restaurant beneath their apartment and had rum and coke and pie and i went home.
did i mention i'm seeing gogol bordello on friday?
before that game we went to el rastro and i meant to buy things for other people but i'm a terrible person so i didn't really. then we ate at an indian restaurant in lavapiés which was good but not great. then we just walked around lavapiés which was nice. it's an interesting neighborhood. i don't love it as much as i wanted to/expected to. i love the mood of la latina much more.
oh randomly, rey took me to this little taberna in moncloa for a menú and it's so so so yummy. you get a salad and two plates of food and coffee AND we got to share an entire bottle of wine for only €10 a person. best thing ever. i love spain.
it's really weird being in spain. not bad weird just... unreal? like i'm in the spain that i dreamed of and talked about and that i love so much, and i love being here so so much but it doesn't seem like... i don't know! it feels natural and normal and not like. extra special. is that weird? i mean, i have moments where it hits me that i'm here and it shocks me and it feels overwhelming, but it's amazing how quickly you can adjust to something. it feels like i've been here always, forever, like i didn't have a life before here. which is ridiculous considering the amount of time i've been here at all. and i have moments of like... wow. this isn't always going to be. this is going to change so soon and so quickly and how am i going to deal with that? i don't quite know how to explain it. i just love so many things about madrid.
i love how the street signs are all individually painted according to what the street is named. i love how happy the children are (most of the time). i (mostly) love how affectionate spaniards are with each other, how it takes a group of people five minutes to say goodbye because they all have to kiss. i love how boys aren't afraid to show affection with each other. i love how everyone everyone knows who real madrid is. i love the smell of the air. i love how there is music just. everywhere. in random places. the man playing the trumpet in retiro park yesterday was so perfect. it's just... a strange sort of serenity that spaniards have. or a... a sureness? they just take things at its pace and it really is a unique outlook and attitude they have. i can't wait to go to andalucía and to see how they live. i cannot wait to be in sevilla. i feel more and more drawn to it everyday. <3 okay picture time! pictures of the bernabéu yesterday all dressed up for the champions league match that i don't care about. the press room and the president's box were closed off from the tour and there were so so so many children there yesterday. i definitely wanna go back when it's less busy. i wasn't thinking at all about the fact that it's champions league week. hahahaha. i cried again. josé mercé singing makes me lose it every single time in the museum.
and these are pictures from the last couple of days that i've taken around madrid. the pictures of the food are from taberna txakolí on calle cava baja in la latina and ohmygoddd it's so good. they have a white wine which is just so yummy and i'm not a white wine person at all. there are pictures from retiro park, from las ventas (lots of those for jess<3), pictures of the suicide bridge over the calle segovia, pictures of the temple of debod in oeste park which is a reconstructed egyptian temple near the palacio real, pictures of madrid from the view at oeste park, pictures of a beautiful building in la latina i fell in love with, and just... i don't know lots of pictures. hahaha.
i can't talk about david villa.
Still reading.
ReplyDeleteLoving the pics.
Still jealous.
Villa :(