My World Cup Experiences in Spain

After we planned our trip to Europe back in March, we realized there was a real chance of being in Spain during an historic World Cup run. Luckily that came to fruition after their 1-0 defeat of Paraguay hours before our flight.

Semi Finals vs Germany: Wednesday night, 7/7

After several days of touring in Barcelona, we planned to watch the semi-final game in a big screen plaza setting. However, Barcelonans are fiercely proud of being Catalan and do not rally around the flag as much as we expected. Despite having many players on the national team playing for FC Barcelona, the locals complained it was a different jersey. Therefore, we had to find a random restaurant to watch the game.

After Spain outplayed Germany for most the game, Carlos Puyol finally put one through on an unmarked header during the 73^rd minute. Let the celebrations of tourists on Las Ramblas begin:

Finals vs Netherlands: Sunday night, 7/11

A couple days later in Pamplona, hours after the running with the bulls, we found the main plaza to watch the final.

We arrived an hour early and were treated to a live bear circus show

After the 0-0 first half, a storm rolled through

After a scoreless 2^nd half, a sprint to the bathroom and back, and 26 minutes of overtime…history:

(The goal is 5 seconds in, the final whistle is at 6:30)

After the happy group pic,

The aftermath.

Hours later we were off to the rest of our trip after enjoying a unique view of sporting history.