Marisa’s abroad in Madrid, Spain, until Dec. 19.

After spending my free time this summer watching the Euro Cup on ESPN every day, I was pumped to finally have the chance to see some “football” in person at a Real Madrid game. Last night, I finally made it to Santiago Bernabeu stadium to see Real Madrid beat Recreativo Huelva 1-0 in a Spanish League game. And it was a blast, definitely just as fun as I had imagined from my couch this summer.

Of course, I almost didn’t make it there. My friend Shoshi and I went up to the stadium a few weeks ago to see what the deal was with buying tickets, and we were told to come back the Monday before the game. Then, when we went up there again Monday, the guy told us to come back the day before the game. So we finally made it to the ticket desk on Saturday morning, after having stood in the wrong (poorly marked) line for about twenty minutes, and got tickets in the nosebleed section for Sunday night’s game. After all, the official program and every single ticket-selling website said the game was Sunday, November 23 at 8:00 pm. It would be a safe bet to assume that’s when the game would be, right?

But this is Spain, where things like schedules are just so passé. In Spain, you wander up to the stadium sometime on the day of a game, buy your tickets (which don’t say a date or time), and then show up whenever you think or heard the game might be. Which, as we found out at 6:45 Saturday night, was at 8 pm SATURDAY night instead of Sunday. After laughing it off and breathing a sigh of relief that we had realized in time, Shosh and I grabbed a quick bottle of wine, ran to the subway, and took turns chugging it on the Metro packed with the Real Madrid faithful. When we got to the stadium, I couldn’t resist buying one of those scarves everyone has for their respective team, and Shoshi couldn’t resist buying a ridiculously loud horn. We had to fit in, right?

After scanning ourselves into the stadium and facing practically no security, which really surprised me, we made our way to the top of Santiago Bernabeu and took in the scene: the game was just starting, and the massive stadium was packed. And I mean massive; the stadium is larger than any football or baseball stadium I’ve been in at home, by far. About half of the people had the horn Shoshi had bought, and she made sure to join in the honking chorus at every appropriate (and inappropriate) juncture. Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas (who is the man) held a weak Recreativo offense scoreless, and Wesley Sneijder scored in the first half to give Real Madrid the 1-0 win. And I loved every minute of it. Next stop, World Cup 2010? But seriously. This was hopefully just my first little taste of experiencing the world’s favorite sport in person.

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