Aupa Athletic!

After spending a lovely few days with my mum and brother in Bilbao last week I’ve had to come back to the harsh reality of balancing working at the school with finishing my dissertation. However, not without a little break to watch Athletic Bilbao v. Real Madrid after a friend happened to buy too many tickets to the match so gave two tickets to Steph and I at a discounted price.

Athletic Bilbao are a big deal in the city of Bilbao. I live by the stadium and whenever there’s a match every single bar without fail will raise their flag and hundreds of people will line the street to cheer on their team, even if they don’t have a ticket to the stadium. The reason why Athletic Bilbao's matches are such a huge occasion with the residents here is that throughout its history the club has engaged in a Basque-only player policy. Ask anyone in Bilbao and they will tell you that they feel a much stronger affinity to the club and its players than a supporter of any other team because they share the same country, the same language and the same blood runs through their veins. Only selecting footballers from a limited area might make it harder to find quality but Bilbao are one of the only Spanish clubs to have never been relegated from La Liga, along with Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona.

We knew that it was going to be slightly hectic in the stadium from what we've witnessed every match day on the streets, but when we got there we were completely overwhelmed. It was chaos. There were so many people squeezed into our section, clearly too many for the number of seats and tickets available, and due to the sheer amount of bodies we never managed to find our seats. However, we did find a good standing spot which gave us a clearer view than we probably would have had if we’d been sitting, and the atmosphere was amazing.

At first, Steph and I momentarily forgot who we were supporting and we got very overexcited every time Christiano Ronaldo touched the ball. However, after some stern glances from everyone around us we realised that this probably wasn't a great idea, especially when Ronaldo scored a goal in the 2nd minute of the game, so we proudly waved our 3 euro flag which we’d bought outside of the stadium and became Athletic Bilbao’s biggest fans. By the end of the match, as well as learning many racist chants to direct towards Christiano Ronaldo we found that, despite losing 3-0, the Athletic supporters will fight until the end for their club.

Mayhem in Mallorca

What was meant to be a relaxing holiday in Mallorca turned out to be an accidental clubbing holiday in Magaluf. How can my friend Laura and I go on a clubbing holiday accidently you may be wandering? Well, the first step was booking our flights. We knew when we wanted to go away so we booked the cheapest flights possible for those dates, which happened to be to Mallorca. About a month later we realised that we didn't have accommodation, so once again we looked for the cheapest accommodation possible, and found a hotel in Magaluf. We didn't really think much about the hotel being in Magaluf, despite its reputation, because we just wanted to go somewhere with a beach to get some sunshine in April. However, when we arrived at our hotel we found that it was actually located right in the heart of the clubbing strip, so really there was no way to avoid going out. Even though it wasn't the high season, Magaluf was still full of people, and it seems to be a very attractive destination for stag and hen dos.

Although Mallorca is a Spanish island, it was the closest I've felt to British culture on my year of living in Spain. Almost everyone was British, from the tourists to the workers who could barely speak Spanish, and I also watched the most English television I've watched in a long time. Even though I rarely watch daytime TV when I’m actually in England, I found myself watching Jeremy Kyle and This Morning every day just because I could.

We did get our wish to be near the beach but it wasn't exactly ideal sunbathing conditions as it was pretty windy. However, both of us still managed to come back sunburnt – classic British tourists.

In between sunbathing whilst wearing lots of layers we also visited Palma, the capital of Mallorca, to do some sight-seeing.

It wasn't what we expected but we had an amazing holiday, and we definitely made the most of the situation. What wasn't such a nice surprise, however, was when we had two separate flights cancelled trying to return to Bilbao, and then being stranded in the airport without any information for two hours before being taken to a hotel for another two hours, and then returning to the airport at 5 in the morning to finally fly back at 7am without any sleep. All part of the la aventura española I guess...