It has been a while since I posted some random ramblings and after a week in Spain, it seems like the perfect time to do so. Here is what I learned…or remembered….last week.
The word drizzle does not exist in Spain. When it rains, it pours, and boy did it pour this last week. It is rare that we get time just to chill and relax – we travel plenty but usually it is fast and frenetic. Every so often, when the batteries are a little depleted, we try and get away for a good old fashioned break. When you want to relax, you want sun. Hence why we went to Sevilla. They were vicious rumours about the city being one of the hottest cities in Europe. It rained all week. Still, it was heartening to know that there was a heat wave in the UK and Switzerland was glorious.
The good old Spanish media. Real Madrid scrape a draw against Barca with ten men and the media hammer Jose Mourinho saying that it was no way for a Real team to play against any team, especially after spending hundreds of millions. Fast forward to Wednesday night and their Copa victory playing virtually the same style and Mourinho is suddenly a tactical genius. No team can live with this Barca by taking the game to them but Mourinho has got them well drilled and organised enough to compete. Kudos to Javier Clemente who was 100% correct in supporting Mourinho and the style in his Marca column – if only the rest of the paper wasn’t so blinded and fickle.
I have wanted to go to Sevilla for a number of years now so it was great to finally get there and see what the buzz is about. I can confirm that Semana Santa is not the best week to go there however. That said, wandering around with Oranges hanging from the trees every few yards was fantastic. Buying a huge box of strawberries for less than two Euros was just as pleasant. I could get used to stuff like that.
As cool as some elements were in Sevilla, there was one slightly bizarre trend. Every chap has to make the occasional crotchal rearrangement, but the number of rearrangements among the Sevillanos was extreme and slightly disconcerting….so much so that Burns and I were rolling around laughing if cringing every time we spotted it. It was common. We are not weird. Just for the record.
So we moved from Semana Santa and the rain in Sevilla to Madridand their rain midway through the week. Madrid is a pretty cool city, but I think undoubtedly our favourite place is the Mercado de San Miguel. Always full of people, but they are worth fighting through for a sandwich or two. Anybody wanting a reason to go to Madrid or planning to go soon, check it out – I am prepared to put my reputation on the line for this place. Heck, I’ll even put Burns’ on there too.
My last random thought from the week, that I can remember anyway, was from the Copa del Rey final. Having spent a fair amount of time in Barcelona, I know the sentiments that run there so I was not surprised to hear the Catalan fans boo the Spanish national anthem before the game. I was surprised though that TVE muted the sound from the stadium and isolated the anthem, while other television channels played it normally. English fans were hammered when they booed the US anthem in Vegas for the Hatton/Mayweather fight and rightly so. This is no different. Gerard Pique spiced things up after the first game by telling the Madrid players that Barca were going to win ‘their king’s cup’. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the next training camp of the Spanish national team after some of the things that have gone down between Barca and Real in the last few weeks.
Showing posts with label spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spain. Show all posts
Monday, May 2, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
La Vida Loca
My favourite fiancée and I were in Madrid this last weekend. We spent some time with a couple of great friends of ours, Megha and Erika, and while it was far too short, it still ranks as a great weekend with some good fun, good food, good weather and some great company. I will not ramble on too much about Madrid, as you can read all about it in this lady’s great blog (we want more Burns!).
However, I will share my random ramblings and thoughts on good old Spain. I spent my year abroad at University in Barcelona. My decision on choosing a university came down to the same criteria I used when selecting Liverpool Uni for my degree – somewhere I could watch a decent football team (no jokes!), somewhere I could have fun, and somewhere I could travel to Leeds easy enough if I wanted or needed to. I narrowed it to Barcelona or Madrid, and I was accepted at Barcelona Uni.
It was a great year. Plenty of ups and downs, but I thoroughly enjoyed the year. By the end of the year, my Spanish had developed well despite a virtually entire group of ex-pat friends. What’s new? I guess it makes most sense that we make friends easier with fellow foreigners who are share similar experiences to ourselves, and I am no different.
I came away from Barcelona at the end of 2001 wondering if I could live and work in Spain. I had one year left of university and I was ready to plunge into the world of real work and life. I had the same doubts as I have now to be honest, and our weekend in Madrid emphasised that more than ever. I love the thought of the lifestyle – generally quite relaxed, good weather, working hours that suit my style and a strong social and family ethic. Opportunities in sport and salaries even more so are pretty major negatives however. I also wonder whether the lifestyle would be counter productive to me professionally – I can see myself lacking motivation and drive with such great distractions. That is not to say that I want us to live in a miserable or boring place, we would go to Edmonton (so I am told!) if that was the case, but I feel that I may well struggle in a number of Spanish cities. That said, both HJ and I have considered a short spell in Barcelona again – you never know!
Spain is a charming place and having been there so many times for family reasons, it will always have a place in my heart. Many of the people lack manners and the customer service is not great, but for some reason, it never bothers me like it does here in Switzerland as they seem to have a certain charm at the same time. We had a comedy taxi driver this last weekend – he was smoking, while being on the phone three times in a 15 minute journey, and was chatting away to us. A total character.
I recall a particular Spanish-ism from my days back in Barcelona and I was reminded of it this weekend gone when I stumbled across a shop called a ‘Guitarreria’. No prizes for guessing what they sold there. It is common in Spain that they add ‘eria’ to a noun and it basically means a shop for whatever precedes it….cafeteria, pizzeria etc. It took me back to my Barca days when I childishly chuckled to myself every time I walked past the Ferreteria. I glanced in the window every day searching for a little Ferret to be sat in the window only to be disappointed with it actually being a hardware store.
There are still plenty of places in Spain we have yet to visit. Everybody I speak to raves about Granada and Seville to name a couple, and my lady has plenty of good stuff to tell me about San Sebastien. Annual or twice-yearly trips to Barcelona are a given, as is a return to Mallorca where I have not been for years, but there are plenty of gems in Spain that we have yet to see. It’s just a matter of time.
However, I will share my random ramblings and thoughts on good old Spain. I spent my year abroad at University in Barcelona. My decision on choosing a university came down to the same criteria I used when selecting Liverpool Uni for my degree – somewhere I could watch a decent football team (no jokes!), somewhere I could have fun, and somewhere I could travel to Leeds easy enough if I wanted or needed to. I narrowed it to Barcelona or Madrid, and I was accepted at Barcelona Uni.
It was a great year. Plenty of ups and downs, but I thoroughly enjoyed the year. By the end of the year, my Spanish had developed well despite a virtually entire group of ex-pat friends. What’s new? I guess it makes most sense that we make friends easier with fellow foreigners who are share similar experiences to ourselves, and I am no different.
I came away from Barcelona at the end of 2001 wondering if I could live and work in Spain. I had one year left of university and I was ready to plunge into the world of real work and life. I had the same doubts as I have now to be honest, and our weekend in Madrid emphasised that more than ever. I love the thought of the lifestyle – generally quite relaxed, good weather, working hours that suit my style and a strong social and family ethic. Opportunities in sport and salaries even more so are pretty major negatives however. I also wonder whether the lifestyle would be counter productive to me professionally – I can see myself lacking motivation and drive with such great distractions. That is not to say that I want us to live in a miserable or boring place, we would go to Edmonton (so I am told!) if that was the case, but I feel that I may well struggle in a number of Spanish cities. That said, both HJ and I have considered a short spell in Barcelona again – you never know!
Spain is a charming place and having been there so many times for family reasons, it will always have a place in my heart. Many of the people lack manners and the customer service is not great, but for some reason, it never bothers me like it does here in Switzerland as they seem to have a certain charm at the same time. We had a comedy taxi driver this last weekend – he was smoking, while being on the phone three times in a 15 minute journey, and was chatting away to us. A total character.
I recall a particular Spanish-ism from my days back in Barcelona and I was reminded of it this weekend gone when I stumbled across a shop called a ‘Guitarreria’. No prizes for guessing what they sold there. It is common in Spain that they add ‘eria’ to a noun and it basically means a shop for whatever precedes it….cafeteria, pizzeria etc. It took me back to my Barca days when I childishly chuckled to myself every time I walked past the Ferreteria. I glanced in the window every day searching for a little Ferret to be sat in the window only to be disappointed with it actually being a hardware store.
There are still plenty of places in Spain we have yet to visit. Everybody I speak to raves about Granada and Seville to name a couple, and my lady has plenty of good stuff to tell me about San Sebastien. Annual or twice-yearly trips to Barcelona are a given, as is a return to Mallorca where I have not been for years, but there are plenty of gems in Spain that we have yet to see. It’s just a matter of time.
Friday, July 9, 2010
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Well the World Cup is almost over. 64 games, one month, comes to a close on Sunday with a pretty decent final awaiting us. As anybody having read my pre-tournament analysis will know, I rate Spain as the best team around right now. They started slow with a poor loss to the Swiss, and had some average performances along the way, but they seem to have peaked at just the right time with a truly world class performance against Germany in the semis.
I heard early in the tournament some interesting information about Spain’s preparations at altitude training and how it had all been timed so that they would peak in the knockout phase of the competition. All of which sounds pretty sensible, plausible and logical. I also heard that England had done the same, following a similar regime. Unfortunately, they were unable to get through to the stage when that work would pay off!
I fully expect Spain to win the final. The Dutch have done well and surprised me somewhat, particularly the game against Brazil. They have won all their games in the tournament and are unbeaten in something like 25 games which is pretty impressive. That all said, I do not think they have faced a team like Spain.
There are a number of key elements which strongly favour Spain and how I expect the game to play out. Spain’s midfield is the best in the world bar none. I would go as far to say that there is no other national team that comes close to rivalling them in that area. Having seen Van Bommel exposed frequently against Brazil and Uruguay – I have no idea how he did not receive at least three bookings in those two games combined – they will really struggle to keep hold of the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and co. Even more so than the Germans did. Schweinsteiger has been fantastic the whole tournament, one of the best central midfielders. He was completely nullified in that game, and I expect Wesley Sneijder to face the same difficulties.
The other area is defensively. Holland have been somewhat flattered I think in this area, and I think it is a weakness – particularly against teams and players with excellent movement. I like Heitinga and he is probably the best of the bunch, but he will find it hard to deal with David Villa. Likewise down the flanks, especially Gio’s side, Spain will profit here.
The main factor in Holland’s favour is Arjen Robben. I’ve rambled about this before but I think he would be considered as one of the top five players in the world had he not suffered injuries and changed clubs so often. He could cause Capdevila and Ramos all kinds of problems and he will have to be at his very best if the Dutch are to have a chance of winning this game.
Otherwise it is Spain all the way for me, and rest assured I will have a pound or two on them for this game.
As much as the final entices me, I have been severely disappointed with this World Cup. I have enjoyed many of the games, but the actually quality of the competition has been incredibly low. In fact, I would go as far in saying that it was only the game between Spain and Germany where we saw some of the highest quality football. Otherwise, the competition has been littered with average games, and even the entertaining ones were largely down to refereeing mistakes, or poor defending/goalkeeping. How many absolute moments of brilliance can you remember from this one? There are not many at all. So many of the best players in the world also massively underperformed. Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka....I could go on. Once again, just strengthens my belief that the Champions League is the best football competition in the world. I take Spain out of the equation as I rate them as comfortably the best team in the world, but every other team has significant weaknesses in their team. While it has been a success for the first WC held in Africa, I think international football is at a pretty low point right now.
I heard early in the tournament some interesting information about Spain’s preparations at altitude training and how it had all been timed so that they would peak in the knockout phase of the competition. All of which sounds pretty sensible, plausible and logical. I also heard that England had done the same, following a similar regime. Unfortunately, they were unable to get through to the stage when that work would pay off!
I fully expect Spain to win the final. The Dutch have done well and surprised me somewhat, particularly the game against Brazil. They have won all their games in the tournament and are unbeaten in something like 25 games which is pretty impressive. That all said, I do not think they have faced a team like Spain.
There are a number of key elements which strongly favour Spain and how I expect the game to play out. Spain’s midfield is the best in the world bar none. I would go as far to say that there is no other national team that comes close to rivalling them in that area. Having seen Van Bommel exposed frequently against Brazil and Uruguay – I have no idea how he did not receive at least three bookings in those two games combined – they will really struggle to keep hold of the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and co. Even more so than the Germans did. Schweinsteiger has been fantastic the whole tournament, one of the best central midfielders. He was completely nullified in that game, and I expect Wesley Sneijder to face the same difficulties.
The other area is defensively. Holland have been somewhat flattered I think in this area, and I think it is a weakness – particularly against teams and players with excellent movement. I like Heitinga and he is probably the best of the bunch, but he will find it hard to deal with David Villa. Likewise down the flanks, especially Gio’s side, Spain will profit here.
The main factor in Holland’s favour is Arjen Robben. I’ve rambled about this before but I think he would be considered as one of the top five players in the world had he not suffered injuries and changed clubs so often. He could cause Capdevila and Ramos all kinds of problems and he will have to be at his very best if the Dutch are to have a chance of winning this game.
Otherwise it is Spain all the way for me, and rest assured I will have a pound or two on them for this game.
As much as the final entices me, I have been severely disappointed with this World Cup. I have enjoyed many of the games, but the actually quality of the competition has been incredibly low. In fact, I would go as far in saying that it was only the game between Spain and Germany where we saw some of the highest quality football. Otherwise, the competition has been littered with average games, and even the entertaining ones were largely down to refereeing mistakes, or poor defending/goalkeeping. How many absolute moments of brilliance can you remember from this one? There are not many at all. So many of the best players in the world also massively underperformed. Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka....I could go on. Once again, just strengthens my belief that the Champions League is the best football competition in the world. I take Spain out of the equation as I rate them as comfortably the best team in the world, but every other team has significant weaknesses in their team. While it has been a success for the first WC held in Africa, I think international football is at a pretty low point right now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
