Cultural Salad: My EURO 2012 in Madream

My first (and only, as I would find out later) weekend in Madrid was not as I planned at all.

My expectation was: wake up early on Saturday, unpack and organize my two suitcases of 32kg kilos each, putting everything very organized inside the closet by 11:00 am. Then I would go for a 6 km run at Retiro Park, which is 15 minutes from home, come back, take a nice shower and organize my papers to start my training at work on Monday. On Sunday, wake up early again; go for a quick walk through the city and come back home to prepare myself to watch the final game of EURO 2012 with some friends. I had a couple of options and I needed time to decide where would be the best place to watch it, as this was a huge moment and I wanted to make sure everything would work just perfectly.

The reality was: I got sick and ill, weak and had body ache from the stress of moving and jetlag. And I spent the whole weekend lying on my bed. Alone. Useless. I did try to recover for the game. But as the weekend went by, I seemed to get worse and weaker.

However, I was determined I would not let a virus make me miss the opportunity of watching the final of EURO 2012 in Madrid. It would be like watching a final of world cup in Rio with the Brazilian team as favorite for the victory. You just don´t get sick in these moments. And, unless you are Brazilian and quite used to this experience, they are those types of moments that only happen once in a life time.

But as I found out my friends were out of town to watch the game, I got discouraged again of going alone and gave up. I just decided to watch it through the internet, as I still do not have a television. Except I could not find a website that had the game live on, so I was left with reading written posts at globo.com with the description of what was going on. I read posts about the whole first half. Spain scored twice and the celebration screams of happy people outside my window would just be a torture for me, as I was lying hopeless in the solitude of my bed.

That´s when it hit me: what was I doing? An impulse just took over my body, I put my flip flops on and just ran to the bar on the corner to watch the second half. The moment I stepped inside the bar, I got carried away by that whole intensive vibe of the place and I started to sing and to celebrate as if it was my own country winning. The sickness was instantly gone like a miracle.

I couldn’t help feeling a mixture of both excitement and regret. I was happy I finally decided to go out and live that moment, despite the fact that I was feeling ill. But at the same time I regretted I did it so late. Although I could have not done it at all, I also could have done it from the beginning.

Sometimes you just hesitate in doing something that is clearly good for you just because you are lazy. And then, you try to find excuses for not doing it. I believe those moments come for everybody.

We just have to remember that life is what you did, not what you did not do. Simple as that. The more experiences you have, the more you lived, the more you learned. The more experiences you avoided by whatever reason, the more you avoided life.

At fifteen minutes of second half I decided that the experience was too amazing for not being registered in images. So I ran home and got my camera. When I came back, the score was 4-0 to Spain. The result of my lack of attitude was that I missed the 4 goals of the game. Taking it as a lesson learned, I wasn´t going to miss the party afterwards. I became friends with a group of Spanish people and we went to celebrate at Plaza de Cibeles. The pictures of the celebration you can see below. They would not be here, neither would be the post, if I had followed my impulse to be locked inside my room feeling sorry for myself.

“Life is what happens while you are busy making your excuses”

Little girls...

...the future will be brighter; the cloudy days will fade away

A moment of light in the middle of dark times

Proud of his flag!

My Spanish friends...

And another Dutch player, this time in Madrid... for such a small country, they seem to be everywhere!

Climbing on a tree to get this shot!

Next day, after work, I went to the parade where the players proudly exhibited the trophy to their nation. As the truck with the players got closer, I got lost, nervous and I really didn’t know what to do. I had only two seconds to decide and I had to choose if I was going to record it, take pictures or just try to make eye contact and perhaps even flirt a little bit. I was lucky enough to be right at the side where Torres was, so I really felt tempted to go along with the last option. But my desire to make those two seconds last forever and to eternize that ephemeral moment was stronger. And thankfully, I made the right choice; I got two nice shots. They are shared below.

I really felt blessed to be part of such a moment, even if I was just a lost soul in a crowd with over a million people. It is so touching seeing a whole nation that is going through a hard period having a reason to be happy again. On that Monday, there was no such thing as crisis. After all, a smile is indeed priceless and free of charge!