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”
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| Little girls... |
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| ...the future will be brighter; the cloudy days will fade away |
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| A moment of light in the middle of dark times |
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| Proud of his flag! |
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| My Spanish friends... |
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| And another Dutch player, this time in Madrid... for such a small country, they seem to be everywhere! |
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| 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!
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| Española |
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| 1 second... |
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| 2 seconds... and puf! Gone forever! |
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| Campeones! |
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| I climbed on a fence to make those pictures... |
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| just to shatter my nose on the ground, as I fell down! |
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| But I got a couple of good shots... totally worth my sore bruises |
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| And the moon was full! |
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| A sea of shiny, happy people |
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| Planning to get a picture of me... |
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| But I guess Spanish people really like to be on spot! |
