Barcelona - New adventures at the Camp Nou


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October 8th 2007
Published: March 1st 2008
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La Sagrada FamiliaLa Sagrada FamiliaLa Sagrada Familia

Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece.
Early October saw our next stop on the Boys Club European Tour and this time our numbers had swelled to 9 - our biggest outing to date, though with Rachel and Michelle joining the ranks for the first time it wasn't strictly boys club! We had also split into three groups who would be arriving at different times. Matich, Nug and Shaun were the first ones off to Spain, heading out on the Wednesday morning. I flew out with the rest of the boys on Friday morning to meet up with them on the terrace of our rather swanky hostel. As is tradition, our first day was pretty much spent stomping around the city, taking in liquid refreshment at every opportunity at the many bars and cafes that we happened across!

Shaun guided us to the main strip La Rambla, on through the Barri Gothic and down to the beach. We then headed back through the narrow streets with their five story apartments and washing lines criss-crossing which proved a photographic dream for Nug!

As usual Shaun took care of us in his guise as nocturnal guide with aplomb, and after the usual faffing trying to find a restaurant we headed to a few bars before hitting a rock club that Shaun had tracked down. There was live music in the club - in the form of a band from, wait for it, Sunderland, but the best live entertainment was definitely was provided by the Matich versus Moose dance-off which was a sight to behold - but probably not in a good way!! We were all having a blast moshing around on the dance-floor, and randomly lifting up some of the locals, but obviously Captain Moose thought the evening needed a little more spice and in a random act of what can only be described as unprovoked violence, spotted me sitting on the stage taking a breather from all the moshing action and promptly wandered over, grabbed my dangling legs and yanked me off the stage....right onto my spine!! Ouchy!!

Eventually in the early hours Shaun's moshing became a bit too violent for the Spanish bouncers and he managed to get himself thrown out which brought our club night to a close!! In our inebriated state we managed to head the wrong way out of the club and starting walking in the opposite direction to our hostel. This
Sagrada Famila ArchitectureSagrada Famila ArchitectureSagrada Famila Architecture

The ornate finishing on the outside of the building.
extra journey time gave Shaun plenty of scope to remind Andy about throwing his sh*t shirt and hoody in the sea in Leikitio and the fact he has chip-forked us all to death in San Sebastian. This all quickly became too much and as we were passing a handily location corporate water feature paddling pool type thing, Randy, Nug and I decided that it was time to put the joke on Shaun by throwing him in the water!! However it didn't quite go to plan as that Sahdev is a legendary wriggler when cornered and even the combined might of three (admittedly very drunk) blokes couldn't sling him satisfyingly into the water. Randy managed to fall in shin deep himself, and when we eventually slung Shaun in, cat-like he managed to land on his feet to continue his taunting - most frustrating!!

However, the fact we had been walking the wrong way all this time meant we had to do an about turn and on the way back past the paddling pool there was going to be no stopping us. Randy, Nug and I set upon the Mullet with renewed vigour and eventually we managed to swing him into the water with such force that even Shaun could do nothing except splash down and accept the drenching. Satisfying all round methinks!!

The next day we headed over to view La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's last great hurrah and all consuming obsession. Even though construction was started in 1882, work is still in full flow and it is expected to be completed sometime in the 2020's. The building itself is quite incredible for its scale and its aesthetic touches. Gaudi's architectural flair enabled him to make many of the main walls non load bearing and thus he was able to incorporate incredible angular designs into the structure which just appear stunning.

After the usual ice-cream break instigated by my good self, we headed across the city to get the Funicular and then the Cable Car up to the top of Montjuic, the main hilltop on the southern side of the city. Here we were able to take in great views of the city and ice cold beer, while being bathed in the agreeably warm October sunshine. We spent a good few hours up there and it was absolute bliss.

That evening we managed to track down an absolutely
Watch out bar-maids!Watch out bar-maids!Watch out bar-maids!

The bottle of water in Andy's hand was soon to be drenching the hapless barmaid!
superb restaurant which offered great wine and great food to kick off our night. We hit a few bars, did an awful lot of walking, and all of a sudden it was three a.m. and everywhere was closing down for the night. Not to be put off by this, Nug, Shaun, Moss and I snared a taxi to take us to one of Barcelona's biggest clubs - Razzmatazz. I think its meant to contain 7 rooms, but we didn't manage to see any of them as the main room was absolutely heaving and playing some top rock music so we were pretty much there for the night. After a few hours, exhaustion really started to kick in for me and I took the "sleep anywhere" talents I had picked up on my travels to a new level when I drifted off for a nap while standing up in the middle of the dance floor in a heaving club - interesting!! By the time we left the metro had mercifully started up again and we managed to stumble across a station and get ourselves home.

I had been looking forward to Sunday for a long time, as the whole aim of the trip had been to go and watch a Barcelona home game on the Sunday night. Adam and Shaun had sorted us all out with tickets upon their early arrival, and it was just left to my Spanish to try and enable us to pick them up from the ground. With that sorted, we headed into the Camp Nou, and even though our seats were individual and scattered around the stadium, we managed to all congregate in the same section and pretty much stay seated together for the whole match even though with 90,000 people attending the stadium was close to capacity. Barcelona strolled the match against Athletico Madrid 3-0, with Messi and Iniesta both putting on absolutely world class performances. I've visited a lot of the world's most famous stadia on my travels, but invariably they have been empty as I've been on a stadium tour. It was a great experience to head to a famous venue like the Camp Nou on a packed match day and sample both the football and the atmosphere.

After dinner Shaun took us to the Jamboree Jazz Club, which proved an absolute musical highlight of our trip. It was a very
Camp NouCamp NouCamp Nou

We managed to snare tickets and it was pretty much a full-house to watch Barcelona beat Athletico Madrid 3-0.
cool underground venue, and we made it in for the 11 o'clock performance which saw a room of probably only about 20 people or so being bowled over by an incredible performance of live jazz and blues from a guy called Alex TNT. After the jazz had finished the club night ramped up and the music unfortunately went distinctly hip-hop on us. Shaun and I went for a wander to find the next venue, and after a cheeky drink en-route to inspire the creative juices we tracked down a likely looking club and convinced everyone to assemble in there.

Andy, having got a little bit boozy earlier in the evening, was feeling a bit worse for wear and this wasn't helped when the entire group decided it would be a good idea to rub their hands all over his face. Andy lashed out and in the same motion managed to send the contents of his bottle of water flying straight into the chest of the barmaid absolutely soaking her. We all doubled up in stitches as it was possibly the most hilarious piece of slapstick comedy I have ever seen, but the lady behind the bar didn't seem to have twigged who was the guilty party and it looked like we had gotten away with it.

Thus the usual bout of drinking and dodgy dancing ensued, and about an hour later I went for a wander around the other rooms of the club to see what was going on only to return and find that everyone had disappeared. Hoping that I hadn't just been abandoned I assumed that we had managed to get ourselves thrown out of another club, I headed to the entrance where the rest of the guys were luckily waiting!! It seems what had happened is that the barmaid - still seemingly upset from her earlier drenching - had sent the bouncers out and about around the club looking for the culprit! They had first rounded on Shaun, and then a "friendly local" had pointed the finger of blame directly at Andy!! With me on my wanders and so unavailable to explain (or try to explain in my best drunken Spanish) that it had all been a complete accident things started to escalate. Nug pulled out the classic move of flicking the hat off the finger pointing local, and it seems that soon after that everyone was deposited firmly outside on the street to regroup and carry on the banter!

The randomness wasn't finished with the walk home, as some local residents seemed to take offence at our inevitably noisy passage through their neighbourhood and decided to unleash a barrage of eggs down onto the street. Nug took one square on the shoulder and immediately rounded on the two random guys who were walking behind us believing them to be the culprits!! We managed to scoot out of the firing line and back to the hostel to bring the curtain down on another awesome night of randomness which always seems to follow Boys Club wherever it goes!!

The final day everyone was feeling exhausted and so we headed down to the beach to recuperate. The original plan had been for us all to hire scooters and head off around Barcelona. In the end only Shaun and I embarked on the road trip and got ourselves a little moped between us. We paper, scissor stoned for who would get the honour of first drive and Shaun won the honour to lead us off. This proved to be a bit of an issue as Shaun had never ridden a scooter before and this immediately showed before we were even off the kerb as Shaun sent us hurtling towards a parked truck in full view of the understandably nervous rental shop owner!! After that early hiccup we switched places and I led us away on our magical mystery tour! We didn't really know where we were going but we had a vague idea about heading for the peak of Mount Tibidabo, the large hill which looms over the back of the city. We had an absolute hoot getting there, with a few wrong turnings, diversions, an inordinate number of traffic lights to wait at and eventually, when we got towards the upper reaches of the hill, some great dirt track riding and some awesome hairpin bends which I really enjoyed tackling - although I'm not sure if Shaun would say the same riding pillion!!

Having enjoyed the views from on high, Shaun took control and we headed back into the city. Unfortunately we managed to time our return to coincide with both Monday night rush hour and a thunderstorm of biblical proportions. Shaun's riding skills had improved quickly and soon I was only fearing for my life for approximately half the journey time!! We managed to get back to the beach drowned like rats and now faced with the unenviable task of tracking down a petrol station to fill up. That last stint on the way back from filling up was not pleasant - the rain was sheeting down, the windchill was cutting and we were absolutely drenched to the bone!! To top it all off our trusty hog broke down about 500 yards from the rental shop so we had the ignominy of wheeling the bike back into the showroom! Luckily they didn't take any deposit off us and we managed to flag down a taxi to get us out of the rain and back to the hostel. The scooter ride had been an absolute blast and allowed us to see parts of Barcelona that would have been completely out of reach otherwise and have a real hoot while doing it. I'd definitely recommend renting them as a great way to get a lot more out of your visit to the city.

All that remained was for us to get stitched up massively by the taxi drivers on the way to the airport and to wing our way back to Blighty following another hugely enjoyable and entertaining European adventure. Cheers boys.

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7th October 2010
Camp Nou

hola para todos
barcelona tiener staduim grande en mundo y muj linda

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