From Al to El

After a couple of months where we tripped off to San Francisco, Italy and Barcelona, we're here to stay in Barcelona for at least 11 months - giving us our first permanent home together for the first time since we left Dubai in September 2006.

It feels good!

Between now and 2006, we've had various stops with generous friends who have lent us apartments and given us beds in Berlin, and I lived in Melbourne for a year while J commuted between Australia and Europe for work. Living out of suitcases with no places to put our own stuff has not been much fun.

We visited Barcelona twice to check it out before committing to finding an apartment and basing ourselves here, and on both occasions we felt more and more happy with our decision to make the move.

Finding an apartment didn't take us as long as we had thought that it might, once we had made contact with the lovely Eileen from Ficasso Real Estate. She only had to show us a couple of places and the second one appealed so much that we took it right away.

It's in a complex that reminds us of where we lived in Dubai. Although the apartments are a lot smaller in size, they have the same cold marble floors and there's a pool and gym, plus 2 paddle tennis courts. There's a large shopping centre across the road called Diagonal Mar, a metro station about 300m away and the beach is about the same distance in the opposite direction.

Being furnished, there wasn't much for us to do except give the place a good clean to M&J standards, buy items such as sheets, towels and some kitchen equipment, and move our personal effects (clothes etc) down from Berlin.

We've now been here for a week, and it feels like home. Spanish lessons are in the near future, but we first have to survive the kids arriving for 3 weeks over their Easter vacation on Sunday.

Thankfully, J's Spanish has been good enough to deal with Telefónica to get the internet (10mb ADSL) and phone lines connected (within 3 days of ordering!), buy phone cards and deal with shop keepers.

Our first taste of Barcelona life came last night when we went to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona play Malaga. We were so excited! I didn't take my Canon 5D MKII as we weren't sure how the security and crowds would be, so instead I stuck with my little Canon SD400. The complex is very well-organised and the crowd was filtered in through many gates and doors all around the arena, so we were never in long lines waiting for entry into the seating area.

The teams warm up

The ground holds almost 99,000 people and it filled up nicely with about 77,000 for this game. There was a huge roar when Barça came onto the pitch to warm up, and when they officially came onto the pitch to play the game, the whole crowd sang the club anthem, El Cant del Barça which finishes in Barça, Barça, Baaarça! We were able to join in on that line!

The teams come on to the crowd's singing

The game was so exciting and Barça is a well-drilled team. They instinctively know where each player is and their passing skills are superb. I've been a fan of Lionel Messi for some time and to see him play was a dream for me, and to also see Thierry Henry was a thrill.

The Mexican Wave goes around the arena

By half time, Barça was 4-0, thanks to some awesome goals by Eto'o, Henry, Xavi and a brilliant individual run by Messi who ran past 2 defenders to score. The crowd was on its feet!

Late into the second half

It was really over by half-time. Still, in the second half, Alves scored a blinding header and Eto'o scored his second to make the final score 6-0. Malaga had a few opportunities, but their time with the ball was severely restricted by great Barça defence - especially from #2 Cáceres.

Were we happy? We were ecstatic! Our first Barça game and we were treated to a goal-fest and top class football. We hope to see a lot more through the season when our wallets permit. Oh - and J is now a Barça member so that we can get first dibs on some of the tickets!

6-0 and a minute to go!

We also haven't totally escaped the U.A.E. influence as Etisalat just became a premium sponsor of FC Barcelona for the next 4 years!

The crowd leaves the ground

Next time I'll take the Canon 5D MkII and get some better shots - and maybe some better video!