Madridista Meet-Up, In Madrid! (Plus Bernabeu Photos/Feels)
So I've been telling myself that I was going to put this post up like two months ago. My procrastination skills are clearly super, ridiculously amazing. BUT! I wanted to see if any of you are in/around Madrid and would like to do a Hala Madrid meet up sometime. Either come with melj1213 and I to watch a match and drink beer or else just meet up for dinner or something. But I would really like to meet those of you who are here/might be planning to visit in the next few months and if we could organize something, that'd be super great!
Another thing I've been meaning to do for ages (*cough* since October *cough*) is to post pictures of when melj1213 and I did the Berbanbeu tour. I was also going to add photos of matches I've been to, but I'm going to save that for another day. This got long and wordy as is. Oops!
(this is going to be a little bit less enthusiastic because, as I stuck in the cut, it deleted 97% of my post and I had to start over. :/ )
I didn't take a picture of the front of our house of worship...I mean stadium, on my good camera, so have my over excitedly Instagrammed photo. (There's more of those here, if you're interested. I have gone Instagram crazy every time I've been because I'm kind of a loser like that. You might have to scroll a bit for some of them and sorry in advance for my face/photos of food/pictures of mail/palm trees/etc.) BUT YOU GUYS. THIS PLACE IS HUGE. YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAAAAAND. Ahem. Well, maybe some of you do but guys. Anyways: moving on.
Actually walking into the stadium is something else. It's like a kick to the gut where you go, "Holy shit.I'm here. I'm actually here." And it takes you (me) a moment and you might forget to breath and then you see the pitch and just how big and overwhelming it is and just the thought of being out on that pitch makes you a bit dizzy because the comparisons to a cathedral are accurate and there is history everywhere here and you can just feel it.
Let's talk about the change room. BECAUSE THE CHANGE ROOM I CANNOT EVEN. melj1213 and I analyzed pretty much everything because that's what you do when you've read way too much fic and troll around the internet fangirling with people. Look at Benz being all forever!alone there because sobssobssobs stillnotoverit sobssobssobs Kaka and Mesut are no longer with us. And you know bro isn't cuddling up to Bale anytime soon. (Whose picture is dumb because he joined so late and it looks out of place and weird. So there.) But, this is also where you can insert your whole 'Cris and Benz console each other' fic bunnies. RUN FREE! And Diego's locker is basically in no man's land, all by itself and partially hidden by a whiteboard. (melj1213 took ridiculous amounts of glee from that, let me assure you!) AND THE SHOWER OMG YOU GUUUUYS. THE SHOWER. I didn't take pictures of it and I DON"T KNOW WHY because I really should have. It is literally the smallest shower I could have imagined for a stadium as big as ours is and I have no idea how whoever designed it figured grown ass men would be fitting in there. (Unless of course that person was also a secret slasher because that shower is a shower where shower sex is had. I AM JUST SAYING. You are not getting people in there comfortably unless they are up close and personal with each other. #groupshowersex)
Okay: trophy room. So you know how we've won like a shit ton of trophies, yeah? There's such a difference between thinking about that number in your head and then seeing the hard, physical, bright and shiny evidence stretched out in front of you behind squeaky clean glass. Because there is a lot of bright and shiny in there. Bring sunglasses, guys. Also of note: there are some tacky ass trophies in that room. Which is not really a surprise because we're Real Madrid and well...that's what we do. (Mel and I commented that we should get a trophy for the tackiest trophies. Because we're hilarious like that.) But seriously: we are kind of really, amazingly good at football and just seeing the proof of that, glittering in front of my wide little eyeballs was something else. I also really liked how they had the past kits on display, along with old footballs, newspaper clippings, various memorabilia, scrapbooks, flags, etc. It just brought it all together, not just the shiny and fancy but also where we came from. #somanyfeeeeels
AHHH. LET'S TALK ABOUT THE TECHY STUFF THEY HAVE. So they have really neat interactives set up, where you can go through video and read newspaper clippings, look at photos and like...zoom into Pipita's ass. I AM NOT JOKING. It's basically like JARVIS from Iron Man became a huge football fan and this is what he turned into. It was beautiful. Of course, someone obviously made a huge error and accidentally left out Sergio dropping the Copa because it's not in the archives and HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THAT OUT?! (Because I love you all, I've linked to it because I knew you'd go looking for it as soon as I brought it up. <3)
So, just as you're leaving the tour you are greeted with this BIIIG poster of all the trophies that the football and basketball teams have won. Which, as we noted in the trophy room, IS A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT. (Note the not so subtle title of: The Best Track Record of the World. OH RM! <3) And the crests! Ah! While I love me the white/blue combo, I really love the purple in those crests, especially the one sans crown. I don't know why, but it's just so...different, I think. Fully support the purple! I MEAN LOOK.
Annnd: that was my tour at the Bernabeu. Where I was hit with super lots of feels, which were nothing compared to when I actually got to go to a match because holy hell you think you're ready for it and then BAM! you are so totally not. But like I said: that will be another post, with more ridiculous sentences and feelings. :) OH RIGHT:
My gift shop purchase because you can't just go on the tour and leave the gift shop empty handed. WHAT KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU?! But because I do not have money like that dude making it rain over there buying like five kits, I bought a mug. A very pretty mug who, unfortunately, is losing its colours after too many turns in the dish washer. Note: even though it says dish washer safe, wash that memento by hand! For the sake of longevity and bright colours!
Another thing I've been meaning to do for ages (*cough* since October *cough*) is to post pictures of when melj1213 and I did the Berbanbeu tour. I was also going to add photos of matches I've been to, but I'm going to save that for another day. This got long and wordy as is. Oops!
(this is going to be a little bit less enthusiastic because, as I stuck in the cut, it deleted 97% of my post and I had to start over. :/ )
I didn't take a picture of the front of our house of worship...I mean stadium, on my good camera, so have my over excitedly Instagrammed photo. (There's more of those here, if you're interested. I have gone Instagram crazy every time I've been because I'm kind of a loser like that. You might have to scroll a bit for some of them and sorry in advance for my face/photos of food/pictures of mail/palm trees/etc.) BUT YOU GUYS. THIS PLACE IS HUGE. YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAAAAAND. Ahem. Well, maybe some of you do but guys. Anyways: moving on.
Actually walking into the stadium is something else. It's like a kick to the gut where you go, "Holy shit.I'm here. I'm actually here." And it takes you (me) a moment and you might forget to breath and then you see the pitch and just how big and overwhelming it is and just the thought of being out on that pitch makes you a bit dizzy because the comparisons to a cathedral are accurate and there is history everywhere here and you can just feel it.
Let's talk about the change room. BECAUSE THE CHANGE ROOM I CANNOT EVEN. melj1213 and I analyzed pretty much everything because that's what you do when you've read way too much fic and troll around the internet fangirling with people. Look at Benz being all forever!alone there because sobssobssobs stillnotoverit sobssobssobs Kaka and Mesut are no longer with us. And you know bro isn't cuddling up to Bale anytime soon. (Whose picture is dumb because he joined so late and it looks out of place and weird. So there.) But, this is also where you can insert your whole 'Cris and Benz console each other' fic bunnies. RUN FREE! And Diego's locker is basically in no man's land, all by itself and partially hidden by a whiteboard. (melj1213 took ridiculous amounts of glee from that, let me assure you!) AND THE SHOWER OMG YOU GUUUUYS. THE SHOWER. I didn't take pictures of it and I DON"T KNOW WHY because I really should have. It is literally the smallest shower I could have imagined for a stadium as big as ours is and I have no idea how whoever designed it figured grown ass men would be fitting in there. (Unless of course that person was also a secret slasher because that shower is a shower where shower sex is had. I AM JUST SAYING. You are not getting people in there comfortably unless they are up close and personal with each other. #groupshowersex)
Okay: trophy room. So you know how we've won like a shit ton of trophies, yeah? There's such a difference between thinking about that number in your head and then seeing the hard, physical, bright and shiny evidence stretched out in front of you behind squeaky clean glass. Because there is a lot of bright and shiny in there. Bring sunglasses, guys. Also of note: there are some tacky ass trophies in that room. Which is not really a surprise because we're Real Madrid and well...that's what we do. (Mel and I commented that we should get a trophy for the tackiest trophies. Because we're hilarious like that.) But seriously: we are kind of really, amazingly good at football and just seeing the proof of that, glittering in front of my wide little eyeballs was something else. I also really liked how they had the past kits on display, along with old footballs, newspaper clippings, various memorabilia, scrapbooks, flags, etc. It just brought it all together, not just the shiny and fancy but also where we came from. #somanyfeeeeels
AHHH. LET'S TALK ABOUT THE TECHY STUFF THEY HAVE. So they have really neat interactives set up, where you can go through video and read newspaper clippings, look at photos and like...zoom into Pipita's ass. I AM NOT JOKING. It's basically like JARVIS from Iron Man became a huge football fan and this is what he turned into. It was beautiful. Of course, someone obviously made a huge error and accidentally left out Sergio dropping the Copa because it's not in the archives and HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THAT OUT?! (Because I love you all, I've linked to it because I knew you'd go looking for it as soon as I brought it up. <3)
So, just as you're leaving the tour you are greeted with this BIIIG poster of all the trophies that the football and basketball teams have won. Which, as we noted in the trophy room, IS A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT. (Note the not so subtle title of: The Best Track Record of the World. OH RM! <3) And the crests! Ah! While I love me the white/blue combo, I really love the purple in those crests, especially the one sans crown. I don't know why, but it's just so...different, I think. Fully support the purple! I MEAN LOOK.
Annnd: that was my tour at the Bernabeu. Where I was hit with super lots of feels, which were nothing compared to when I actually got to go to a match because holy hell you think you're ready for it and then BAM! you are so totally not. But like I said: that will be another post, with more ridiculous sentences and feelings. :) OH RIGHT:
My gift shop purchase because you can't just go on the tour and leave the gift shop empty handed. WHAT KIND OF PERSON ARE YOU?! But because I do not have money like that dude making it rain over there buying like five kits, I bought a mug. A very pretty mug who, unfortunately, is losing its colours after too many turns in the dish washer. Note: even though it says dish washer safe, wash that memento by hand! For the sake of longevity and bright colours!