Let me explain....

Salamanca was fortunate enough to host the world-champion Spanish national team last night, in their first match on home soil since winning the World Cup this summer - against Lithuania (!). In case you were living under a rock during the month of July, the victory was huge for Spain. They'd never even gotten past the semi-finals before.

Since arriving, Spain has made it very clear to me that it will be celebrating this victory for a long time. Every store has red and gold jerseys, scarves, T-shirts, flags, or any imaginable accessory for the futbol-devoted. And it's only gotten worse in the past few weeks leading up to yesterday's match. 

Plaza Mayor has been chaotic, more so than usual, due to the giant screen and fan zone that have taken up most of the space this last week. Besides the space to watch the game, this fan zone also had sponsor stands, games, and a "museum," which contained Spain's most valuable possession - the World Cup itself. 

When the fan zone opened on Thursday, my friend Mia and I went to go check it out, since we had a free afternoon and had heard rumors that the team would be showing up. The rumors were wrong, but we staked out a spot in line to see the Cup anyways. After waiting about an hour in line for them to open the museum, we finally saw it!

We are far more hardcore than all of these
people behind us in line.

Unfortunately, this photo doesn't capture the amount of
shoves and glares that I got in the pursuit of this.
Spanish fans are vicious.

Later on, other IES students attempted to see the trophy, but after waiting in line for two hours with at least another two remaining, they gave up. Therefore, Mia and I were pretty happy with ourselves. We even made it into the local newspaper!


However, as shiny as it was, the World Cup was not nearly as exciting as watching the game in Plaza Mayor. After having been in Germany during the Euro Cup (which Spain had won, too), I had high expectations for watching the game surrounded by Spain's devoted fans. (Sorry, Deutschland, I changed sides.)


It turned out that a lot of the fans in the Plaza were fellow foreigners dressed in full red and gold, but the game was a blast nonetheless.

Part of the IES Salamanca group in Plaza Mayor
(Despite how dark this is, you can still see just how
overwhelmingly and authentically Spanish we are.)

Oh, and Spain was victorious, of course. We are the world champions, after all. Viva Espana!