Viva Espana!

I'm allergic to Vienna. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I've been sneezing all the time and I've had a runny nose that I have to blow like, every 5 minutes. Throw on top of that the fact that it's really hot and I'm starting to feel pretty physically feeble here. Plus, I haven't gone running since I got here, which makes me feel lazy and unhealthy.

So I know I said I probably wasn't going to any more games, but the deal was too good to pass up. The guy was offering them for less than face value, and they were better seats than the last game. It's pretty hard to turn that down. I think it would have been a cool project to look at the economics of ticket scalping, because it's probably one of the best models of free market economics. Plus all the characters are really interesting and odd.

So I sat in the Spanish section for their game against world champions Italy, which everybody was expecting to be a great game. I didn't know I would be in the Spanish section until I sat down (actually, until everybody else sat down), when I noticed that everything around me had a red and yellow coating to it. I didn't have any Spanish regalia, so I felt a little funny wearing gray in the midst of all these Spanish men. They didn't seem to mind, though. They didn't really notice me.

While I'm not particularly partial to either team, I was probably more excited to be in the Spanish section, as I could do a minimum amount of communication (good for the project, and my Spanish) and understand the cheers. The Spanish national anthem doesn't have any words, but the Spanish still sing along anyway, which I found entertaining.

The game wasn't sold out (well, it sold out, but there were open seats) because apparently "the quarter finals come too quick," and people can't make travel arrangements to get to Vienna. I thought that was weird, because the Turkey-Croatia game was packed, and I figured that Spain and Italy would attract much larger crowds. But they didn't, which means I got my tickets for cheap, which was fine by me. I was at the other end of the stadium from last time, which was cool because I got a different perspective.

The game was good, and went into extra time like the Croatia match. Unfortunately, there were no goals, which was kind of a bummer, but it did go to penalties, which makes everything very exciting very quickly. Again last night the penalties were at my end of the field, which makes everything better.

There are only three games left, which blows my mind. I've watched more than 30 games in the past half-month, which is a pretty jam-packed schedule. It tends to wear on one, and it's nice to have a few days off before the semi finals. I'm preparing myself for thousands of screaming Russians and Spaniards to descend on Vienna in the next few days.