Episode 2: Barcelona Dreaming

The AMF Futsal World Cup is due to commence on Monday 18th November 2024, Australia is drawn against the highly rated and favourites Paraguay ion their first game. The Australian team arrived in Barcelona a week early to acclimatise and spend a couple of beautiful days exploring the eclectic city of Barcelona!

Our team headed out by train and Metro, leaving from the beach side city of Castelldefels, (home to the one and only Lionel Messi while he was at Barcelona FC). We jumped on the train mixing in well with the locals….the boys had eyes wide open as they noted many of the young ladies dressed for success heading into the city. I could hear some comments and code words being thrown around, I think the guys are starting to feel comfortable and excited to be here.

Our train ride was delayed due to some issues on the train line but we kept ourselves entertained with some friendly banter, on arrival to “Barcelona Sants” station we all disembarked and looked for the metro line to take us to “Sagrada Familia” station. Our trusty google maps and resident guide “Praneil” one of our players led the way. The metro to “Sagrada Familia” was a short one.

The escalator up to street level was quite misleading to the fact that we would be greeted by a phenomenal sight……”La Sagrada Familia” was glowing in the clear skies. All our squad looked up and let out many “wow’s” and “holy Sh…s” that is awesome!! A few of the players and coaching staff had booked tickets to enter the Church which “Antoni Gaudi” designed and begun its construction in 1882, at this stage in 2024 the Roman Catholic Basilica is still not complete. Local authority’s are currently continuing the build using the same plans of Catalan Modernist Architecture. You can see from the photos and videos that we took we were truly inspired by the building. It was hard to leave as we wanted to take in as much of the building and its aura as possible.

Our group also visited “Casa Mila” and “Casa Batlo” as well as “Park Guell” all sights designed by Antoni Gaudi. The experience and knowledge gained was priceless as well as the walking which added to our daily step count.

Our group headed up the stairs to the famous lookout just outside “Park Guell” where we took in the breathtaking view of the City of Barcelona, we truly were “Barcelona Dreaming” Its interesting to note the many football facilities including full pitches located in the city that are available to use. This is a reflection of the importance that football has in Spanish society.

The afternoon ended at Ciutadella Park that was created in the late 1800’s. There is the local Zoo and many other attractions as well as many stray dogs!! From here we enjoyed a quick rest, drink and shop in “Football Emotion” before heading back to the hotel to meet our bus driver “Margarita” who transferred us to the city of “Lleida” as known in Catalan or “Lerida” in Spanish.

“Lleida” pronounced “yayda” is an ancient city approximately 90 minutes from Barcelona. It has a rough population of 140,000 people. It is located in the North Eastern part of Catalonia. The city looks a little old with some Gothic like structures. There seems to be many immigrants coming from countries like Morocco, Africa and South America.

We arrived at our new hotel “Hotel Sansi Park” in Lleida at 9pm. Dinner was waiting for us…an entree of Tuna salad, main of Duck Cannelloni and dessert of custard and chocolate mousse. The players seemed a little bemused as I think they did not expect Tuna salad for dinner or even a duck meal for that matter. The squad then settled in for their first night in Lleida.

From here on its Futsal, Futsal, Futsal or Futbol de Salon as its originally known!!

The story continues……