Neither my mum nor I are very fond of football. Actually...our relationship with football borders to hatred of football out of the utter boredom caused by a ball being kicked around aimlessly for 90 minutes. So you can imagine our confusion when dad got us tickets for a match and a trip to Marseille, France for the European football cup for Christmas.
'Well, since I'm turning 60 in June...and this is the first, and possibly only time Iceland will ever make it to the European cup in a lifetime, this is a once in a lifetime experience,' he explained.
'Ooooh!' mum and I exclaimed in relief that after all dad did know us better than it had seemed for a split second.
Now here we are. And Iceland played yesterday.
In retrospect though, although we sadly ended up not being able to meet my friend at all, I think we were thankful for missing out on the fanzone. Most Icelanders (including my friend) were still outside when the game was just about to start, with some still arriving after the kick-off. They missed the warm-up of singing some national song - not the anthem, obviously, but some other song... They missed cheering when the team entered the pitch to warm up, and they missed the introduction of the team. They also missed a noise-competition which the Hungarians obviously won, seeing they had more than double the amount of fans compared to us.
I think I have only been to one other 'proper' sporting event. It was also in France, in 2011, during the same trip as I wrote about in 'It all comes back to France'. We went to Stade de France, where the terrorist attacks were last year, and saw some annual athletic event (I found out later that it was annual when I saw similar posters advertising it some years later) where, I only found out afterwards, Usain Bolt had been running. That's how lost I am at sporting events...
It was fun though, and equally, I was determined this would be fun. Not because I like football, but because people go loud. Indeed, when the match kicked off I felt like it was hard to follow the game because most of the energy was spent shouting cheers, clapping and being aware of when they'd change the cheers so you wouldn't scream the wrong thing at the wrong time. Eventually though I guess you get a hold of somehow doing both, and time passed a lot faster than it otherwise does when I sit in front of the TV, waiting for dad to finish the game so I can watch something else.
In short: Iceland got a penalty kick in the first half and scored. We were so excited the whole time that we were all standing the entire time (plus if you'd sit down you couldn't see because of the people in front) but I still think you would have been able to see like a wave at the joy of the game's first goal.
Second half was awful. The Hungarians had the ball most of the time and I must admit that our goalie's passes were just plain bad. It wasn't a question of whether, but when they'd score - and they did. With only two damn minutes left of normal playing time. Despite having screens at the stadium, they wouldn't replay the goals, or other 'vital' moments, but rather, it would display 'GOAL' in big letters and the new score. So we only found out later that Hungary's goal was actually Iceland's self-goal. The Hungarians were seriously crazy and several fireworks and other stuff were thrown at the pitch from the crowd that had to be quickly removed by security. (Apparently, they are likely to face 'disciplinary punishments' as a result, according to news resources). Fine. 1-1. We were at least not losing. But what brought it down was that Iceland got a free kick during additional time. And not just additional time, but to end the game. It was seriously a few cm from the goal but didn't score. The game was blown off, and the Hungarians could still be heard cheering when we got outside, to celebrate that they have now secured a place to the next round.
We didn't lose though. So again, it could have been worse.
Today we've spent the day quietly in the airB&B we're staying. Sunbathing on our balcony. Tomorrow we're going to Arles and maybe some place where there are flamingos. I didn't even know flamingos existed in Europe. Pictures and more posts very likely to come.
Until then, enjoy the summer!