Football!

I shivered through my first European Football match. That’s soccer to all you Americans! It was a championship level match between Portugal and the top Russian team. Previously I really had no clue how football worked other than the fact that the players try to kick the ball in the other team’s net. I observed that it is an awful lot of non-stop running in two 45 minute periods with a 15 minute half-time. Along with learning the basic rules of the game, I also got to enjoy fans cheering in Russian. There was quite the fan section with a designated fan director that led the group in synchronized cheers. Waving scarves in the air and shouting who knows what seemed to be the most popular activities of the general crowd. As the snow was coming down on the pitch I was happy that I was bundled up and wondering how the fans from Portugal were taking the weather. I was happy to discover that the bathrooms were heated.

I found it interesting that they sold tea and muffins at the match. Of course what I thought was most interesting is food related! While I didn’t like it, I found it interesting that smoking is not allowed in the stadium but some people still smoke. It’s Russia so they get away with it.