How Not to be an Amateur...

...at a Spanish fútbol match.

My roommates and I finally geared up Sunday night to attend our first professional fútbol match at the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, bundled up and tickets in hand!

Okay, scratch that very last part about the tickets...At this game, we would be wise and quick-minded SCALPERS!

Okay, scratch that "wise" and "quick-minded" part, too...but we'll get back to this later as you read through my, "How not to" be an amateur fútbol fan.

How Not to be an Amateur at a Spanish fútbol match:

1. Show up early! It's true that Spanish tailgates will never beat your neighbor's 20 ft. tent with grill and buffet, or your dad's huge stereo, bean-bag toss and perfectly-cooked hamburgers; but this is partly because Spanish tailgates simply don't exist.

I know, it's a shame. But that doesn't mean you don't arrive at least two hours early before the game! Scalping or not, we decided to get to the stadium at 7 p.m., and we were sure glad we did! The atmosphere is still fun, with crowds gathering to cheer on the buss that drives by with all the players; packed cervecerías (bar) on every corner; and fans eating and drinking out in the streets.

We stopped by a cervecería that was the opposite of amateur, already having prepared what must have been a hundred sandwiches wrapped and ready to throw out to anyone who raised their hand (holding money of course). And the beers were handed down an assembly line, landing in yours before you could say, "Cerveza, por favor."

Although it was a bit cold, we took our beers out to the streets and took a stroll, eventually finding ourselves in another lively bar. A different kind of tailgate, but a tailgate all in the same.

2. Get your eating and drinking in! In other words, eat beforehand or sneak something in...They may sell things inside, but the lines can be long and sometimes you just don't want to get up once you've climbed those five flights of stadium steps (if you had our seats). While they allow water bottles with no caps, they don't allow food. With the little rebel that she is, my roommate snuck in a half-eaten sandwich in her coat hood...I had my fun making fun of her until it actually worked...

Also, unlike those crazy stadiums in the U.S., Spanish stadiums don't allow or sell alcohol. Yes, that's right. So have your fun beforehand at the bars. And don't be fooled by the people in the stadium holding cups of beer. They're non-alcoholic.

3. Buy your tickets beforehand or learn how to scalp. Besides seeing my dad buy a ticket or two at a Razorback football game when I was younger, I really had no idea what I was doing when it came to scalping; especially in another country. Another group of my friends who had gone to a game earlier that week decided to take the less riskier path and buy their tickets online for around 65 euros. But us? Oh no, if there's a cheaper way, that's the better way. So off we went, scalping-amateurs posing as professionals.

As it turns out, finding people sketchily selling tickets was not an issue. We were approached by maybe 10 different people, but all offering us tickets for 40 euros or more (when online the cheapest ticket sells for 30 euro).

Since this was not a "big" game (which we purposely planned on), we knew that tickets could sell cheap. We tried to barter, but it didn't work too well.

Finally, we found a man who would sell us four tickets for 30 euros each. We happily accepted as he promised us that they were all together as well. We dealt him the money, grabbed the tickets and walked off.

That's where the "amateur" part really kicked in. Why would we not check the tickets first? Luckily, they weren't fake, which is the number one risk you take when scalping. No, they were real, they just really weren't together. We were all spread out. Thankfully, since it wasn't a huge game, we found four seats together in a good section behind the goal. High, but great vantage point I'd say.

In the end, 30 euros is what we could have paid to just walk up to the ticket office and ask for four tickets together. But hey, it's all a learning process, right?

4. Make a plan afterwards. Win or lose, in the U.S. or in Spain, with bumper-to-bumper cars or seas of people in the metro, you're going to have to deal with the crowds after the game. We didn't realize this...and then after it taking us an hour and a half to get home, we learned our lesson. Get some drinks after the game, take a walk, hang around the area, grab some dinner; but DON'T BRAVE THE METRO.

5. Get into the game. American football will always have my heart, but it's pretty cool to come to a country where they love fútbol as much as I love football. I appreciate the passion and I really appreciate the talent of the players. I may not know too much about fútbol, but I learned that when you really pay attention, you can spot some very cute players.

Oh yeah and it's a cool sport too I guess...

This packed arena behind us is what they call a "not big" game...

#culture