By Max Myers & Hayden Sabovik
Friday the 19th did not start out the way that we wanted it to, but we still made a great day out of it. It started out with us having our own free time in the morning until our noon report time. At noon, we all headed to the metro station to get on a train to the Park Güell here in Barcelona, Spain. When we arrived at the Park Güell, we were not let in because there was a misunderstanding with our tickets. So instead of going into Park Güell, we had more free time until our next activity. During the free time we had, we all decided to head to our next activity early to eat lunch and to do some shopping.
Our next stop was Spotify Camp Nou, FC Barcelona’s home stadium, and the surrounding restaurants and shops. Most of us chose to eat at a restaurant called the Barca Café and others wanted to do some shopping before our stadium tour. It started to sprinkle a little but that did not stop anyone because we were all having the time of our lives at the stadium.
To begin our self-guided Camp Nou stadium tour, we walked in through the main entrances on our way to the first section of the museum. It was filled to the brim with the history of not only FC Barcelona, but also FC Barcelona Femení, along with Barcelona’s basketball and handball teams. But of course the main focus was on their soccer history. The exhibits included were detailed, starting with the founding of the club way back in 1899 all the way up to the present day. This included exhibits on all the past players, managers and other important figures in FC Barcelona’s history from Joan Gamper to Ronaldinho to Lionel Messi. And part of that history is that FC Barcelona is world famous for being one the most successful and iconic clubs in not only Spanish soccer, but the entire world. They’ve won an impressive 27 LaLiga titles, along with 5 UEFA Champions League titles. And these trophies were on display along with the hundreds of other trophies that FC Barcelona have won throughout their history.
And along with all their team successes, there was tons of individual player memorabilia on display to showcase some of the world-class players that have played for FC Barcelona in their history. This included signed jerseys, cleats, soccer balls, goalie gloves and more from nearly every era of FC Barcelona. However, the most impressive were the Ballon d’Or awards on display from none other than the great Lionel Messi. It was incredible to see such prestigious awards up close from arguably the greatest soccer player of all time.
Following that section of the museum, the next part of the tour was heading out to the seats and seeing the inside of Camp Nou for ourselves. The view was breathtaking, as the enormous size of the nearly 100,000 person stadium becomes quickly apparent when you first step out. Every single seat is painted blue, red or yellow, with a large section of seats spelling out the phrase “Més que un club” which translates to “more than a club” in English.
We then headed down some stairs and first ended up in the official press conference room, and then briefly walked through the visiting team locker room. After that, we made our way down through the main players’ entrance to the field onto the field level, just behind the sideline. Again, we spent a few minutes admiring the view of the stadium, but this time from the player’s perspective being so close to the field.
Once we were done on the field, we made our way up the stairs and back through another section of the museum. Again, it was full of history of the club, including a model of what the new Camp Nou will look like along with a long wall with historic FC Barcelona highlights being replayed.
After a quick visit up to the top of the stadium and the press box, we went down into the massive FC Barcelona team store that marked the end of the tour. It was overwhelming to see how much they had available in this store. It was three floors of in your face, non-stop FC Barcelona. There were throwback jerseys, new jerseys, scarves, old replica soccer balls, and essentially anything else you could possibly think of.
After the amazing stadium of Spotify Camp Nou Stadium, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the night to come. We separated into multiple groups that did different things all around the city of Barcelona. Max and I went with a group that went to a nice restaurant and tried different types of Paella. A couple people ordered a chicken and vegetables paella and two seafood paella, one with rice and one with noodles. All three were amazing and fulfilling.
The 8 of us were just eating, drinking, and getting to know one another better as we have spent a week of our lives together in foreign countries. It was an amazing night because we were able to bond with our new friends and we got to know more about our new tour guide. Overall, the day was filled to the brim with fun and exciting activities even though some of our adventures did not go as planned. Our friends, the atmosphere of the city, and the beauty of
Barcelona, Spain, made this day a day to remember.