EU Holiday, September 04 (London Stalling II)

The flight to Barcelona was out of London City airport instead of Heathrow, so I was feeling relieved I wouldn't have to endure another airport disaster. We boarded the plane around 12:30pm just as it started raining, and everything looked on track. Then we didn't take off. The announcement said because of the rain we had to take off in the opposite direction, but we were too heavy ? After nearly an hour they figured out they'd need to pay four people to jump off the plane. They also had to take off all the luggage under the plane so they could locate theirs. After that was sorted, we'd used up too much fuel while stationary, so needed a top up. By 2:30pm we were in the air...

So what was going to be a casual afternoon with plenty of time to get to tonight's soccer match became a rush. Luckily we found out when picking up the soccer tickets at the airport that the game was at a different stadium than was advertised. Moments later I realised why I went out of my way not to take my big suitcase on the rest of my trip up until now. Trying to get through train stations, up and down stairs, through ticket carousels and onto the train during a hot summer day is the worst. Also it's not a good idea to buy several jumpers on holiday to add to the bag weight, or go on holiday to locations where you need both summer and winter clothes...

We dumped the bags and then had to head to the other side of the city for the Mexico vs. Chile friendly at FC Espanyol's stadium. The attendant at the airport also warned that there are no signs from the station telling you how to get to the stadium, so just follow everyone else. That would have been a lot easier if the game hadn't already started. We followed the only girl in a Mexico top we could see, potentially looking like stalkers in the process, and made it to the game just ten minutes late. There seemed to be a lot more Chile fans for whatever reason, but it didn't do them any good as Mexico won 1-0. The game was ok but not quite the same quality as the English Premier League.

Not a packed house.