By Kate Jackson
July 20 2013

On a holiday to Barcelona, I watched my first ever game between two non-English sides. Although I can't stand the team, the stadium is amongst the best that I have visited and the city itself is amazing.

As part of a weekend trip to Barcelona, I took in FC Barcelona's home game against Malaga. Just as a disclaimer, I really do not like Barcelona as a football club, I find them horrendously overrated and will never understand how they reached such a level of popularity.

You can reach the Nou Camp via numerous methods, but the root I specifically chose was via one of the Turistic buses that go around the entire city and the Blue Route specifically stops at the Nou Camp, right outside of the ground. I would seriously recommend these guided tours of Barcelona, they are excellent and for just 24 euros per day, you can see all of the major tourist attractions, get on and off whenever you want, and it is a very beautiful city, I will definitely go back one day.

You collect your tickets from one of the numerous ticket booths, however, you need to take the card you booked the ticket on, which prove slightly tricky for me as there were numerous card changes that I did during the months leading to the game. Infact, the staff weren't very helpful at all and I inevitably had to phone my bank to get the information, a hefty sum.

The club shop is huge and has plenty to view, and the best part about it is that it isn't ridiculously crowded. Unlike the club shop at Manchester United, I could walk around and not have to worry about other people. The staff also speak numerous languages, which was handy as every attempted I made to speak either Spanish or Catalan failed miserably. They also bizarrely, or rather what I thought was bizarre at the time, asked if I wanted to buy a ticket to the game. The crowd wasn't that big, infact, I would say that it wasn't even half full, so that explains why there were trying to shift tickets.

Trying to find the turnstiles was ridiculous, there were no directions to where I needed to go and no matter where I wandered, I couldn't find where I needed to be, fortunately there were plenty of friendly staff to help me, although whenever I asked, they responded in Spanish, so I just followed a general pattern of where they were pointing before giving out a "gracias".....even though I didn't have the slightly clue what they were saying. I genuinely did try to learn Spanish and Catalan, but every attempt had failed.

So, after spending hours in the baking heat, I finally got into the ground and was met....by baking heat. I was in one of the three stands that had absolutely no cover whatsoever, and believe me, it was VERY warm in Barcelona in the beginning of June. I was really struggling with the heat and I must have spent most of the money that I took on water, it was so incredbly hot, and sitting directly in the sun for more than 2 hours was near torture, although thankfully the game kicked off at 7pm and was getting it was getting cooler by the time the match actually finished.

Anyway, after buying another water and a packet of Barcelona branded crisps, I took my seat and was met with an antonishing view from the top tier, just to the left of the half way line. It is a large four tiered stand with no segregation for fans for this game (I'm assuming that there is some for the bigger games, such as Real Madrid or big European nights), and it was a bit surprising that the only Malaga fan who seemed to be there sat freely in the middle of Barcelona fans. I felt sorry for this guy as he was there as his team conceded four....and was getting a drink when they got a consolation goal.

The stand opposite is the smallest in the ground with only three tiers, with the top of those tiers being very small. This is however the only covered stand in the ground and the only one where you aren't able to see into over into the skyline of the western side of the city.

The behinds behing each goal are pretty much identical to each other and they link up the two side stands by gradually increasing in height until reaching the top of the stand. After briefly wandering around to get pictures of the stand I was in, I established that there isn't really a bad seat anywhere in the upper tier as the entire thing offers and excellent view of the action and the rest of the ground.

Due to a limited crowd, there wasn't a lot of atmosphere in the ground and it was obvious who were the locals and who were the tourists. Obviously I fit into the latter of those categories and I could easily spot those who were also only there for the first time, or obviously weren't regulars. You get these sort of people at most grounds, the ones who have bought a scarf when it's nearly 40 celcius just so that they can hold it aloft against the backdrop of the stadium for a photo.

The music before hand was met with the regulars joining in, but other than that there wasn't a lot of excitement amongst the fans, with Barcelona having long been crowned champions of La Liga.

Overall the visit to the Nou Camp was more than satisfactory, it is an excellent stadium and if you're going to go I would vastly recommend not doing it anywhere near the summer. Maybe spring or early autumn is a good time, because it really is far too hot when sat in the sun all match long with no protection at all.

Whilst I obviously won't visit this ground on a regular basis, I love the city of Barcelona so whenever I go back to the city, I will aim to get to a game.

Barcelona's Nou Camp

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 21/07/2013 00:04

theimps.ka
21/07/2013 00:04

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