The city of Medellín was our introduction into the country and the culture. It was a really good way to figure out what everything was like before we forayed further into the country. We had a couple really entertaining experiences in Medellin that we won’t soon forget. Here are the stories:

Local Color

Look! There’s a corner market with some guys drinking beer out front! Oooh! Let’s go!

We went inside, bought ourselves a beer, and sat down at the little tables. Immediately, one of the guys wanted to talk to us. He spoke a bit of English, and quite obviously wanted to practice. He asked where we were from, and then figured out I spoke Spanish.

Meanwhile, there were two other guys sitting out there. One fellow was nicely dressed, sipping slowly at what we later figured out was rum. The other guy, was… well… really, REALLY drunk. He was having a hard time figuring out that I understood the Spanish coming out of his mouth and couldn’t quite understand why he didn’t know what the first guy was saying (in English). It. Was. HILARIOUS.

Never forget that experience. The words coming out of the drunk guy’s mouth are absolutely vile. (Matt learned a few new vocabulary words that day… ) And hilarious. Trying to translate for Matt, the other guy fucking with the drunk guy, me joining in. The older fellow, seemingly so embarrassed by the drunk guy that he bought us a second beer… Not an experience I’ll soon forget.

Lots of laughs about that one.

Futbol

Dinner was on the way to the soccer, I mean, futbol, game. We ordered the “comida del dia” and a couple beers. I’m still not quite sure what was in the soup, but the meat-like stuff in the mushroom sauce was great. And so was the rice. All in, ten bucks for dinner. Score!

On to the game. We’d heard stories of super long lines and pat-downs from the cops, so we headed over pretty early. Pat down number one was at the gate to get in to the sports complex, where we wandered for a bit and had another beer. I’m learning I prefer Club Colombia to the Aguila brand. Pat down number two was right when we went into the stadium.

The stadium was interesting. There was such little room between rows that even my knees would touch the person in front of me if I sat straight. And it was steep! It took a second to stand up and make sure you had your balance. The coolest part was all the lights that went up all the hills surrounding the city. That was beautiful.

The game itself was alright, it ended up being a draw, 1-1. The fans were pretty funny, swearing up a storm any time they disapproved of a call and booing the other team when they scored. And hearing the entire stadium chanting something along the lines of “hijo de puta, ref!” was hilarious.

On the whole, it wasn’t all that different from a match in this country, but it sure was a novelty to go to a game!

We did plenty more while we were there, but these are the two that stand out the most in my head.