So we got to go watching a football game in the stadium. It was SC Braga vs. Besiktas of the Europa League in Group K. Braga won by 3 to 1.

SC Braga had not been doing well in the season so far. A few days ago the club official scolded the players and the team.

On our way back to home, our Uber was blocked by a group of people parade on the highway. They have policemen lead the way and escort on both sides. The parade marched in formations from the downtown to the Municipal Stadium. The first formation held a torch. Coming from Louisiana, we have football like a religion. The people in Braga pushed that to a whole higher level.

The night was chilly. We put on the thickest clothes we had and rushed to Trevo Da China for rain gears. The boss was super nice as always. He helped us picked up a poncho, reminded me that William did not need one because his outcost looked to be water-resistant, and use a pair of sharp scissors to remove loose threads on the pair of gloves we purchased. On top of that, as usual, he gave us a big discount without asking.

We got to the stadium with only a few minutes left. We rushed to the ticket office to retrieve our tickets. I grabbed the sealed envelop and walked to the entrances. On the way, we bought two knit team hat for five euros and one team scarf for five euros. The second we reached the entrance, the girl from the ticket office caught up to us and told us she messed up with the tickets. She offered to exchange it for us while we waited but we went with her to save her another run.

We asked two policemen for direction and entered the stadium. The ticket person at the gate used his own bar code to open the gate and took our tickets away. It was a confusing situation because he did not speak English and we did not know what happened. A fan came up to help translate but we were still now sure. We got in anyway. A moment ago, the two policemen came to us and told us they gave us wrong direction previously and we should have been directed to the other side of the stadium. They came to see whether we had problem getting in the stadium. They were relieved to see we were inside and assured us that we would be fine staying where we were.

We sat next to a fan group who were excited and chanting for the team. We looked around to see people’s hat and scarf to see we are not sitting on a wrong place – the visiting team’s section. We were told it could get wild towards the end so that’s all good. William commented that his elementary school kids could have made better cheerleading shows but I were impressed by the local fans.

Last time I watched a football game was 40 years ago when Tianjin lost to Liaoning 1:2 at the Hedong Stadium with my uncle.

The game opened quickly. There was no national anthem part so I almost missed it, because my cell phone acted up. My friend Rui, a director at the SC-Braga told me I could bring a camera but Teresa an expat said they had not seen anyone with a camera in the stadium. Just to avoid any issue, I did not bring my camera. The security check was simple and I would think they allow anything that was not outrageous.

Braga scored one goal minutes after the game started. I asked William who was video taping the game whether he got it on the tape and he said yes with a satisfaction. The visiting team scored one in return in no time, but then they lost one person because of a red card.

I asked around in the lab at University of Minho and the great majority of students said they did not care about football for one reason or another. One student said he had been disgusted by players who habitually faked injury on regular basis.

From this point on, the only remaining question was how many more would the visiting team lose. The visiting team played really hard, but loosing one person had always been a fatal injury.

Expectedly, William started wondering whether there was a concession stand. We looked around and did not see anyone holding anything.

At halftime break, we found the concession stand which sells a full range of things. We bought a huge hot dog and a popcorn at six euros, a beer at one and half euros, and a bottle water at one euros. There were only two persons working at the stand. I figure they sold about 10 beers during the halftime. That is a sharp contrast to my alma mater LSU’s Tiger Stadium where they sold over $400,000 worth of alcohol in one game on Oct 12, 2019 when LSU beat Florida 42:28.

The only violent act we witnessed during the game was two preteen-looking boys destroyed a stadium seat for fun. Kids are always more troubling.

After the game ended, we walked back to our apartment downtown. Policemen were everywhere but it was all peaceful and quiet.

The City of Flowers

Waiting for the next bus in five minutes, I visited the cemetery next to William’s school. I found the most vibrant cemetery decorated by numerous flowers. I would think it’s a unique place until I saw another cemetery on a bus trip which is also overfilled by fresh flowers.

A popular local supermarket is named A Flor Do Sal.

I learned in Portuguese lesson that florida is an adjective meaning flowery. I looked it up. Yup, Florida was named after the Feast of the Flowers by the Spanish.

WTF, continued

William’s WTF stopped working. We went to the Shopping Braga Mall to find the WTF stand for help. They figured out we had used one more euro worth of data than the monthly quota. Fortunately there was a NOS, the actual carrier, shop right next door. A WFT guy accompanied us to the NOS store to refill the sim card. The minimum amount to be added to an account was five euros and there was a fifty cents fee.

William had pasta at his favorite place and I had a burger. I asked for an extra sausage at sixty cents hat I knew William would love and he did.

On our way home, we managed to get on a same wrong bus twice. While we had been carried further and further away, we got an Uber. We were stuck at one roundabout for over ten minutes on heavy traffic. It was rush hour and it was raining. Our driver checked her GPS and took an alternative route which saved our game plan.