Final of Europa League. Let's go Athletic!!

Tonight Athletic Club Bilbao, my beloved football club is playing the final of the Europa League against Atletico de Madrid in the National Arena in Bucharest. It is the second time Athletic goes to the this cup's final, last one was in 1977 (when it was called UEFA Cup) against Juventus of Torino and we lost, tonight I hope we do not.

It's going crazy these days in the town, I am not there but for what I can see from here through the net the town is fully dressed in red and white, the colors of the city and the colors of the team. Atletico de Madrid is also dressed in red and white, it makes sense as it was founded by students from Bilbao a bit more than a century ago.

Plaza Jado in Bilbao 

- Image taken from the newspaper elcorreo -

The tiger, building in Deusto, a neighborhood of Bilbao 

- Image taken from the newspaper elcorreo -

Athletic Club only plays with basque players or players that have grown up in Basque teams, which I think it is a pretty good philosophy to promote local football, also it is one of the teams with less money debt from the Spanish league.

I would like you to see a short video made by the club for this final. Red and white, black or green shirt, tonight we go for the cup! (Actually I think tonight we play with the green shirt). I hope we can take out the gabarra, the boat where Athletic celebrate the titles, it hasn't seen the river in the last 28 years. There was a joke in Bilbao that said that Bin Laden was hiding in the gabarra so nobody would find him, well, I guess we arrive a year too late to find him as Peace's Nobel prize winner Mr. Barack Obama killed him last year, but he could not hide anymore in our boat. Enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DpL1agnUt4

AUPA ATHLETIC!!

Delft, headquarters of the rebellion

Delft is an historic city in the middle of the province of South Holland. The city was the Headquarters of William of Orange, the prince of Orange that leaded the rebellion against the Spanish occupation during the war of the 80 years. This happened from 1568 to 1648, when the Dutch provinces won their independence, since then the Orange family has been governing almost continuously.

View of Maria van Jessekerk from the Markt

Monday's music: Frank Sinatra - New York, New York

It's Monday and I have been extremely lazy lately, also that I have been busy in the office doing boring things and that means that I arrive home bored and I don't feel like writing anything, some times it's pretty frustrating these things, but you don't always have all the fun you want in the office, right?

Also last Monday was bank day in The Netherlands, it was the Queen's day, when the Netherlands go crazy and drink beer as if there were no tomorrow, so I told myself that I totally have to integrate myself in the local culture. It's already the third time I integrate  in this party :D Every year goes a bit better than the year before. Anyway others have talked about it better than I could, and I am not really in the mood of extending myself very much. So maybe next year I talk about it.

Monday's music: Berritxarrak - Libre ©

Monday 23th April, today it is a festivity day in a lot of places in Spain. It is the National Day of Castile, this day it is celebrated that citizens revolted against Charles V, Emperor of half of the known world in 1502 in the so called "Revolt of the Comuneros". That was a pretty advance revolution for that time, you can read more about in Wikipedia.

It is also Saint George, Patron Saint of Aragón and Catalunya. In Aragón it is celebrated a victory against the Muslims' forces during the Reconquista and in Catalunya the day is celebrated giving roses and books. I was not in any of these places today so I had to work haha but I woke up today thinking in this song don't know exactly why. Maybe because we should do as the Comuneros and revolt against this ugly world where we are trapped.

The song is from one of the best and more international Basques bands of the moment, Berritxarrak, meaning Bad News, and the song is titled Free ©. This band really rocks so if you have the chance of seeing them live do not hesitate on doing it, they are very great! I hope you enjoy it.

Madurodam, a minycity in the middle of Holland

It has become a tradition for my parents and my parents in law since we live in the Netherlands to come to visit us in Easter. That's pretty cool, and it forces us to think about new places to see, this year we have been two days in The Netherlands and three in Wallonia, in Belgium. 

Alkmaar's cheese market

Monday's Music: Queen - Don't stop me now

Monday! Last week I was half of it on holiday visiting a couple of places in The Netherlands and I went also for three days to Wallonia, in Belgium so this week I will talk about nice places to visit, but today it is music day!

This is a great song from one of the best bands ever. I am not a Queen big fan, probably because I really dislike Bohemian Rhapsody and I think unconsciously that makes me not to listen to them. Anyway as I said they are one of the best bands ever so they deserve to be here :)

Energy to end the day! Lyrics are on the video or in this website.

Enjoy it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUBwjyhRweQ

Monday's Music: Leningrad - Mamba Huyamba

Monday! And bank day in The Netherlands! So it is like Sunday for some people... I am on vacation until Wednesday so I am pretty happy, I will post later about these days, probably I will have something to tell about it, even if you don't want to hear it :P

So let's go with another positive song! This is a ska song from the Russian band Leningrad that I like quite a lot (the song I mean, the band I almost don't know it), and I find the video very funny, even if I don't understand the lyrics at all. A Russian friend said that it was talking about vodka, no wonder! And the guy who appears in the video is the singer, may you think is another famous guy. Here you have the lyrics in Russian, if you translate them in google translate... it just makes no sense!!

By the way, the music is from The Prodigy, another great band. There you are with these crazy Russians:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJvz_rsu2b8