¡Barça! ¡Barça! ¡Baaaar-ça!

So we won the fútbol game. I got bear-hugged/tackled by some really excited strangers. It was a pretty good game: Arsenal scored first and was up 1-0 for most of the game, then Barcelona scored two quick goals in the last ten minutes or so. And the city went nuts. The police quickly blocked off most of the main streets and everyone converged on La Rambla. Everyone. There were people crawling up lampposts, kids out past their bedtimes, old people drinking canned beer purchased illegally on the street. There was so much happiness and excitement in the air--I wonder what it would have been like if they'd lost. It was a long night, but by this morning the city seemed pretty much back to normal, except for the occasional sign or streamer left out and more people than usual wearing Barca shirts. Now the World Cup is coming up, but Spanish people don't get excited about their country, they get excited about their city or their region. So we'll see how much people are into the Spanish fútbol team.

I've heard from some locals that the police here are pretty useless; I haven't really had any interactions with them myself so I don't have much of an opinion. But maybe they are a little bit lazy. I was walking around today and passed some guys selling fake designer sunglasses on the street. A cop car drove up, and the guys packed up their operation (really, really quickly) and casually walked away. The cop car kept going. Once it was gone, the sunglasses guys came back and set up shop again. Kind of an exercise in futility, no? The police would have to get out of the car to actually do anything, but I guess they just don't care.