Sunday, September 19 "Catching the match in a peña; They start to roll in"

When Betis plays their away matches we gravitate to one bar or another to catch it on pay-per-view. Over the last year we've frequented a few bars including the Tex-Mex place on calle Placentines (espensive beer and a lot of people), a place in Cuesta del Rosario (which has since taken out the television), a very bad Irish pub close to home (run by sevillistas - a bad idea), a small bar in Santa Cruz (with a television the size of toaster and suspended 10 feet above the bar). When we were in Marbella we even found a peña betica where we caught a game in May. Well, we haven't been too happy and are still searching for a permanent place. We did have fun the other night when we decided to watch the Betis match in a peña off of Santa Maria la Blanca. We met Javi and Faracy, two recent arrivals to Sevilla - well Javi is from here but Faracy from the U.S. and both recently moved to Sevilla. Most peñas are curious places and while decorated with plenty of memorabilia and escudos of the team they completely lack any style. You can tell these places have been decorated by a bunch of old men: very utilitarian and good to watch the game but the last place you'd ever take a date. While the result was a familiar one (Betis lost 3-2) we enjoyed sharing the game with a group of people who've probably been watching Betis games since the 40s.

You can catch up on some of my summer stuff which I've just posted the other day.