Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Juanito's Open 2012: Sunday

When I woke up on Sunday morning, other than feeling sore throughout my body and the left side of my face, I was a bit excited to see I had obtained new colors around my eye during the night.  This may be the closest to a black eye that I'll have in my lifetime!  It's exciting, people!

Colorful face

Although I could have slept more, I was very much looking forward to Day 2 of Juanito's Open.  Those who wished to attend the second day of the tourny met in Sol at 10.  We waited around to see if any more players were coming, and some of us went for coffee and breakfast pastries.

At 11 we headed to Plaza Santa Ana, just a few blocks from Sol.  Since there weren't enough of us to play a real game (nor enough space), we decided to play the box game.  In the box game, you put four cones in a one by one meter box.  You can play three on three or four on four, but the point of the game is to catch the disc inside the square.  That's how you score.  That's it!  Once you score, you have to throw it to someone outside of the box before you can score again.

Ultimate in Plaza Santa Ana

Ultimate in Plaza Santa Ana

Some people would stop and stare.  Others wouldn't notice that the game didn't have boundaries, and would walk right through us while we were playing.  I think we only had a couple close calls with discs flying too close to innocent passersby, but I don't remember seeing anyone get hit.

Next we played in front of Palacio Real, which was just as fun - and nobody asked us to leave!


Ultimate at Palacio Real

Ultimate at Palacio Real

Juanito's Open 2012 at Palacio Real

Next location: Madrid's Egyptian temple, Templo de Debod.  There was gravel on both sides of the cement where we played, which made the ground extra slippery.  

Ultimate at Templo de Debod


Ultimate at Templo de Debod


Due to the slipperiness of the ground and my tiredness at this point in the afternoon, I spent most of our time at the temple watching and taking pictures instead of playing.  I did see some neat things though, such as the coolest little girl ever:

Little girl prepared for the dangers of everyday living

These three girls were watching the ultimate for a bit.  One even asked her mom if they could sit down on the bench to watch, but the mother wanted to keep walking.

Young, curious audience

Since this was the last day of Juanito's Open, he had an informal awards ceremony where the four present members of Horchata were given metals.

Juanito's Open 2012: "Awards Ceremony"

Juanito's Open 2012: "Awards Ceremony"

The rumble of our stomachs led us to Plaza de España where some of us ordered Chinese to-go, and others got food from some of the stands in the plaza.  So we ate in the grass, followed by some naps under the sun.

Picnic in Plaza de España

It was a really enjoyable Sunday. I look forward to playing ultimate in Madrid's public places again in the near future, and I'd highly recommend playing in Juanito's Open next year if you're in Madrid!

I will leave you with my end of Day 2 face photos:

Do you see how swollen that side of my face is?

So hot.

The glasses

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