Hi guys!
Dubai is a place that many have different ideas about, most people think about skyscrapers, wealth and flash cars. Others though think about it being a place where rules are very strict and ladies have to be completely covered. Unless you have been to Dubai its hard to know what its like, I find it a place very different to any other due to its fast growth and population. Only around 9% of the population is actually born and raised in the city, so its a big mix of cultures which makes the World Cup extra fun because you know whichever match you go to watch you will find supporters from that country there for sure proudly waving their flags!
I went to a well known beach bar (Barasti) to watch the semi finals between England and Croatia, there is a big expat English community in Dubai and also Croatian so I knew the place would be busy and I wasn't wrong. Although I arrived nearly 2 hours before the kick off time, I still didn't manage to get inside of this massive dome they had set up specially for the World Cup. I really don't know how early people got there to be able to get in! But anyway, maybe next time..
They also had an outdoor screen but even at night, at this time of the year in Dubai you just can do it so we went to the inside tent, that you really can't say is small either!
The place was buzzing and for the English the game couldn't have started better than with that early goal, they didn't know what was coming to them though while they celebrated it..
https://dlive.io/video/robertolopez/3cb19960-8747-11e8-adb2-bf4283a63cb9
I think when you are away from home, for some reason we all become a bit more patriotic. Maybe its because we miss home, maybe its because we are proud of where we are from and want to show it, but for one reason or another I could feel in the air how tense it got during the last 10 mins and during extra time. England's performance dropped during the second half and they paid for it, Croatia surprised the world and made it to the Finals. And I think they are going to have half the world supporting them in the final just for being underdogs, and a small little country that didn't even exist last time England made it to a semi final with a population of just over 4 million!
Hope you enjoyed the post, and maybe it changed a lot of peoples views of how life can be in Dubai and how big sport is!
Take care guys!