Trip 39: From Oak Street to Ixterconnections Stadium
Comment Replies
Paulobergonci: Thanks for your comment! Glad you liked the beach.
citiesxlfan42: Thank you too for your comment! I have no problem with another CJ, it would be great to see different approaches and a different city. I simply press PrintScreen key and then paste the pic on MS Paint to save it in *.bmp format and edit the pic later.
k50dude: Thanks for commenting! In fact, making this avenue more "normal" is one of the things I've got in my "To Do" list... I decided this after uploading the pic...
gotsomemilk: Thanks for your comment! Well, in my CJ I treat the tourists as I would do in real life and as taxi drivers do more or less in real life; at least, where I live.
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Carrer dels Roures (Oak Street), 3:32 p.m.
If today was one more Sunday, I would be at home watching TV or going out with some friends. But today wasn't Sunday, it was Super Sunday; one of the most special days in Alarconia. Although it is not an official holiday, the country is paralized during several hours. First of all, at 5:00; the Alarconia Bowl is played between the two best teams in the LAFA (Lliga Alarconiana de Futbol Americà)* (Alarconian American Football League), which is played some hours before the NFL's Super Bowl. The NFL is strongly followed in Alarconia for the American-native but for the Catalan-native too; and you can be sure that it is lived with passion, to the extreme that the football (soccer) season takes a bye to concentrate all the attention to the Alarconia Bowl and Super Bowl.
I was called from the central to Oak Street, in Districte de Ca'n Rics (Riches District). In the radio, they were broadcasting a three-hour long previous program to the Alarconia Bowl.
This was a nice part of Alarconia City, but today it was really cloudy. My customers got into the car.
"Good afternoon..." I said, in Catalan.
"Good afternoon." they said. They were two men. One of them was wearing an Alarconia Almogavars jersey and the other an Americana Locomotives jersey.
"Where do we go?" an obvious question.
"Ixterconnections Stadium, please."
I still hadn't carried anybody there, they were the first ones. This was the way:
"So you're going to see the game, right?"
"Of course! I can't wait to arrive there!" said one of them.
"You're lucky, I think that tickets are really hard to find..."
"Well, I work for the Locos [Americana Locomotives] and I had some reserved tickets..."
"I guess you know pretty well the stadium."
"Oh, yes. It's a luxury to play the Alarconia Bowl in your home field." he said.
I went down Oak Street and turned left, going uphill on Carrer de Steiner (Steiner Street).
"Which is your picks?" I asked.
"I have to pick the Locos." said the guy who worked for them.
"And I pick the Almogavars because they're simply the best..." said the other one.
"I'm an Almogavars' supporter too." I said.
"But we play at home, don't forget."
I kept straight on.
This is the northernmost part of Riches District, now I headed to The Curves Road, while listening who were the starting team for Alarconia Almogavars, who played as visitor team, and Americana Locomotives who played as home team.
"Seems Godall is still injured..." said the Almogavars fan.
"Your OL will suffer a lot today."
They shut up in order to listen the rest of the starting teams.
Curves Road was as twisty and dangerous as everyday, my customers were safely tied by their seatbelts. There were still some unoccupied commercial lots besides the road.
"We're going to see a nice Alarconia Bowl today... What about the Super Bowl?" I asked them.
"It's going to be nice too... You know, powerful offenses... Peyton Manning!"
"Do you expect a shootout?"
"Don't know... A highly-scored Super Bowl is hard to see, but who knows..."
We were near the east entrance of the TransAlarconia Tunnel and Logistics City. I looked for Carretera de l'Est (East Road). They began talking between them.
"Have you had discussion before leaving?"
"Every year's the same. She says it's the worst day of the year..."
"If we stayed at home they would have to suffer seven years of American football."
"This is not your day if you don't like this sport, as they do."
We entered now in southern Districte dels Enginyers (Engineers District). This part of the city had changed a lot since the last time I was here.
We crossed the A2 highway passing besides a small fire station, and my customers began to see the highest part of the Ixterconnections Stadium from here.
"I have to confess you've built a really nice field..." said the Almogavars fan.
"I guess we deserved it; I was sick and tired of the e2i..." said the other one.
"Why?" I asked "I mean, I've never seen an American football game on a baseball field; is it very different?"
"In my opinion, it is very different. Everything is further, the players feel the difference between the grass and the earth... and you don't feel "at home". You know what I mean?"
"I see..."
We passed besides IES dels Enginyers (Engineers District Middle School) and I headed to Engineers Park, the place where a year ago Engineers Field stood. It was demolished and "replaced" by the Ixterconnections Stadium.
"What do Screwdrivers people say about the stadium?" I asked. Engineers City Screwdrivers and Alarconia Locomotives shared the new stadium.
"They like it; but they cannot fill it." said the Locomotives fan.
"Really?"
"Their attendance is really low, maybe... 20,000 people per game, more or less..."
"Do they miss their old stadium?"
"They don't seem to have many problems in sharing the stadium with us..."
[EDIT: traffic should be heavy, but you know that UDI missions always reduce drammatically the amout of cars and trucks in the road.]
Now, Engineers Park is the largest urban park in the nation, there are few of them. It is frequently said that Alarconia, specially Alarconia City lacks large parks like this. When Alarconians see the Central Park in New York City or Hyde Park in London, simply freak out.
Traffic was getting worse now. Although the Ixterconnections Stadium wasn't intended to go there by car, it had some parking lots and this made that lots of people decided to go there on their own.
I took Carretera de l'Estadi (Stadium Road), which was, in fact, an avenue.
We entered now in East Alarconia City, the place where the airport, the National Auditorium, the so-called City of Health and the Ixterconnections Stadium are. Suming up, all space-consuming structures are here. My two customers had stopped talking. They only could stare at the stadium; designed to impress you every time you look at it.
Stadium Road leads to a roundabout which was made to pacify the massive amount of cars that try to go to the road after the games.
"Where do I leave you?"
"Here, if you want; we'll go by walk to our gate."
"OK."
I stopped the car and the taximeter in front of the southwestern gate.
"There will be 41.25 AL$, please." The Locomotives fan looked in his wallet.
"I'll put the 1.25 remainining, Joan."
"Here you are 20..." said the Almogavars fan, they seemed to pay only the half of the trip each other. The other one gave me the rest of the money and they opened the doors.
"Enjoy the game!" I said.
"Thanks, have a nice Super Sunday."
"I will, bye!"
"Good bye."
I headed to the downtown, maybe some more people want to be carried to the stadium. In five hours I have to be there with the rest of the taxi drivers in all the country, waiting for customers. This is our Super Sunday.
Annex: Alarconian American Football League Division I teams
East Conference
Americana Locomotives (red and navy blue)
Sorrent Spiders (black and white)
Port de Catalunya Pioneers (maroon and yellow)
Engineers City Screwdrivers (light blue and yellow)
Cap de la Plata Enforcers (silver and red)
Atlantic Tech Blitz (light green and brown)
West Conference
Alarconia Almogavars (black and gold)
Costa Verda Green Jackets (green and white)
La Florida Kings (red and white)
American College Panthers (navy blue and gold)
University of Alarconia Albatrosses (silver and blue)
Long Island Crashers (orange and white)
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