Arena Polo

Last night, Jess and I, along with some coworkers went to a Arena Polo match. Arena polo is like unto polo, but played on a smaller field of dirt with less players. We were quite excited to see a polo match, plus a champagne company was sponsoring the event, so we thought this was going to be quite the experience. When we drove up to the venue, we couldn't believe the collection of cars parked in the area: Jaguars, Maseratis, Aston Martins, and Bentleys. Our Belgian friends even spotted the most famous model of Belgium at the event. This was some high class living!

Or so we thought. As soon as we arrived at the welcoming gates, our names were not on the VIP list, like initially believed. We had to buy tickets. Glasses of champagne were not handed out freely as supposed, but were limited to one glass per person and if you wanted an extra it was €10 (here's a cheers to not drinking - soft drinks were only €3). We thought there was going to be a delicious dinner served. But, come to find out, that was reserved only for the VIPs (or all of the people driving the Jaguars, Maseratis, Aston Martins, and Bentleys). So we ended up buying and eating the only food they had for regular stiffs like us, Argentinian epinadas, which were actually quite tasty.

Watching the arena polo match was really what we were there for and it proved to be quite a treat. It was fun to watch the horses and players on the small dirt court (normal polo matches are played on a area as large as 6 soccer fields!). The horses were switched out every quarter (which are 7 minutes long) to rest. And the ball flew into the audience quite a number of times. This takes some skills. It's awesome, fast, furious, amazing. See the action below.