As the summer travel season begins, there will be a different kind of buzz in Europe this summer.  On Saturday, the title of Europe’s best football club was decided as Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League Final in Madrid.  With less than three weeks left before the World Cup, much of Europe will turn their attention to football.

If you are traveling in Europe in June or July, it’s something you will notice as the bars and pubs will be packed.  Work days will come to a standstill when the national team is playing in a match.  So why is it important to care about football and the World Cup?  Getting World Cup fever in Europe will help you see a side of the culture and country you may have never experienced before.

For many Europeans, football is a part of their lives and the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world.  However, what does football mean and how is this passion displayed in different countries?

I had the privilege of attending a football match at the Camp Nou in Barcelona.  As a big fan of FC Barcelona, I was excited about the match and seeing my favorite team play.  Beyond the football itself, I learned a lot about the culture in this region of Spain.

Catalans, while a part of Spain, are unique in their culture and heritage.  For many years under Franco, they were prohibited from flying their flag or speaking their language.  In a sense of solidarity for their people and culture, the Catalans rallied around the FC Barcelona flag, flying it proudly as a symbol of their region, language, and culture.

While Barcelona won the match that day, the memory from that day will be the excitement in sharing the match with 90,000 Catalans.  Despite the language barrier, there is a bond in a sporting event that crosses cultures and boundaries and brings people together.

While Barcelona has history behind its team, so does every town and city in Europe that has a football club.  My Europe travel tip is to bond with people over sporting events, even if you aren’t a great sports fan, when you travel.  You can learn so much about a town, it’s people, what causes people to rally around their team, and what events in their history have made them proud.

From England and Spain, to Germany and Italy, to every country and small town in between, each town celebrates their teams in their own way.  Bring on the World Cup and remember how sports like bandy in Sweden and cricket in Croatia can teach us a lot about the places we visit when we travel.