As my good mate Sean Moroney reminded me, the last time we were in Seville, Ireland won a Grand Slam, Real Betis were relegated and Liverpool finished second in the Premier League.
That was five years ago and as we made our return to the southern Spanish city where we spent our Erasmus year, some things have reverted to type.
Ireland might not have won a Grand Slam this year, but they are Six Nations champions like in 2009.
Liverpool could still win the title this season, but it is the first time they have been involved in a title race since that 2008-09 season.
And Real Betis are going down!
While that is not mathematically assured, the Seville club are rock bottom of La Liga, a full nine points adrift of safety.
Betis were relegated a little bit more unexpectedly at the end of the 2008-09 season and they have never quite recovered.
The outside of the Benito Villamarin on the night of the game
Recent seasons had been fairly promising but the financial difficulties which have left the club fielding loan players and journeymen really bit hard this season.
It also does not help Betis' mood that city rivals Sevilla have enjoyed plenty of success over the past decade. Back in 2008/09, Sevilla were one of the top four teams in Spain and naturally that's where I went to watch matches.
That meant I had never been to a Betis game, even though locals claim that the verdiblancos are the city's best-supported club. Sevilla fans by contrast are accused of being blow-ins.
Best-supported or not, last week I witnessed exactly why Betis are struggling as they cruelly lost 2 - 1 at home to Malaga in a game they really should have won.
After going 1 - 0 up, panic seemed to set in as they squandered chance after chance. They finally paid the price for that profligacy as the game reached its death knell with Malaga equalizing.
We left the stadium at that point only to walk past a burger van with a TV screen showing Malaga scoring a very late winner...
If you are interested in going to watch Real Betis - perhaps wait until they are promoted again - you can take the 34 bus from the city centre which takes you past the Universidad de Sevilla's language schools.
Tickets are relatively cheap. We paid €35 each for seats on the upper tier, although tickets priced at €25 are available if you do not go looking for them at the last minute. As Marcus Maher explains in the video, season tickets are cheap if you plan to spend a full year in Seville.
Rain was a bit of an issue and seemed to follow me from my trip to Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Obviously because the weather tends to be quite good during most of the year, some Spanish stadiums lack covered stands around their circumference and the Benito Villamarin is no different in that regard. So bring an umbrella if there is a threat of rain.
