Thursday, June 24
Cape Town, RSA
After driving back to the city center, we parked at Claire’s Dad’s firm on Long Street. While we were waiting for everyone who had tickets to the game to gather, the two of us headed to an English Pub, 3 Lions, just around the corner for a few pints while we watched the first halves of the Slovakia-Italy and Paraguay-New Zealand games. After we all met up on Long Street, we walked the Fan Mile to the stadium, stopping halfway there at Lazari at the Cape Quarter for dinner, care of Malcolm. After a fun dinner with good people and conversation, we walked the whole Fan Mile (a lot of Dutch fans!). We want to note here that the Fan Mile in Cape Town is much longer than one mile.
Once we were in the stadium we found that we had amazing seats! We were right at the yellow corner flag, and two rows up from the railing. Where we sat wasn’t as loud as the Soccer City stadium, but we were right at the corner where two goals were scored – and the subsequent celebrations were had. Once again we were rooting for the African team, but most people in attendance were pretty stoked that Netherlands won 2-1. We enjoyed seeing Eto’o and Robben play. Josh spilled beer (a full bottle) on our camera bag due to an exciting PK in our corner – luckily Jeannette had the camera out on her lap at the time, so no harm done – but the great seats only served to heighten excitement. Josh had also practiced his vuvuzela skills and was one of the better blowers in our section.
We all met back up for some wine to sit and recap the game together. Jeannette had started to feel a bit sick for the last couple days and by the end of this long day, her cold had come on quite strong. Luckily one of the people we had just met for dinner, and again postgame, was a nice doctor. She offered some advice, and prescriptions if desired. Jeannette decided to hold out for a bit longer (bad idea) but did snag a box of kleenex that was gone by the end of trip, along with a second full box.
By the time we made it home, we were feeling peckish and still pretty riled up and excited about the game so we stayed up and ate snacks with Claire and her parents, Carol and Richard, before hitting the hay.
