Cape Town, RSA

It was the final game of the first round so there were two games on at the same time, and many places were showing the England game instead of the USA game.  We found a place on Long Street, The Dubliner, that was showing England-Slovenia on the first floor and USA-Algeria on the second floor.  It was fun to have camaraderie with other American soccer fans.  Everyone stood and sang the American National Anthem together at the beginning of the game.  It was pretty exciting because we knew we needed to score and we could hear the cheer from below when England scored first.  There were lots of USA fans gathered there and it erupted when Donovan scored his late goal for the win!  While the camera was protected, we were covered in beer by the end.  It was great, fabulous fun!

Cape Town, RSA

After breakfast we drove downtown and explored ALL over.  We walked through Greenmarket Square (a flea market with nice cobbled streets), St. George’s Mall (a pedestrianized street full of traders and shops) and rested in the Company’s Gardens (a gorgeous landscaped city park).  We found street pies for a snack in one of the plazas and had samosas and curry pies.  By now we needed to figure out a good place to watch the USA game…

Long Street & The Mountains:

A Church near St. George’s Mall:

St. George’s Mall:

Greenmarket Square:

Company’s Garden:

Cape Town, RSA

We started the day off by going to breakfast and coffee with Claire and Carol at Orchid Cafe.  It is the cutest little cafe that shares space with a boutique, all florals and ruffles and cushions… and GREAT cappuccinos!  We walked around Wynberg Village, Claire and Alistair’s neighborhood, and got to meet their new puppy Ben Franklin.

Wynberg Village:

Ben!:

Cape Town, RSA

We were welcomed to Cape Town with open arms and amazing hospitality, thanks to Richard and Carol – Claire’s parents.  They opened up their home to us and shared their pool house with us, not to mention Fritz (their fabulous computerized coffee maker), their puppy Zooey and great late night chats over tea and toast recapping the days’ adventures and soccer games.

We only thought to get a few photos of the lovely room we stayed in, but it was so wonderful to stay there and to have a little Cape Town “family” just down the walk.

Cape Town, RSA

Claire, our friend and Josh’s classmate from MIT, met us at the airport when we landed.  It was so good to see our old friend!  We picked up our rental car and we followed Claire to her folks’ house.  This was Josh’s first time driving on the left hand side of the road and it was so nice to just be able to play “follow the leader” and stay behind Claire.  We quickly met Carol, Claire’s mom, and dropped off our bags.  Claire took us to where Alistair (sooo good to see Alistair again too!) was already set up at the NeoAfrica tent FanFest near the waterfront.  We met some of their friends and watched South Africa play France.  They won (yay!) but sadly didn’t advance to the next round.  Alistair and Claire took us straight over to Alba after the game to have drinks with a gorgeous waterfront view.  Then we headed to Long Street for South African-style tapas at Fork.  We had an AMAZING dinner with South African wine, ostrich and kudu.  We walked down Long Street after dinner and soaked in the ambiance of the revelers, before heading into The Waiting Room, a bar with amazing views of Table Mountain.

Bafana Bafana:

Fork (photo taken a few days later):

Long Street Revelers:

Claire & Josh at The Waiting Room:

Johannesburg, RSA to Cape Town, RSA

We were up early to finish packing, had an early and yummy breakfast, sweet goodbyes with Sylvia and we were off on an airport shuttle to the airport.  Check in was a breeze.  Later we determined we skipped the rules about weighing our carry-ons (we didn’t check luggage again), but we got away with it… this leg.

Johannesburg, RSA

Our last day in Jo’burg was full because we wanted to make sure we saw as much as possible before leaving for Cape Town.  After a hearty and delicious breakfast, care of Sylvia, we took a short cab ride out to Melville (an artsy little suburb of Johannesburg).  We walked 7th Street, which is lined with cute cafes, art galleries and boutiques. We had no need of the cafes, but we loved exploring the art galleries and shops.

Melville, 7th Street.

We walked all the way down 4th Avenue to Melville center and back before catching a cab (and meeting a nice accountant-turned-cab driver, Kevin, in the process) to take us to Newtown.  Newtown is a “suburb” of Johannesburg’s city center.  We walked through the FanFest there, saw the Market Theater and MuseuMAfricA (which was closed on Mondays), the Nelson Mandela Bridge, and then walked back through the CBD to see on foot some places we had seen by car with Justice two days earlier. We also got to see some places we hadn’t gotten a chance to see before like Diagonal Street, with the old two-story buildings still nestled in amongst the new skyscrapers.

Outside Market Theater:

Nelson Mandela Bridge:

Awesome graffiti:

Diagonal Street:

By now we needed to find a place to watch the first game of the day.  We remembered that the oldest bar in Jo’burg, Guildhall, was nearby and we decided to find it.  What we had forgotten was that it was a Portuguese bar serving colonial Portuguese food – so although unintended, this was a PERFECT place to watch the Portugal – Korea game.  We settled in there to watch the second half of the game with Castle beers when the score was 1-0, Portugal.  With each score the bartender blew his vuvuzela and people cheered.  A newcomer would pop in from outside and say “Wow! 1-0?” and the response would be “No, 2-0.”  Within minutes, someone new would come in and and say “Yay! 2-0!” but already they would learn it was now 3-0!  And so on until finally it was 7-0!  The bar was all decked out in Portugal and South Africa gear.  It was the perfect setting for such a blow out performance by Portugal!

Guildhall:

Crazy play by Ronaldo:

Ronaldo again, as we are walking back from Guildhall:

After the game was over we walked to the SAB World of Beer museum.  We had a great time on the tour.  We got to try traditional tribal African beer, from a calabash or ukhamba that we passed around the room.  We were served a taster (in a nice keepsake tasting glass) in a replica African Lion Bar – this was a part of their portrayal of Jo’burg’s days as a gold mining town with saloons that kept the men contented.  We also saw what a Soweto shebeen would’ve been like.  At the end of the tour we were able to fool around with TVs to show all the different ad campaigns for all the different beers in the SAB family of beers.  Josh decided he was a Carling Black Label man.  Then we went to the tasting room where we each got two more free beers.  They had TVs for the World Cup in there and we were able to catch the second half of the day’s second game, Chile – Switzerland.  Since we hadn’t had a chance to eat dinner yet, Jeannette gave her second ticket away so Josh wouldn’t have to carry her home.  In the tasting room, they made video emailing available, if you were willing to fill out a survey first.  So we attempted to send an e-video home to our folks since we hadn’t found any internet opportunities thus far – no word on if that worked or not! Our favorite parts of the tour were the saloon and the authentic African brew that was made special by a lady for the tours.

The African Lion Bar:

We had heard about an amazing restaurant for ostrich and crocodile called Sophiatown – so we walked there after the SAB tour only to find out they had NO power.  While it made it very romantic, all candlelight only, most of their entrees were not available – the waitress said they needed the microwave to cook… Then she told us all we could order was the chicken.  We decided the safe bet was drinks only.  We called up Kevin, our cab from earlier in the day, and went back to Melville where we gave dinner another try.  We ate at Wish where Jeannette got to try the Durban-style curry like she had been wanting.  There, we were able to watch the entire third game of the day (ESP-HON) before one more short cab ride home for the night to pack up our things for Cape Town.

Johannesburg, RSA

Our thoughts on the game:  It was so fun! So loud!!! We had earplugs in an hour before kick off.  They had fun stadium food – mash and gravy!  Because they were a FIFA sponsor, there was only Bud in the stadium!  We were rooting for Africa teams so we were sad that Ivory Coast lost (3:1), but glad that we got to see the powerhouse Brazil play, as well as Drogba play! In the end we saw four goals, a red card and an end of game scuffle!

The walk to the stadium:

Inside:

Our view:

In USA gear! (Thanks Thadd!)

Now the stadium is full!

Warm ups:

National Anthems:

Brazil fans in front of us:

Let’s get this show on the road!

It got cold! 

Even though Africa lost, it was a fun and celebratory train ride back to the city center.

When we got back to Park Station, there were no cabs in the queue, so we called Thibiele and she came and picked us up and took us home after a great day!

Johannesburg, RSA

We got to Park Station at 3pm.  The station gates were all guarded but it was free to pass through.  We asked around about which platform we needed to be at for Soccer City and were pointed towards Platform 11.  The signs above the platform were for two trains, at different times, both headed to Pretoria – which is in the opposite direction of Soccer City.  There weren’t many people down there waiting – but there were a couple people dressed for the game, so we decided to stick it out.  A few cycles of 12 minutes came and went, but no trains came through Platform 11- though a few more soccer fans did arrive.  More and more though, it seemed, we were all wondering the same thing about if we were in the right place.  After awhile we tried out some South African train station restrooms – the women’s restroom was rural China-style.  All the men’s restrooms were shut down for construction, so Josh had to leave the main terminal to go find one.  By now a fellow soccer fan had gone to confirm that we were indeed at the right track (around 4pm).  We were comforted by the slowly growing number of soccer fans.  Finally, at 5pm, word came through the crowds that we needed to shift to the other side, over to Platform 12, and hop on the train that was arriving there.  As we looked around, we realized it was now fully packed with fans wearing yellow Brazil gear, yellow Bafana Bafana gear, and orange Ivory Coast gear.  And vuvuzelas!  Needless to say, since we were at the front end of the platform we were able to quickly hop on a car while there were still seats.  Within minutes, the train took off for Soccer City and we were on our way with a lively raucous crowd!  We deduced later that the trains DO run every 12 minutes, but the trains didn’t start until 5pm for an 8:30pm kick off. So while we had gotten a little nervous during the lull, it worked AWESOME and we got to the game quite early and we were glad to be a part of the masses traveling to the game together.

We were a bit early, apparently…

Waiting patiently:

On our way!

Some scenes from the ride:

Johannesburg, RSA

After a relaxing and delicious breakfast, care of Sylvia, we spent the morning walking around our Bed & Breakfast’s neighborhood of Zoo Lake.  There was the little Park View Village area of shops and cafes (where we had bought our cell phone the morning before) and, of course, the eponymous Zoo Lake.  We had a great walk and exploration.  When we headed back to our abode, we were pretty antsy and didn’t want to try to do anything else other than get to the stadium, see the atmosphere there and take in the excitement of our first South African World Cup game.  Sylvia had heard that the train ran every 12 minutes so we decided to head down there at 2:30 – for our 8:30 game!  Sylvia had a driver arranged for us (Justice’s partner, Thibiele) to take us to Park City Station, where we could catch the train to Soccer City for our game in the evening.