Wednesday, June 23
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!
Wednesday, June 23
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:
Sunday, June 20
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:
Saturday, June 19
Johannesburg, RSA
At this point, we were museum-ed out. We asked Justice to drive us around the city so we could get a lay of the land. First, he swung by the nearby Soccer City Stadium, which is outside the city near Soweto. We were able to get close since it wasn’t a game day. Then he showed us around the CBD. When he found out that Josh was an architect, he was quick to take us to all the varied types of cool architecture in the city. We also went to Joubert Park where there was a FanFest set up with the Ghana-Australia game showing on a huge screen. Afterward, we went past Ellis Park Stadium – this was important because we didn’t have tickets to a game there and we really wanted to see it. It is in the heart of the city and even though it wasn’t a game day, the security wouldn’t let us too close – but we were happy to have seen it in person nonetheless! By now we were hungry and Justice dropped us off at a FanFest in the suburb of Melrose. They had a huge screen set up in the middle of Melrose Square showing the games. After the second game ended we were able to get a table at a restaurant that had tables set up along one side of the square. We had a great view of the screen for the third game of the day. It got chilly when the sun went down, but they had heat lamps and handed out blankets. We had a great evening and when the game was over, Justice came to take us home to Zoo Lake.
Soccer City:
CBD:
Joubert Park:
FIFA sign (at Ellis Park) “Vuvuzelas are allowed“:
Melrose Square:
A Win. The Celtics tied the series back up to 2-2. With a 96-89 win.
These were our last tickets of the season. Maybe our last time seeing Ray Allen in Celtics green. Maybe the last time seeing Doc coaching the C’s. Not to mention TA. For sure Thibs is gone. All these thoughts were hard to suppress while we were watching them play. It was a fun game to attend – got to watch the Baby and Nate show, while Pierce had another one of his quiet nights captaining the team without much notice, but without him, no W.
On a fun note: Jeannette’s Grandmother loves Nate Robinson; she always wants him to play because he brings such “spitfire” to the game. She gets very annoyed with Doc when he doesn’t bring him in when she thinks he should. When Nate was playing so long tonight, and so well, and we were all jumping and and waving our towels and yelling and screaming – Jeannette turned to her random neighbor seatmate at the Garden and screamed (to be heard above the din): MY GRANDMA LOVES THAT GUY!!!
Also on a fun note: Our friends Barb & Jon flew out for the game – and even though their visit was short we had a GREAT time with them. We even broke the seal on our BeerWorks boycott – it had to be done sometime, and why not with great friends? Please come back soon Barb & Jon!
A little postgame video of Shrek & Donkey for you:
National Anthem:
Sneaky Rondo:
AAHHHHH!!!!:
Let Me Hear It!!!!:
Our Last Starting Line Up We’ll See This Year
Perk:
Rondo:
Ray Allen:
KG:
The Captain and The Truth!:
Come Back Doc!:
Here we go:
AND GINO!!!!
WOOOHHOOO!:
JFJ’s last game this season:
Barb & Jon, J & Josh celebrating the W with our own postgame conference:
(91-84) L
We were displeased.
Lakers now up 2-1 in the series.
On a personal note, the 9pm start time is brutal for getting home after the game at a reasonable time to get to bed to be able to work properly the next day. We rode our bikes to the game as it cuts our commute drastically. But this definitely takes away from our “digest time”. Normally we walk home. This walk either lets us feast on the glory and come down from the high of a good win – or lets us sit (read: walk) and stew and analyze each play where it all wrong. By the time we get home we have calmed down enough from either the loss or the win to be able to sleep. Biking home does not allow this, we get home too quick, we don’t talk while we bike, and biking only brings your adrenaline and senses up – not down. Sleep didn’t come easy after Game 3.
Sane people keep reminding us it is a 7 game series.
We didn’t originally plan to attend this game, but after watching the stinker of Game 4 at the Garden and the atrociousness of Game 5 from our couch – we wanted to be back at the Garden for Game 6 and be as loud as we could (who knows if it really helps), to feel like we did our part to help the Celtics. But we did NOT want to see the C’s lose the series after going up 3-0. Thankfully, we saw an awesome W (96-84).
Since these weren’t a part of our playoff package tickets we were in different seats. They were up against the wall – and surprisingly awesome! Our two seats were right at the end of the stair – no chairs in front of us – so we didn’t have people walking in front of us to get in or out of a row. In addition, we were able to stand for the entire game (which was preferable for an exciting playoff game like this) and didn’t have to worry about blocking the view of people behind us. It was awesome.
We only brought the phone camera this game – so the photos aren’t so great, but here is the view down our stairs:
The media crush as the Celtics win and the Eastern Conference Championship trophy is awarded (you can still see Gino in the first photo):
Jeannette’s new shirt for Ray Allen:
We were VERY EXCITED:
We went out and celebrated. The evening ended in a park eating McD’s with a statue.
We just saw an amazing win (94-71) tonight.
Before some of our pictures – mostly a super charged hype machine full of quotes dogging the Celtics – here is what will be most remembered from Game 3:
We witnessed what may end up being the play of the playoffs. It will definitely be in the Celtics’ highlight reel for decades to come.
It was an amazing night to be in the Garden.
And onto pictures of some warm ups and a shot of their super star…
And the hype machine:
And Paul Pierce’s quotes from the end of Game 2, wanted the crowd to be crazy (which we were!).
And so the Boston portion of the series began:
Score after the 1st quarter:
Score after the 2nd quarter:
Score after the 3rd quarter:
GINO!!!! (With 5 1/2 minutes left to play!) AND Wes Welker got up did the Gino dance! This is after previously being shown on the Jumbotron, standing and waving for the fans, THEN running in place and doing some jukes, showing the progress on his surgically repaired knee. So awesome. Wes doing the full on Gino dance was the icing on the cake!
CELTICS WIN!
Holy Cannoli.
29 points, 18 rebounds, 13 assists for Rajon. His 4th playoff triple-double. He has 1 more than Bill Russell now!
The Garden was wicked loud. KG repeated part of his pre-game ritual at half-time, I think it helped: a 97-87 win.
Tonight Rondo showed his hand. He had his triple-double before the 4th quarter even started! The crowd was chanting M-V-P for Rondo at the end of the game during his freethrows – and that is new! It was awesome, made even better because it was in LeBron’s face. There was a girl with an awesome caricature of LBJ with a tear running down his face that the Jumbotron would show every time he would complain to the refs (a billion times over the course of 48+ minutes) – and towards the end of the game it was joined with a sign that said “A King Without A Ring”. It was awesome. Have I said it was awesome?
Also awesome, care of the Jumbotron folks: after every foul LeBron committed (that got called, that is) he would complain for a bit, and then while lining up for the FT, he would stand and look up and wait for the replay on the Jumbotron, but the Jumbotron guys would only show Lebron in real time staring up, obviously waiting for the replay. He would look down, then look up, look down, then look up, over and over. It was great.
We didn’t bring the nice camera tonight, so just crappy camera phone photos for tonight – but thank goodness we didn’t because someone spilled beer and our bag got soaked.
We did get fun little mini foam fingers! They even have tiny little finger slots. Super cute.
The Walk For Hunger Runs on Dunkin:
Registered and Raring to go:
Cheers icon passed in first mile:
Mile 1 – This was the last correct mile marker:
Citgo icon on the route:
The Walk skirts around Fenway:
Coolidge Corner Style 1:
Coolidge Corner Style 2:
These signs were everywhere all weekend due to the water emergency:
Mile 5 – Someone actually edited this sign:
Chestnut Hill Reservoir:
Mile 9:
Mile 10 – halfway point!!! This was sooo weird. First time in 7 years we saw the markers screwed up:
Party House right before Lunch Stop where they offered us beer last year! Haha!
Lunch at Daly Field with bands and a short rest:
A fancy new boathouse at Daly Field:
Mile 11 – MORE than 1/2 way there:
Mile 13:
Look at the birdie! He sang too!
Josh in the tunnel:
Mile 14 – walking home along the Charles:
Our little platoon walking along the Muddy:
A Mem Drive icon, in reverse:
Doing the whole walk in full gear!
Citgo sign again, from across the river – we’re almost home!
See that Mile 19 sign? Across the road? I think the marker is right – it is not on the walk route though…
The Swan Boats in the Public Garden!
Almost there!
And we made it!!!
We did it! 20 more miles. And you did it! Together, the Fiala friends & family raised $1300 to fight hunger. Thank you so much for rallying together with us in our efforts. And our team raised over $6750!
“The opposite of hungry isn’t full; the opposite of hungry is healthy.” -Ellen Parker
Because of your kindness we made our goal raising $1000 to fight hunger.
As most of you are aware, fighting the hunger problem in America is an effort we have chosen to support every year and one we believe is an important way we can actively participate in bettering our community.
As the state’s leading antihunger organization, Project Bread is dedicated to alleviating, preventing, and ultimately ending hunger in Massachusetts. In addition to organizing the annual Walk for Hunger and supporting emergency food programs statewide, Project Bread also advocates systematic solutions that prevent hunger in children and that provide food to families in everyday settings.
Your donation went a long way!
- $20 provides 40 people at a soup kitchen with a bowl of hot soup and a sandwich.
- $100 provides a week’s supply of groceries for five families.
- $500 allows a community health center to provide immediate food assistance to 25 hungry families. (We each raised $500)
- $1000 permits a food pantry to give a week’s supply of groceries to 50 families in need. (The Fiala total goal)
Project Bread fights hunger and advocates change in the community in which we live. It is an organization we believe in and choose to support year after year. We thank you for your support and solidarity in fighting hunger.
To everyone who supports the fight against hunger,
Thank you,
Jeannette and Josh
