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:
