Wednesday was pretty low key. We (Me, Kevin, Rey, Antonio, and SEAN) went to the mall to get cash and looked at some more of the merch being offered up. Again, very frustrated with the lack of US stuff...as I'd be buying some!!
For lunch we headed to a little Portuguese restaurant that we had found near the hotel, as it was conveniently located near the liquor store. They had the first game of the day on (Honduras vs. Chile) so we watched there and had lunch. While there some other guys who are in our American Outlaws group mentioned 2 extra tickets for the Argentina vs. South Korea game the next day. Kevin and I decided to go for it. Later the guy who had the tickets showed up and said he only had one. We decided to go ahead and take the one ticket and try to find one outside the stadium.
After leaving the restaurant we stopped by a local fruit and veg market (I did not buy anything, surprised?) then headed to the liquor store to get some beer for back at the hotel. We came back to the hotel and watched the Spain vs. Switzerland game in the hotel room.
Kevin and I went with some of the American Outlaws to the dinner place called Moyo. They had great food and great atmosphere....a great place to watch the Bafana Bafana game. Everyone got some traditional tribal face paint. There was also a large group of Mexico fans there and there may have been a few taunts thrown their way.
While we were gone to dinner, Sean went to pick Max up from the airport. Max has apparently been enjoying this new "game" called ICING. So Sean decided to go ahead and get Max at the airport when he picked him up. It was a successful icing with help provided by the shuttle driver.
When we got back to the hotel it was to a pretty crowded room. Sean's been with us the whole time and I regret leaving his name out before in previous posts. Sorry SEAN!! We had Rey and Antonio still here and now Max. We stayed up and had some beers. It was a fun time. Antonio and Rey had to get up early for the ride to Polokwane for the Mexico vs. France game so the crashed early. Sean and Max apparently continued catching up in the hotel lobby as the good college buds hadn't seen each other in over a year as Sean has been in New Zealand. They strolled in at some hour of the morning and promptly found a spot on the floor. Which ends Wednesday and leads to....
Thursday
We started this morning with a quick trip to the mall. We needed cash for tickets at the stadium and we wanted to drop off some laundry. We got there right when they opened at 9 as our shuttle to the game was scheduled for 9:30. We got everything done and headed back to the hotel. The shuttle was there and filling up with people and we were told they'd make another run at 10:15, so we decided to wait for the second one. We grabbed some breakfast there at the hotel lobby and waited around for the shuttle. It ended up being late but we weren't terribly worried. It got there at about 10:40 so we were on our way to Soccer City again.
We started our trek up to the stadium and while walking Max would randomly say "tickets?" and we actually got a guy fairly quickly and he had 3 tickets...the number we needed. We got them and continued up to the stadium. Lots of Argentina fans pouring in. Max and Sean stayed outside to wait for one of Max's friends so we went ahead and headed in. We got into the stadium about an hour before kick off and the place was already going crazy with fans. We decided to check out Kevin's seat since it was on a lower level than the one I got outside. We went in and he had seat #2 on the row and there was nobody in seat 1. So we sat down and just hoped nobody came to claim the seat as they were pretty good seats.
I tried to get pics of cool things I saw around the stadium. The game was great and I had a wonderful time. Glad we decided to try and go. After the game we started the trek home. The shuttle was supposed to pick everyone up for the hotel back at the park and ride drop off. We walked to the park and ride line following the guys who had the extra ticket and were seated next to us as they had come in on the park and ride and new where to go. When we got there the line was long and some people decided to try and walk to the park and ride. Kevin and I opted to stay and wait in line as we went ready for a trek to Jo'Burg when we didn't really know where we were going, etc. The shuttle line took us about 45 minutes and we got on a bus right before 5. 5 was the time the shuttle had said they'd be picking us up. So we were sorta concerned...but knew there'd be taxis, etc at the park and ride (which was located at a casino). We got there at about 5:15 and found the Max and Sean who had decided to walk. They said a shuttle had left earlier and another one was on it's way. So were were waiting there with another group that had also taken the shuttle. The sun was pretty much down by then and it was getting REALLY cold. We called the shuttle guy a few times and he said he was stuck in traffic but he was on his way. Standing on the street in the freezing cold waiting for a shuttle for an hour...in a country you've never been to was a bit frustrating.
We finally got picked up at about 6:15 and headed home. We asked the driver about stopping at a beer store on the way back since by the time we got to the hotel and to the store, they'd be closed. He agreed and the shuttle stopped and a few people got out for beer. I was not one of them as I was tired, cold and hadn't eaten since breakfast...I just wanted to get back to the hotel.
We got to the hotel at about 7. Sean, Max and their friend decided to head out to watch the France vs. Mexico game. Kevin and I decided to stay in and watch it at the hotel and rest up for tomorrow. We ordered a pizza and they said 40 minutes. So I started downloading my photos and typing this update...just finished this CRAZY 4 layered pizza so now I am finishing this update. Probably going to try get some sleep after this game is over. Tomorrow is going to be a big day...so need to rest up. We are leaving the hotel at 10 tomorrow morning to head to the pre game bar. Planning on getting to the mall before then to go pick up our laundry and also add some minutes to my cell phone. Oh!! Almost forgot. PICTURES!!!!
Hope this is keeping people updated sufficiently. I've found that doing it every 2 days is pretty effective and I can usually squeeze in enough time to get it done.
Oh....also!! Keep seeing this commercial on tv and in the stadiums and I just think it is amusing.
No comments:
Post a Comment