After three weeks in Madagascar, we flew to Johannesburg hoping to experience the World Cup excitement for a few of days before continuing on to East Africa. Before Chris and I departed on this journey, we sat down together and made a list of the things that we wanted to see and do in Africa. One could easily spend endless amounts of time and money exploring this continent, but we don’t have either of those, so we had to prioritize. (That and I like any excuse to make a list.)
For Chris, one of the highest priorities was making it to at least one World Cup game. I must admit that I
wasn’t 100% on-board at first. I knew that traveling in South Africa during World Cup would be chaotic and expensive, and I
didn’t know if the experience would live up to our expectations. Let me tell you that while I was right on the first account (we paid an absurd amount of money to stay in an overcrowded hostel, as everyone was charging special “World Cup” rates), I was definitely wrong on the second. We had an absolutely fantastic time, and I’m so happy that we made the effort to spend some time in South Africa during the World Cup.
The tournament generated a really festive atmosphere, and our backpacker hostel was packed with students and young professionals from all over the world. I definitely had a couple of
tri-lingual conversations (which were lots of fun, but a stark reminder that my Italian is SUPER rusty).
When we
weren’t watching soccer games, we spent some time touring around Jo-burg. The city gets a bad rap, but I have to say that it
wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be. We went to the Apartheid Museum, which was incredible. We also went on a brewery tour and then to dinner at the
Sophiatown jazz lounge. We also connected with some South African friends who live in Jo’burg, and it was great to get the local perspective on life in this sprawling African metropolis. In any event, we made it out alive and – dare I say – even ENJOYED our time in the city of gold.
We scored some after-market tickets to the quarter final Ghana-Uruguay game at Soccer City stadium. The game itself was a phenomenal experience. I felt like all of South Africa was cheering for Ghana (the single African team remaining in the tournament at that point). There was so much energy and excitement in the stadium. I can’t totally put the experience into words, but it was amazing…something I’ll never forget.
-Julia
Driving in Central
Jo'burgEnjoying the festive atmosphere at our hostel
This was posted to the fridge at our hostel
Outside the Apartheid museum
Soccer City
Catching up with our friends Melanie and Melody at the game
World Cup 2010!
1 comment:
Glad you made it out to a game! My parents took us to some games in Dallas in '94 and it was so much fun. I'm thinking seriously of heading down to Brazil in 2014 :-)
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