Masters of travel
Today I think we officially leveled up on our travel ranking. Let me start with a little explanation of where things are around here in relation to each other. The hotel where we are staying is about half an hour north of downtown Johannesburg. The stadium is about half an hour south of the city. So when we started the day, we jumped on the bus with the Mexican fans going to the opening match from the hotel for a few reasons. We thought it would be easier to get to the city from there, since empty buses dropping people off would want passengers to take back in to the city; additionally, it would be cool to be there to see the excitement around the opening match. Plus a taxi from the hotel to the city is pretty expensive.
While the stadiums are beautiful (see picture below), the roads going to them are not. There was a lot of traffic. It took about 1.5 hours to move a few miles to get to the stadium. Once there, they clearly hadn't organized where the buses parked, and we were basically told to make a huge circle around the stadium. Eventually, we were released from the bus into the pool of sound coming from the vuvuzelas. No one really knew where buses back to the city would be, so we were told to walk all the way back around the stadium to ask people there. That's when things got complicated.
It turns out there really were no buses stopping to take people back. We tried to get into a bus terminal, but that required a bus pass. Of course, they weren't selling bus passes until 5 pm, more than 6 hours later. We even tried to bribe some bus security officer to get some passes, but he wasn't up for it. It looked like we'd have to go back to the tour bus we came in on, or start walking the 5+ miles to Joburg ourselves. Then we saw some people running to a stopped van on the side of the highway. We guessed the people were in our same position (likely workers at the stadium who were trying to get home before the game started), and booked it across 2 lanes of traffic. We jammed ourselves in with the rest of the locals, sitting on the floor of the van to somewhere. I should point out we still didn't really know where this van was going, if it was an official van-bus, or just some guy picking up his friends. Fortunately our senses were right and it was a van-bus going to Johannesburg. In fact, it was a bus going to the exact neighborhood where we wanted to watch the game. Unbelievable.
In order to get to our destination, we had to go through downtown Joburg. Since it was the opening match of the world cup and featured the South Africans for the first time, the whole country left work at noon. This was exactly the time we got into the city. You know those movies where cars are on a crowded city street with tons of people walking around and in-between the cars? Double that, and that's what it was like. Except, all of the people also had vuvuzelas. I call it the background noise of the nation. Everyone else on the bus, plus the 4 or so more that we picked up when stopped at lights, got off throughout the city. When it was just us on the bus, we ended up talking to the driver - David - who was an incredibly nice tourguide as we moved slowly through the city. I mentioned that it took us 2 hours to get to the stadium; it probably took another 2 just to move 2 miles through downtown.
Eventually, right before the opening ceremony began, we made it to a nice little plaza/shopping area called Melrose Arch. It's kind of the upscale part of town. They had a public viewing area with a big screen set up in the center of the plaza. The area slowly filled up, but eventually it seemed like 500 people were around the plaza watching the game. We found a place inside a restaurant with a good view of a TV, but an overlook on the crowd in front of the big screen. When the game started, it was difficult to tell the difference between the vuvuzelas from the game in Soccer City and around the plaza. During the first few minutes of the game, it looked like Mexico would run away with it, dominating possession and chances. Then, suddenly, a South African player got a break and took an amazing shot that blasted past the keeper! The place erupted - no, the whole country erupted. The people in the plaza were screaming for at least 60 seconds, then someone found some drums and people were pounding out rhythms and dancing in the streets. People were still buzzing and yelling for the next 10 minutes. We were thinking about the celebration, and we agree that the pure emotion and joy that came out when South Africa scored was stronger than any Clemson touchdown. And we weren't even at a large viewing area, let alone at the stadium.
Closer to the end of the match, Mexico tied it up and the game ended a fitting 1-1. All of the South Africans that we talked to thought that was a good result, and based on the match later (Uruguay/France), they could still get through the group.
After the game was over, we had to find a way to get a cab back to the hotel. Not so easy after a few thousand fans were leaving the area at the exact same time. Finally our foreign accents came in handy. I walked us into a random hotel in the area, which was surprisingly guarded by security (metal detectors and all), and asked to call a cab. Of course they didn't check if we were guests, due to our accents. Eventually we made it back to the hotel for the last game of the day.
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While the stadiums are beautiful (see picture below), the roads going to them are not. There was a lot of traffic. It took about 1.5 hours to move a few miles to get to the stadium. Once there, they clearly hadn't organized where the buses parked, and we were basically told to make a huge circle around the stadium. Eventually, we were released from the bus into the pool of sound coming from the vuvuzelas. No one really knew where buses back to the city would be, so we were told to walk all the way back around the stadium to ask people there. That's when things got complicated.
It turns out there really were no buses stopping to take people back. We tried to get into a bus terminal, but that required a bus pass. Of course, they weren't selling bus passes until 5 pm, more than 6 hours later. We even tried to bribe some bus security officer to get some passes, but he wasn't up for it. It looked like we'd have to go back to the tour bus we came in on, or start walking the 5+ miles to Joburg ourselves. Then we saw some people running to a stopped van on the side of the highway. We guessed the people were in our same position (likely workers at the stadium who were trying to get home before the game started), and booked it across 2 lanes of traffic. We jammed ourselves in with the rest of the locals, sitting on the floor of the van to somewhere. I should point out we still didn't really know where this van was going, if it was an official van-bus, or just some guy picking up his friends. Fortunately our senses were right and it was a van-bus going to Johannesburg. In fact, it was a bus going to the exact neighborhood where we wanted to watch the game. Unbelievable.
In order to get to our destination, we had to go through downtown Joburg. Since it was the opening match of the world cup and featured the South Africans for the first time, the whole country left work at noon. This was exactly the time we got into the city. You know those movies where cars are on a crowded city street with tons of people walking around and in-between the cars? Double that, and that's what it was like. Except, all of the people also had vuvuzelas. I call it the background noise of the nation. Everyone else on the bus, plus the 4 or so more that we picked up when stopped at lights, got off throughout the city. When it was just us on the bus, we ended up talking to the driver - David - who was an incredibly nice tourguide as we moved slowly through the city. I mentioned that it took us 2 hours to get to the stadium; it probably took another 2 just to move 2 miles through downtown.
Eventually, right before the opening ceremony began, we made it to a nice little plaza/shopping area called Melrose Arch. It's kind of the upscale part of town. They had a public viewing area with a big screen set up in the center of the plaza. The area slowly filled up, but eventually it seemed like 500 people were around the plaza watching the game. We found a place inside a restaurant with a good view of a TV, but an overlook on the crowd in front of the big screen. When the game started, it was difficult to tell the difference between the vuvuzelas from the game in Soccer City and around the plaza. During the first few minutes of the game, it looked like Mexico would run away with it, dominating possession and chances. Then, suddenly, a South African player got a break and took an amazing shot that blasted past the keeper! The place erupted - no, the whole country erupted. The people in the plaza were screaming for at least 60 seconds, then someone found some drums and people were pounding out rhythms and dancing in the streets. People were still buzzing and yelling for the next 10 minutes. We were thinking about the celebration, and we agree that the pure emotion and joy that came out when South Africa scored was stronger than any Clemson touchdown. And we weren't even at a large viewing area, let alone at the stadium.
Closer to the end of the match, Mexico tied it up and the game ended a fitting 1-1. All of the South Africans that we talked to thought that was a good result, and based on the match later (Uruguay/France), they could still get through the group.
After the game was over, we had to find a way to get a cab back to the hotel. Not so easy after a few thousand fans were leaving the area at the exact same time. Finally our foreign accents came in handy. I walked us into a random hotel in the area, which was surprisingly guarded by security (metal detectors and all), and asked to call a cab. Of course they didn't check if we were guests, due to our accents. Eventually we made it back to the hotel for the last game of the day.
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