Living in Tamarindo
US vs. Slovenia – World Cup 2010
Posted by Kristina
If you’ve already read the blog titled, “Apartheid Museum”, then you know we’re staying in a cold house, but this morning it wasn’t a cold house, I believe, but don’t quote me, but I believe it was close to sub-zero temperatures. Ethel our host, who is a lovely woman, made an amazing breakfast, sausages, bacon, toast, fried eggs, cheeses, and all the accouterma’. YOU COULD SEE OUR BREATH! White we ate, you could see our breath. We were glad to be out and in the sun.
Our stomachs were full and we were ready for the US vs. Slovenia game….but first socks! I guess we didn’t do our research, IT IS COLD IN JOHANNESBURG and we brought footies. Went and bought some socks at a local store…Now! Off to check out Soccer City, the main stadium built for the World Cup 2010 in Johannesburg. It holds 94,000 people and is made to look like calabash. “Hollowed out and dried calabashes are a very typical utensil in households across West Africa. They are used to clean rice, carry water and also as food containers,” per Wikipedia. Its beautiful. Not much walking around to be done though, security has created a “Red Zone” around each of the stadiums, you can only get within 30 meters of each stadium, too bad.
Soccer City
Now, to make a short story long, or a long story longer, we had to pick up our US vs. Slovenia tickets from someone we had met at a previous game. Using our Time Out Magazine, the evening before we chose a restaurant/pub near the stadium to meet these guys. We didn’t know anything about it, only that it was near the stadium. It was time to meet them, our GPS was driving us into the ghetto, I told Patrick, “tell them we will meet them somewhere else, send them an email, cause I’m not stopping!” We start to pass the pub and there are nothing but American flags, red white and blue tshirts, and screams from inside singing, “The yanks are coming, the yanks are coming…” THIS WAS OUR PLACE….WE WERE HOME!
Yanks 1
Yanks 2
Patrick and his WC trophy.
We were headed to the game US vs. Slovenia, and what a great game is was!!!!! (Dan G., here are some more pics with strange people!)
Strange People #1
Strange People #2
Strange People #3
Not-so-Strange People #1
Hi Guys,
First I think congratulations are in order, so congratulations to both of you, Patrick and Kristina, on the engagement!
The pics are great, keep ‘em coming. Which country has the most fans in SA?
Finally, Bring on “zzz germans”!! You don’t have tickets to this match, do you!? I remember you saying something about a round of 16 game…
Paul
Thanks Paul. Long overdue for us.
No luck on the England game. I’ve got tickets to Holland vs. Italy. I’m trying to unload them and get the game for the US in Rustenberg.
Problem with the World Cup in SA is that everything is ridiculously far to drive to. Rustenberg is 8 hours from US. Fingers crossed we get the tickets. Hope you are doing well back in Canada.
Best,
Patrick