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[Author note: I have a fixed laptop charger now thanks to an electrical engineer who is a friend of my host family’s! Amazing, and saved me from buying a really overpriced Apple charger here; apparently, all Apple products in South Africa are double the price of their counterparts back in the States. TIA.]
Today, I attended my first ever World Cup match – for that matter, it was probably the first soccer game I ever paid for to watch! The story behind it all is quite amazing.
It all started off with having to pick up the tickets in the morning. Leo knew a guy who may or may not have had access to some questionably legal tickets. We may or may not have driven to a café in Camp’s Bay to pick them up from some Argentinean Mafioso-type characters. I may or may not have sipped a cappuccino calmly while fretting about all of the jail time I was going to do.
Regardless of what may or may not have happened, we walked out of the café with five tickets to the Germany-Argentina game that afternoon. Even better, we were promised Level 2 seats (the stadium has three tiers of seating; the higher the seat, the lower the price, and vice versa), but thanks to Leo’s smooth talking, we got Level 1 seats (the best seats in the house!!!). So, I was pumped. Leo, Sebastian, Shelley, a mutual friend named Luisa, and myself all were about to experience something truly awesome.
We left for the stadium around 1:30 PM. We took a train into town and then began the massive and infamous “Fan Walk,” which is about 2 miles of national pride, stadium food, and excited crowds. It was completely full of people, and we zigzagged through the masses of people in an attempt to get to the stadium as early as possible.
We got there about 30 minutes before the game was supposed to start and were greeted by a very impressive security team supervising the entrance to the stadium. Each fan was thoroughly checked and inspected for any illegal materials, which slowed up the entrance a good bit. However, they were relatively efficient and we were soon in!! We found our seats – 18 rows back from being practically on the ground – and were pumped; the view was outstanding, with the weather equally as good as our enthusiasm.
The game itself was just as exciting as you might imagine; it was even better since Germany slaughtered Argentina 4-0. I was supporting Germany by default since I had a very menacing German roommate who I intended on keeping happy. But my heritage is German (or at least my last name!), so I was OK with it. I even got my face painted!
However, I have to say this – I was ever so slightly disappointed by the fans at the park. Coming from Duke Basketball country, I thought there would be constant cheering, jeering, and songs going on during the entire 90 minutes of the game. Instead, the crowds would quietly watch the game (the vuvuzelas are not nearly as bad at the stadium than on TV; they really should just filter it out for broadcasts) and then cheer at key moments for their respective teams. What happened to the attitude of the ‘sixth player’ that the Cameron Crazies had? People actually sat down for most of the game!
Don’t get me wrong; the crowds can really get going when they want to (and they did!!). And I am really really happy that I went; I had an amazing time. But I think that the fans at this stadium could have taken a lesson or two from Duke.
I told Ryan about how I was shocked at how quiet the game was at times. He said, “Well, the fans can’t just cheer and shout for the entire game!” Clearly, this man has never truly encountered Duke basketball.
Anywho, fandom aside, we left the game ecstatic about Germany’s win and headed to the Waterfront for something to eat. We couldn’t get in to Paulaner (the German restaurant and pub at the Waterfront) because it was too full (unsurprisingly), so we settled on “Docks,” a restaurant we had eaten at a few times. We sat down and ordered drinks and food, but about 15 minutes later, the waitress said the kitchen was out of chicken (TIA, man.) so some of us had to change our orders. Once we re-ordered, she came back about 10 minutes later and replied that the kitchen had run out of food ( I swear this is exactly what she said). The restaurant on a Saturday night had run out of food. Only in Africa.
So we tried another crowded outside dining area called Emily’s. We succeeded at getting a table there and ordering (however, they were out of almost all of their food as well; their menu was limited to very simple sandwich platters – again, TIA.) just in time to watch Spain beat Paraguay. Watching it on TV quickly bored me, though; it was nothing like actually being at the stadium.
Next, we headed to Charlie’s (the Dutch sports bar we visit a lot) to celebrate with socializing and a LOT of dancing. And I mean, a LOT of dancing. We heard the World Cup Anthems ‘Waka Waka’ and “Waving Flag” at least 5 times each, and there was so much Gaga coming out of the speakers at the bar that even I was getting a little tired of my favorite, “Telephone.” It was a night to remember for sure, though, complete with some great company (we met up with Keely and some of our other friends!)
We got back at 4:30 AM – slightly (read: VERY) later than I intended on being back – but I was happy that we had a once-in-a-lifetime day.
And today is July 4th; This is the first time that I’m celebrating the holiday by myself, which is admittedly a little weird. I think I’m going to have lazy day watching 24 to celebrate. Nothing better than watching Jack Bauer take down terrorists to celebrate America, right?
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