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Its been non stop for the past however many days over here, hence the lack of writing! I will try and condense whats happened and give you a brief catch up of life in south africa...
Sunday 20th - left cape town for port elizabeth on an overnight bus journey. If you ever find yourself on such a journey please do not use city to city as you have no legroom, no any other room and the heating is jammed on so it is basically a sweatbox!
Monday 21st - arrive 6am in the middle of P.E and get a taxi to our lodge only to find it still shut as nobody has arrived yet. Sit on the street in the cold feeling unhappy to say the least! Get in around 6.45 and then have to wait until 11.45 to get into our room. Luckily we crashed out in the lounge and got a couple of hours sleep so i was in a better mood by then. Our room was literally a shed at the bottom of the garden with curtains! It was cold but hey, we had a room for the night and that was all that mattered. We went to the stadium for the 4pm game between chile and switzerland - really good fun as the chilean supporters are mental! That evening we met up with some friends from cape town but it wasnt a late one as we were both so tired.
Tuesday 22nd - our friend Liz arrived in the morning (also on the overnight bus but she travelled in style...well put it this way there was a loo on her coach and she got free tea/coffee) so we all went out for breakfast. Our plan had been to go into fanfest for the day but it wasn't great weather so instead we headed down to the boardwalk area for the day. P.E was a bit of a dump where we were staying but this bit was like a different country - if you end up there make sure you stay around the boardwalk area for sure! We found out during the day that none other than Fat Boy Slim would be playing at fanfest that night so we headed back to watch the evening game and then straight after he came out and did an hour set. Hardly anyone knew about it so there were probably only 500-1000 people there - great atmosphere though still!
Wednesday 23rd - the day of the all important game!! we had arranged to meet some friends of lizs in a bar close to the ground and that worked well as a guy in cape town had given us some spare tickets to sell so we were able to do that there. the game was a really great atmosphere and we won so all was good! that night we returned on the overnight bus - we learnt from our past experiences though and upgraded for a tenner on to a better bus! best tenner i've ever spent!
Thursday 24th - today it was back into the township to do football as usual. we held a tournament and as prizes we had brought back some unofficial programmes from the england game so everyone in the winning team got one of them. in the evening we went to the holland vs. cameroon game in cape town - our seats were quite high up this time but the overview you got of the stadium was fantastic.
Friday 25th - this was a strange day as when we met with kevin he'd decided to head off to Bloem for the R16 match england vs. germany on sunday so we had to decide if we wanted to go! at this point we had no tickets but as a thank you for helping him out in P.E we got some free tickets off our friend so a road trip was definitely on! We had a quiet day in the township as a guy was making a documentary so all the kids were all over him as they wanted to be on film - made our life easy as we were left with the ones who actually just wanted to play football!
Saturday 26th - we set off at 8am for Bloem. it took us about 10hours to get there but the drive was really interesting and we stopped in some very cute villages and saw lots of different scenery as part of the drive was through the Karoo desert. we stayed just outside of Bloem in a 'town' (and i use that loosely) called reddersburg which basically consisted of a few shops and our hotel. although how it got the name hotel i don't know as it was just a single storey building! in fairness it looked worse from the outside, the worse thing was how cold it was. i went to bed in all my clothes and still wasnt cold!
Sunday 27th - the day off the big match take 2! we went into Bloem in time for breakfast by which time the waterfront area was already heaving with english fans. as pre-match build up goes this was the best - i say unbeatable in fact! we got into the ground around 2.30 and then things just got even more surreal as we were in a suite! with free beer! life is good :) and right behind the goal. the goal where england scored 2 goals - yep thats right 2. enough said about that though! the whole day was fantastic and right up there in my top days here so far.
Monday 28th - again we left about 8am and spent the whole day driving back. i was pretty tired so i just slept most of the way back. that evening we went back to mixa's to watch the game and they actually asked where we'd been - i truely am a local now!
Tuesday 29th - in the township again today. the place where we usually do football (the carpark) was already being used (as a carpark) so we had to relocate to the park area. i don't know what had been going on there but the whole thing was covered in broken glass. paul and i cleared it as best we could without any sweeping implements but it was still so dangerous. these kids still roll up in barefoot or shoes with holes in and get stuck in though. in england if theres the slightest stone you wouldn't be allowed to play there but over here no-one even bats an eyelid. now we take a broom in the boot just incase! that evening we were asked to help out shifting some spare tickets for the game in cape town (spain vs. portugal no less) and so once again we were allowed to go for free - and our seats were just brilliant. i thought i might get to see 1-2 games when i was out here and so i sat there watching these superstars playing football and just thought how lucky i am!!
Wednesday 30th - we met with the guy who we are helping out to talk about last night and it turned out he needed our help again; this time in P.E for the holland vs. brazil game. so after lunch kevin, paul and i set off on our way with the promise of tickets to the game pulling us through! we pitched up in Storms River around 7pm and found some accomodation so stayed there overnight.
Thursday 1st - we left storms river bright and early as we were still approx.3hours from P.E. and needed to be there with the rest of the day ahead of us. we sorted out accomodation on the way there and arrived around 11. we spent the day around the boardwalk/beachfront area but had no luck as everyone seemed to have spares. its amazing that for a game like holland vs brazil you could just pitch up and buy a ticket for next to nothing!
Friday 2nd - once again we hung around the boardwalk for a while but in the end we headed to the bar where we had previously been in P.E. Randomly while we were there 2guys who we had met in cape town came in and they ended up sitting with us to watch the game! it was great to see such big names players - i never thought i'd get to see holland play once, let only now twice and see brazil play! i wanted holland to win (vickys influence) and so we left happy. kevin had things to do on saturday so we had to hit it and drive back through the night, eventually getting in to cape town around 3am.
Saturday 3rd - after a few hours sleep we had to meet with our friend and talk about P.E. he was happy with what we had done and asked us to help him out with the game today - germany vs. argentina! again we obliged purely because the offer of free tickets was too great to refuse!! so now i can add argentina to my list of superstars seen; just a pity they didnt turn up and got hammered. after the game we went to a very nice bar close to the stadium where who should we see but none other than arsene wenger!!! honestly things just get stranger and stranger everyday
Sunday 4th - finally a day of rest! we had a breakfast meeting this morning and we definitely must be doing something right as it now turns out he is flying us to durban (!!) on tuesday morning to act as a collection point up there. as soon as we heard there we were in as i've always said i would love to go to the moses mahbida stadium. the rest of the day has been spent doing boring things like sitting in a launderette for 2hours doing washing. its been really hot today so we went down to the waterfront and just enjoyed having a chilled day.
So as you can see i've been pretty busy! I honestly don't know how it got to this point but i'm just having the most fantastic time and its so much fun. Unfortunately theres only 1 week left of the world cup, and even worse only 2 weeks until i have to leave cape town :( as excited as i am about going travelling its going to be really hard to leave....
- comments
Christabel Williams So how much football are you seeing for free? I am sooo jealous haha! I can't believe how embarassing that Eng v Germany game was though.. I saw it in Belgium with German fans, quite honestly laughing at us.. ohhh the shame! Well, I am so happy that you are getting some free tickets for your hard work, because I am sure you deserve it! So, have fun watching the other big matches! I hope they are as shocking as the Cup has been so far! See you pitch-hopping pickle! Cboo xxxxx
Carol MacKintosh Wow Julia, you guys are having a ball, that's fantastic that you and Paul have got to see so many games! You two must have a permenent grin on your face! Enjoy the remainder of the world cup, take care XX