Days 15-18 7/10-13 -The Grand Finale

Last 4 days of this amazing trip in South Africa had full of excitement, joy and surprises all packed into it. On Saturday we started the day with visiting the famous SoWeTo (South Western Townships) area where many of the anti-apartheid movement took place in 70s thru 90s. It was quite eye opening to see the difference in lifestyle in these townships. We went to the area around 10am and almost the entire town was visiting the church even though it wasn't a Sunday. As we walked around the Vilakazi street that resided Nelson Mandela's house we were pleasently surprised by a local kid that approached us and asked if he could sing the South Africa's national anthem. This 10 year old kid had the most amazing voice and sang the anthem beautifully. Knowing that the anthem had 4 different languages in itself it sounded pretty cool to hear the differences in dialect between Afrikaans and Zulu even though I did not understand a word of it.

Mandela lived in this area after he finished his education and he lived with his first wife and the kids. His house was turned into a museum and we were able to visit inside. This one bedroomish apartment with no seperate kitchen or bathroom was still considered as a quality space to live in. Overall, reading about the movements to abolish the apartheid with the efforts from Hector Pierson, 13 year old kid that was shot to death in his high school due to uprising, has shown me that it took a lot of will power from all kinds of sources and backgrounds to get the job done and move to a democratic Rep of SA.

Our day tour of South Africa culture continued at the Apartheid Museum, which was a massive 'history book' in itself. The entire museum was full of video and audio clips from different times including pre and post Apartheid era. They had a special Mandela exhibit that was fascinating as well. Learning about the details of this amazing guy makes you want to constantly do something good for the world. He is true leader and led his country by an example after suffering through 28 years in a Robben Island prison. I certainly will do more research about him when I get back home for sure.

After the museum trip we wanted to relax abit and headed to the Sandton area. As I mentioned before this is the Beverly Hills of South Africa and seeing both Soweto and Sandton which are 20 mins apart from each other shows you a good deal of mix of the rainbow country.

Putting our soccer hats on again, we were curious about the ticket prices for the Final game. We had the tickets and
Last 4 days of this amazing trip in South Africa had full of excitement, joy and surprises all packed into it. On Saturday we started the day with visiting the famous SoWeTo (South Western Townships) area where many of the anti-apartheid movement took place in 70s thru 90s. It was quite eye opening to see the difference in lifestyle in these townships. We went to the area around 10am and almost the entire town was visiting the church even though it wasn't a Sunday. As we walked around the Vilakazi street that resided Nelson Mandela's house we were pleasently surprised by a local kid that approached us and asked if he could sing the South Africa's national anthem. This 10 year old kid had the most amazing voice and sang the anthem beautifully. Knowing that the anthem had 4 different languages in itself it sounded pretty cool to hear the differences in dialect between Afrikaans and Zulu even though I did not understand a word of it.

Mandela lived in this area after he finished his education and he lived with his first wife and the kids. His house was turned into a museum and we were able to visit inside. This one bedroomish apartment with no seperate kitchen or bathroom was still considered as a quality space to live in. Overall, reading about the movements to abolish the apartheid with the efforts from Hector Pierson, 13 year old kid that was shot to death in his high school due to uprising, has shown me that it took a lot of will power from all kinds of sources and backgrounds to get the job done and move to a democratic Rep of SA.

Our day tour of South Africa culture continued at the Apartheid Museum, which was a massive 'history book' in itself. The entire museum was full of video and audio clips from different times including pre and post Apartheid era. They had a special Mandela exhibit that was fascinating as well. Learning about the details of this amazing guy makes you want to constantly do something good for the world. He is true leader and led his country by an example after suffering through 28 years in a Robben Island prison. I certainly will do more research about him when I get back home for sure.

After the museum trip we wanted to relax abit and headed to the Sandton area. As I mentioned before this is the Beverly Hills of South Africa and seeing both Soweto and Sandton which are 20 mins apart from each other shows you a good deal of mix of the rainbow country.

Putting our soccer hats on again, we were curious about the ticket prices for the Final game. We had the tickets and for some crazy price we may consider selling them. Our logic was if it covered the entire trip we would sell the final tickets and watch the game at a fan fest. The face value for the final ticket was $900 and the best offer was not even twice that. The demand wasn't that crazy compared to Germany in 2006 where the scalper were selling the final tix for $4k-$5k. Oh well I wanted to experience the final experience anyways. Flew all the way down here and had to see the final right?

For our last Saturday night we planned on meeting Thomas's German friends at Melville to watch the 3rd place game vs Uruguay. As much as no one cared about this consolation game they usually ended up being on of the more exciting games since both teams are relaxed at this point and would not play under pressure. The game was a fantastic piece of action. At one point I was convinced Forlan was going to win the game for his Uruguayans but German engine with a little help from the Uruguay goalie did not allow that. Final score 3-2 Germany with Forlán hittig the post on the last second of thr Injury time. Crazy game. We celebrated the win with other Germans at the restaurant and headed to our now 'local' bar called Six. No Swazi girl to hang out this time but we enjoy each others company with couple of other Spanish guys joining us. From the conversations I understood that the best way to see the rest of the cool sites of Africa you have to come here for a
temp assignments. These guys were doing consulting and have traveled to Bostwana, seen the beautiful beaches of Mozambiqu and have traveled through landlocked countries like Lesoto and Swaziland. Tanzania was most of their favs as well. Maybe in another lifetime I will make it here again. I am not sure how but would love to come back again do the rest of the Africa.

Sunday was the game day and we didn't plan anything else on this day. Our hostel was full of international folks from Argentina Chile Holland Germany Spain and couple of US and Canadian guys were hanging out as well. We were pregaming with the World Cup CD that I made and drinking some local beer. With a group of six, two Candians, an American, a Colombian and us, headed to the stadium with the local buses that were organized by Fifa.

As we headed inside the stadium you could feel the excitement and the tension amongst Spanish and Dutch fans. Both of them never won a world cup ever Dutchies coming close with two finals. The famous Octopus Paul predicted the Spanish win before the game and he is 7 out 7 so far predicting every Germany game correctly. I did some serious shopping at the offical FIFA store before game getting some cool stuff as a souvenior.

Before the game started there was the closing ceramony. South Africans put an amazing show to the fans and Shakira did the waka waka songs live. I practically finished a 8gb mem card today and moved to my 4gb hoping that it should cover rest of the trip. The final of the closing ceramony featured my man Mandela at 92 years old with a 37 degree cold weather toured the entire stadium. Spirits of every single 85,000 fans out there went up and they all stood up to greet Madiba.

And the game... To be honest I was expecting more of an exciting goal scoring Finale knowin that both teams play open football with attacking mind. What was interesting is that the famous Dutch Total Football were be displayed by both teams since the Dutch egend Johan Cruyff implemented that style of fottball in Barcelona and the 7 out of the first 11 Spanish team was playing for Barca. Spain controlled more of the possesion but Holland had the more clear chances with Robben missing two be the national hero twice. Ramos and Fabregas misses for Spain made a 0-0 final result. The referee Howard Webb went too crazy with his yellow cards. 14 yellows and a red card was too crazy and to be honest be couldn't manage the game well. He ended up making mistakes as well. We had to wait until 116th minute for Iniesta to score the game winning goal with a nice shot with his right foot. I was rooting for Spain and felt pretty extatic at the moment but I did feel bad
for Dutchies to be honest. I think they deserved to winit too but you got to capitalize on your chances. Final score 1-0 to Spain and they are the crown Champions of 2010 World Cup. Viva la Espana! Ole ole ole Ole Ole...

As the game went to overtime and temp continously dropping a degree every 5 mins or so we started freezing after the game. I think I had 4 layers of clothing but still.. The biggest game of my life was over. It has been a great tournament...

Monday was our true free day. There was really only one thing left that we haven't checked it off from our list- visiting the famous Lion Park. Coming all the way to Africa and not doing a Safari trip would not be a completed job. Lion park was 45 mins from our hostel and as we got inside we right away were greeted by the lovely giraffe. He had his special food that I fed him with. He had this huge tongue that would grab that food like a lizard. It was amazing though.. Whenever he felt like eating he would come and go back when he is done with you. Beautiful animal truly.

For the lovely lions we were warned to be pretty careful with them not to open the window, obviously not get out of the car. We did our own tour which was the best. There were total of 4 lion camps that we toured. Each camp had 8-10 lions with only one male lion and rest of them lionesses. It was truly amazing to see big ass lion walking 10 feet away from you. And they are no different than a cat if you think about it. Does the same streching move and licking his own paws. Ok maybe little bit more dangerous :) even sudden moves like getting your hand out of your car or standing up would trigger thier instincts to see you as a prey. They all lived in a harmony and whoever messes up that harmony they would get rid of that thing as I heard on of the tour guides explained. Also he mentioned that lions in the wild will live around 10-12 years and the ones in these camps were would survive until 20. Took amazing close up with these giant cats will share them
as well.

The finale of the lion park tour was to meet and greet the lion cubs. We had a five minute timeframe to pad them and rake bunch of pictures. My fav was quite white in color and he had his paw stuck on my sweater. This was the most amazing of all. To play with a lion and pad him like he is your own cat. Pretty cool experience!

After the lion experience we also saw the crocodiles and snakes at another site. At one point I had a 3 months old crocodile in my hand and later on a giant Asian snake wrapped around my neck. Phyton snake was pretty cool with his skin shining beautifully. The tour guide showed us the crocodiles around the damps that they hung out. We could pad these puppies so much but knowing that they live over a century and surviving without a food for more than 6 months is pretty cool feature for them. We saw a 60 year old one in there. Wow he was biggg!

On our last evening in Joburg, South Africa, the African continent we wanted to hang out with local folks. Our friend Mark invited us for a Braai , south African BBQ. Had a great time winding down on the entire trip and chatting about the past two and a haf weeks. Food was delicious and there were some other intnl folks that joined us as well. Couple of Scandinavian guys who were friends with Mark's friend and a girl from Israel that started couch surfing South Africa today. This couch surfing idea is pretty cool actually as you can meet cool people thru this and save some money as well. I will check it out for sure for the next time. We finished the night with a texas hold'm poker. It was great fun to wrap up our trip with locals and some intnl folks.

As I am writing this blog entry from the plane that took of 16 hours ago from Joburg and we still have not arrived to NY yet, I feel pretty content and relaxed about the entire trip. Today before heading to the airport we did some last minute shopping hoping that the WC is over and the prices would come down but they were mostly the same... After getting into the plane I felt that ok I guess the trip is over. I missed my folks as well and it was great well spent 17 days alltogether. I had no expectations before I got here and we made plans as we moved ahead. Highlight of the trip was Cape Town for me. Even though we stayed the shortest time here compared to Joburg and Durban I think it was truly an exceptional city. Dubliner on Long Street, Paulaner at Waterfront, the Table Mounrain, the crazy Argentina vs Germany game, and hanging out with the local girls would not be forgotten.

Overall experience is still hard to put on words. I guess I satisfied different desires from learning about SA history to watching live football games to partying in different cities of SA to laying down at the beach for hours doing nothing. I think I needed all of that to have complete packaged experience in South Africa.

The big question: Would I visit here again? Absolutely yes but realistically not sure. I met a colleague from Citi Joburg who was in the Sandron office and mentioned that Citibank has an office in Cape Town. Maybe I'll work on that opportunity eh?:)

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope it was somewhat entertaining to catch up on WC and learn some stufff about South Africa. Waiting to see your comments!!

See you in Brazil 2014! :)

AT

Day 13-14 7/8-9 Couple of Days in the Middle of Nowhere

Woke up early in the morning on Thursday to start our day as started to head back towards Joburg again for the final chapter of our trip. All we planned was that we wanted to stay somewhere at the mid point between Durban and Joburg and Ladysmith was the city that we were recommended by the guys that we met way back at the Heatrow Airport on our first day of our trip. I called the bed and breakfast that he recommended named Trenchgula and made sure that they had a place available for us to stay. The cool thing about this B&B was that they also had a huge Game Farm that had bunch of animals resided. We had no expectations really but I was excited about taking a semi pro safari tour from a local guy.

Before heading to Ladysmith though we wanted to have a check mark on this amazingly long mountain range called Drakensberg. Drakes as the locals called it was 200km long mountain area and we only time to see one part of it and basically picked a random point from the map. The place was called Giants Castle and it was 70km away from the freeway. As we were driving toward the Giants Castle we saw truly amazing villages,townships that people looked like they have never seen anything outside of their 100 mile radius. Couple of the local kids were looking at us as if were from another planet. they were truly surprised by seeing different faces. We were welcomed and greeted by the local cows and goats as they stopped our road and did their parade. Having seen run down parts of Istanbul I thought I wouldnt be surprised at all but these truly were at another level let me tell you. Truly an amazing experience. We just prayed that our car does not break down here as there was no cars or anything passing for a while now. So the Giants castle was reached in the end and it was a nice location that we ended up having a quick lunch enjoying the views of the wild nature. If we had time the place offered interesting caves and cool lodging area but we were heading towards our recommended Ladysmith site.

When we arrived to Ladysmith we did not have the address for the Trenchgula B&B and when I asked a guy at the gas station he said he didnt know the place but he introduced me to the mananger of the gas station and the manager calls the guy from Trenchgula and asks him to come and pick us up from the station. It was clearly a one man show for the guy who ran the B&B and he was really cool actually. Mike was our guy telling us about his Game Park and all the animals he has in there. The lodge was completely empty and we enjoyed a really nice place after staying at hostels for couple of weeks. This was a treat. It was still relatively early after we freshened up and asked the guy to see if there was any local bar to hang out. It was interesting that the most happening place in Ladysmith on a Thursday night had 10 people in the bar. The place was called Geniue Folk and it was also nice steak restaurant. I enjoyed my lamb shank and we called it a night in the most happening part of the town.

After getting a good nite sleep we were ready to have a nice African breakfast. it is not too different than eggs and bacon/sausage but it was the african breakfast. Now I was ready to experience my first live animal tour. The one man show guy Mike took us around his farm that was 220 hectars long in which many animals resides. We saw the national animal for SA, the springbok, impalas were amazing, zebras and giraffes hung out as buddies as it took some time to see them. There were ostriches, peacocks all around as well and many other names that the guy told us that I could not remember. Being 100 feet close to a giraffe was the coolest thing. They were more curious about us seemed like. You have to see the pics to believe what I am saying. He had 5 giraffes and they apparently cost around $2500 each and are the biggest assets for the guy. Mike was your regular guy that would make sure his guests has good times and was truly enjoying his place in the woods. He has recently lost his beloved wife so he was probably still recovering from that and having the boys in overseas didnt help the situation. We have met a cool local guy by a recommendation that we got from a random guy we met at London. gotta love the connections in life. When I called to book a place he was totally surprised. He thought i was calling from States and he said how did you hear about our place :) It is really in the middle of nowhere though

Rest of the day we checked out the local museum of Ladysmith which represented some pieces of information on the Anglo-Boer war of 1900 where Dutch and British fought in this land. Siege of Ladysmith was the historical name that lasted 2 years and Boers were the winners.

We headed back towards Joburg for a quick 3.5 hour drive and reached back our Ball n Kikca kick ass hostel. Good thing it was still there because we know that they are tearing the place down after the worldcup. We were gone for 6 days so it was good to see that our room was still there. Ended the night in Sandton with a quick dinner and cigar. Nothing special even though it was the Friday night. Tomorrow night we ll go out and party. Joburg was full of orange and red colors though I must say. it was beatiful to see the malls in these colors. We did shop around and got some cool scarves and vuvuzelas.Still banking on that prices will go down on Monday :)

Oh man, time is passing by Day 14 has been completed. We have got 4 more nights in SA. We will make the most of it for sure!! See you next time with the highlights from the FINALE!!

Day 12 7/7 - Nail biting semi final game - Germany vs. Spain

So the game day has arrived for us once again. This is our fifth game in South Africa and we have seen 5 different stadiums in 4 different cities if we include Durbans amazing stadium. Unfortunately I am not being able to upload any pics on the blog cuz all the amazing pics are on my camera and I cant find a computer to get them online. Bear with me another week and all the madness that you have witnessed on this blog will be much more colorful with the pics from all around the country.

Today we woke up early to get our car from the airport that we needed on our way back to Joburg. All there was available at Avis was the smallest Hyundai, i think they call it Getz or something. Now that we have the mobility we wanted to check out some places around Durban before we had back to downtown. We were told that there is a Fairmont Zimbali Resort that has some amazing views of the beaches. I didnt think it was that amazing and they did not let us have breakfast there even though we were willing to pay the price for the good view. Thomas was getting into the mood for the game as I started seeing him getting nervous a bit. And it was only noon and we had 8 hours to the game. He heard that his German team was staying not that far from the stadium so he went there to check them out and got couple of signatures from Friederich, the defender, and Oliver Bierhoff. Now we were ready for the game with scarves, flags, hats and everything. I decided to be neutral on this game as much as I wanted the Germans to complete the amazing run that they had so far, my heart also wanted Espana given that 7 of my Barca boys are in the starting 11.

We had a long walk from our hostel to the stadium about 4km (now I am back in the metrics term :)) stopped at a place to have a nice dinner. As we got into the stadium all that talk about the rain and cold weather was nonsense and it was a beautiful night in Durban and everyone was ready for the game. We heard that some people could not get into the stadium even though they had tickets because their plane never landed to Durban airport due to the congestion. FIFA or the airport should compensate these folks somehow. It must really hurt to miss the semi final game, eh...

The stadium was mostly filled with Spanish supporters even though good portion of them were locals cheering for red and yellow. The entire game was dominated by Spanish possesion but when it came to goal scoring chances they couldnt produce too many. I was shocked with Germanyès sit-back mentality against Spain. I really expected much better performance from Germany especially after outplaying Argentina infront of my eyes. The game ended 1-0 with goal from a corner kick but Spain have clearly indicated that they wanted to win this game more than Germans. Hats off to the Germans. They have beaten two powerhouses back to back with a squad that could play for under 21 German team. It was an interesting game with many beautiful passes from Spanish players making the football an artwork. Seeing Thomas speechless after the game with a beer in his hand was a scene to remember. Either way it would have been a great final for the World Cup playing against Dutch. Germany would be much more stronger in Brazil 2014 and maybe can steal the cup from the host team.

As we headed back towards downtown we wanted to stop by a local bar that mostly locals hung out. Thomas wanted to drink to forget about the loss, and I was pacing myself just to chill out. I was tired and we needed to wake up early to head towards the mountain tomorrow. Overall experience in the local bar was an interesting one to share. Guys were trying to cheer up Thomas from his loss, and other guys were trying to deal coke at the same time. Our table got alot of attention all of a sudden. The owners were an Indian couple and they realized the situation and send couple of guys to chill out the talkers :) Most of them were innocent they were excited. I learned how to communicate with some of the non english speakers. I say -shap shap- which practically means everything is cool.

It was a shap shap night for Spain and I will support them in the final against Dutchies even though I like the way Holland play as well. May the best team win! Now we go back to rest days...

Day 9-11 7/4-7/6 Durban - Warmest Place to Be

Leaving Cape Town at 4 in the morning felt like we were smuggling blow out of this beautiful city but there were absolutely no flights available to Durban in other days leading to the semi final game. So we were in Durban with the emotions from yesterday's crazy game: One of us jubilant the other one no so much.

We planned to stay at Banana backpackers hostel and checked in there early enough to get catch up on our sleep. At this point I think our bodies gave up on fighting with few hours of sleep, drinking and weather change and decided that since the world cup is having two rest days our bodies needs some rest as well. We were both coughing and sneezing back to back at one point which is part of the game if you travel around crazy.

Let's talk about Durban a little bit... The city is predominantly inhibited by Indians who came here back in the times to work at the sugar cane factories from their motherland. They were smart to choose a beachfront site to work. The entire city is surrounded by beaches and they ran out names to name each of their beaches. We stayed at North Beach making me feel close to home to the SF version of this neighborhood. Really the city had a few pockets of interesting/cool hang out locations like the Florida Street which has the big chain Cubana that I saw on Cape Town and couple other local eateries. Rest of Durban had a Wilson's wharf that had some OK ish restaurant by the harbor and this place called Joe Cool's by the beach that almst every 20-30 somethings hung out at night.

Maybe our assumptions were crazy that the city would have been filled with German and Spanish fans starting on Sunday but even the local shop owners admitted that the city was empty. One of the owners was being brutally honest by saying that Durban had pretty much nothing to offer as an entertainment besides the Sun Coast Casino that is by the beach, and that the locals would do getaways to Cape Town for fun. That proves my point that this city is great to lay down on the beach on South Africa's winter and get some Vitamin D in your system and let your soul relax if you have been running around like crazy. Our sick first couple of days had lost of soaking up the sun and taking good lengthy naps on the sand. I played beach soccer with the local boys remembering that a few past lives ago I used to play with Brazilian boys in Santa Cruz and learned some tricks about moving the ball on the sand. Spending rest of the day at the beachfront on our second rest day, at night we figure we will kick it up a notch a bit but our best bet was Joe Cool's and the place was a dead town. Either FIFA has cancelled the semi final game and we had no clue or someone was joking with us. Two days prior to semi final game of the World Cup semis the city was empty. Durban is the 3rd largest city in South Africa by the way.

Next day, day 11, was the first semi final game facing Holland vs Uruguay. We both felt like we have been around Durban to say that we've been everywhere. The only place that we haven't checked out was the Sun Coast Casino. The weather has been beatiful so we walked by the beachfront to get to the casino. On our way we were interviewed by the Brazilian TV SBC and the French radio station RTL. Speaking about interviews I guess we have become popular on German ZDF Station and they ran our interview that Thomas and I gave on the Cape Town fan fest. I had my Argentina jersey on Thomas had his German one and I still don't remember what I said in the interview. Whats funny is we found the video online but I still haven't heard the audio since the internet cafes here are blocking the streaming here. By the way we really have the true African rates at the this internet cafe right by our hostel. its 5RND an hour pretty much like $0.70. I thought I'll share the Consumer Price Index numbers for the econ gurus out there :)

What was fun about the casino is that after we lost our money on blackjack as we were leaving I asked Thomas to give me 10 minutes to play 3 hands of Roulette. I only play 2 hands in Red and 1 hand in black, and in that order. I never take the money out of the table. Red Red Black. Thomas gets the encouragement from me and puts 20RND on his fav #23. 23 is a red number and believe it or not it did come. My German buddy pocketing 700RND and making up his loss and going up on profit. I on the other hand hit my red color and got to survive on more hand. Started with 100RND and now its 200 on the table. Next turn Thomas leaves his 20 RND on 23 again and I do the red again. Beleive it or not the evil white ball jumped out of the 23 and landed to the number next to it.Wow that was quite exciting. He missed his second 700RND and I got the black so I lost as well. It was a fun 10 minutes that we spent there for sure.

Now it is the game time! The fan fest in Durban was amazing I must say.As much as I was not overly impressed by the city after seeing the beatiful Cape Town, Durban Fan Fest was giant entertainment center. The game watching area was on the beach itself where everyone was on the sand dancing and cheering. You can get your local food, typical American junk food, and drinks in the Fan Fest for a reasonbale price. This Fan fest idea was first introduced by Germans in the 2006 WC but it was not officially organized by FIFA. In South Africa they truly made a business out of this having official sponsors as Coca Cola, Budweiser and the local cell phone carrier MTN. I must say MTN was milking every penny that they have spent on their sponsorship money. THey have this tagline 'Ayoba' that started annoying me abit as every single DJ, host seems to be paid to make the crowd cheer Ayoba. First I thought it is cool it must be an African thing but it is quite the marketing promo. Coming from a capitalist country I was amazed by the amount of ads that involved Ayoba. They had the Ayoba vuvuzela song if you believe it :)

Anyways, now we were at the beach couple hours befort the kick off time and was told that this famous singer will show up in half hour. His name is K'Naan(hope I prounced it correctly)who is a hip hop/reggee guy that has roots from Somalia but grew up in Canada. Seems some Canadian flags in the World Cup did surprise me in the beginning but later on I had the 'Aha' moment. K'Naan had cool songs actually and his closing one was the "Waving the Flag" songs that he got famous with. I have videotaped the entire song on my camera where everyone had their flag going from one side to another.There were most likely over 20,000 people at the fan fest and everyone was having a blast. It was dominated by the orange color and you saw the blue-sky of the Uruguayan flag in couple of pockets. South Africa had many Dutch decended people living and supporting the L'oranje.

The game itself was quite entertaing I must say. The two captains scored absolutely amazing goals in the first half. Diego Forlan becoming the hero for all the underdog supporters. And on the second half it could have gone either way, really. When you thought Uruguay would score, Schneider popped-up and had the go ahead goal. Two minutes later, left-footed magician Arjen Robben scored his possibly the only goal that he would score with his head. Whats up with these short Dutchies scoring amazing goals with their heads. I thought one-touch 'Total' football was played with feet :) Amazing 2 minute show got the Netherlands up 3-1 and Uruguay were able to pull one back on the stoppage time.

We now know the one finalist and tomorrow's insanely important second game will determine the other finalist. If it is Germany vs Holland which it looks like it will happen, the tension between these two teams will make it an amazing showdown. Before I write anything about that game lets not forget about Espana. They were one of the big favorites before the tournament. They have not showed that yet in this World Cup. Having 7 out of the 11 players from Barcelona team makes me want to support Spain but my logic says Germany for sure after seeing them against my Argentinos. One Game Changes Everything. Weather report says rain during the game time. Durban got unlucky with marketing this time. They have 'Warmest place to be' signs all over the city. On the most important game it is cold and rainy. One thing is for sure... it will be the warmest place to be for one of these teams :)

Day 6-8 July 1-3 - Cape Town Experience

We left to the Joburg Airport early in the morning on Thu to catch our flight to Cape Town. This changed plan kinda worked for us actually because now we had to connect from CT to Durban by a direct flight and we will catch our semi final game there. Looking for cheap tix to Durban was very tough but we somehow managed to find one for a 6am departure on Sunday morning. We'd take anything at this point really!

Landing to the Cape Town International with bunch of Argentines and Germans on thr plane was great. We quickly checked in to our hostel, which I must say was the best hostel I have stayed in so far. Very comfortable and right in the center of the city. Capetown Backpackers is their name if you ever visit here. Walking down the famous Long St that is full of cafes bars and restaurants we stopped by a portuguese restaurant with a balcony overseeing the Long St. Having my first ostrich burger I felt quite in the mood for having a spontaneous couple of days.

Cape Town is a beautiful city that reminded me of San Francisco and Istanbul at the same time. 7 million people from all around the world live here and their winters are pretty nice with mostly 60s and 70s. City was ready for the World Cup with so much enthusiasm from the locals that we were able to feel after a quick conversation. Joburg and Cape Town were two very different cities where joburg felt like LA and CT like SF.

After walking around, doing some street shopping, and enjoying the beautiful winter sun we ended up at the Waterfront area - the shopping and fancy food part of the town with lots of tourists. As much as I like to learn what the locals do and avoid the tourist spots Waterfront was cool actually. We had our beer pit stop at Paulaner Brauhaus making Thomas proud of his Bavarian roots. They had a great beer garden that we hung out.

Couple of days to the game day city already had the vibe and the excitement. Walking back to the Long street we started with our first recommended place by our Aussie friends from Joburg, the Dubliner. Two bold headed Irish guys run this cool bar that plays all your favourite rock songs. Live band just started to play as we made our way in with a song that resonated to both of us for the big game -Don't Stop Believing. It was great that we met couple of nice local girls at the bar that we were able to chat and dance. Thomas and I were both in the mood to party for sure and Dubliner was our spot. Waving our Argentina and Germany scarfs on the air we cheered the crowd as well.

Day 7 had couple of big items on tap. We had to go to Table Mountain in the morning and catch the afternoon game Brazil vs Holland at the FIFA Fan Fest. I must say Table Mountain has amazed me and should be one of the 7 Wonders of the World as there is a voting procedure for it every year. We were lucky to be here and enjoyed the beautiful picturesque view of the Western Cape. The famous site where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, Robben Island, was misteriously hanging out by itself in the middle of the bay. Top of the Table Mountain had exquisite views and thankfully weather was cooperating with us. After spending couple of hours around the hiking area and taking hundreds of pictures we were ready take our sightseers hats off and put back the World Cup ones.

Holland vs Brazil game was about to start and we watched the game at the fan fest with a big Dutch crowd. I was surprised with not seeing too many Brazilians. The game was a nail biter and started with Brazil scoring on the 5th minute by Robinho. Durchies saved the goals to the second half and the shortest man on the field, Sneijder, scored the winning goal with a header. Haven't seen Brazilian players this frustrated before. So the big favourite Brazil was knocked out and the Dutch team who had the chance to redeem themseves from previous unsuccessful attempts now has a huge chance to be in the Final.

Partying with the Dutch crowd we have met the vice consulate of Holland there. She was great fun and took us to the Dutch bar called Tommy's. I was watching the Uruguay Ghana game with all the Dutch songs on the background. Huge party atmosphere and almost everyone wanted Ghana to win to have them as the first African country to qualify for the semi final of the World Cup. The game was an intensely close one and the incident that happened on the last seconds of the extra time will not be forgotten by any soccer fans. Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan whom scored two penalties before in this tournament has hit the post on the most important one. I'm not sure if it is Africa's destiny to always have drama in their quest to achieve something better. The script couldn't have been written any better. Game ends on 1-1 result and goes to penalty shootout. Gyan this time scores and tells the world I should have done this 3 mins ago. But Uruguayans were the ones
advanced to semis thanks to the great two saves of their goalie.

As I was watching the game outside of Tommy's there were couple of guys watching it with me and with one of them I started to have an interesting conversation. His name is Cristofa and he Is from Angola. Cape Town attracts lots of immigrants from other African countries. My new friend Cristofa told me some interesting and sad things about his experience in this city. I always wondered how much is the rent for example that they would pay at townships and like and the monthly rent is about 1000RND ($130) if you stay by yourself at a one bedroom place. Most of the single folks would share it for 500RND. Also he told me that his stuff got stolen from his house. More importantly he said there was a big tension amongst black Africans and that the burglary was planned. He believes that South Africans don't want any other African to reside in their country because that just creates more hardship for finding jobs for local South Africans. When I asked about the
relationship between the whites and the foreign blacks he said that they get along somewhat better than the local blacks but he said the country was - in his own words - 'broken'. Meeting Cristofa gave me perspective on life in general and the importance of the willingness to survive. He said he lost his father a few weeks ago and couldn't go to the funeral because he needed to work and send money to his mom to take care of the funeral expenses. Very down to earth straighforward and smart guy. I enjoyed watching the game with him as well. Now we can't be facebook friends with him maybe but I got his number and address so I would use the traditional way to keep in touch.

After the fame we went to our hot spot Dubliner's again for a night of pre-game celebrations. Argentinos were making me feel like we are in Buenos Aires. The streets of cape town were full of chanting at midnight. I started feeling the excitement. I met up with the two local girls Amy and Jaqueline that I met last night. At one point we were a group of six 3 South African girls and 3 American guys ( I still don't have a green card ok ok) and drove around te city to find a cool dancing spot but everywhere was fully loaded. We ended having drinks at my hostel and having random conversation. I asked the girls their view on U.S.A and they all have been to the states and find the Americans abit ignorant, if it surprised anyone. Overall they enjoyed their experiences. Having two Americans in the circle I felt like I should have them speak and defend or agree on what the girls said. We had a fun time all around and it is always great to hang out with locals
and learn from them. What did I learn specifically? You will love this... They call the traffic lights 'robot'. Don't ask me why because nobody knows. Gotta love it though:) at 5am the group left the hostel and I realized in 5 hours I would wake up to the biggest game that I ever watched live in a stadium.

Day 8 started with the lovely sound of my alarm. Less than a 5hr sleep should last me the day technically but operating on 4-5 hours of sleep last couple of night started to get me. It is a game day right! Thomas started to feel nervous all of a sudden walking up and down the room. We got all ready and packed as we are leaving 4am tomorrow to Durban. I sent my postcards from cape town, had our breakfasts, and took care of couple other errands.

As we started walking you could feel the vibe and the tension already on the streets. Last I saw my Argentinos were 4 in the morning when they were holding a big casket with Brazilian flag on it and crying for the Brasileros. Having lost a big powerhouse like Brasil today's game became more important. All the pre game events, 3km fan walk, beer pit stops got us even more inthe mood for the game. Match starts at 4pm and we were at thr stadium around 2.30pm. Once we got to our seats the players started to warm up. Our seats were behind the goal and that actually made you read the game even better. Thomas and I started to piss each other off a little to truly feel the tension. Everythig changed in the 5th minute. Argentine goalie made a mistake and allowed a free kick to get all the way in. Game almost started one nill.

The rest I won't write too much about it. It was an exciting game end I thought Argrntina could easily score on the second half but it was only Germans hitting the back of the net. Celebrations and sadness could be captured on the same photo of the camera. Argentina never had a blown away loss like this since 1954 when they lost to Czechoslavakia 6-1 but again that was a group stage fame this was quarter finals. Germans, lead by Sweinsteiger, dominated the game and didn't leave any space for Messi and Co. Messi did not show up at the national level again. I think Maradona's coaching abilities should be discussed after this game. There wee no tactics that I could see. Losing to the same team in two WCs in a row hurts me but I gotta give it to the Germans. They outplayed Argrntina and made lots of new independent fans from other countries. Germany always won ugly games and championships in the past but since 2006 things got changed a bit. They are playing
attacking football relentlessly. They should be the favorite again Spain the way Spanish played tonight. Paraguay should have scored the penalty to take the lead. Spain and luck in the world cups are going hand in hand which never happened historically. Good for Espana they need something to cheer up as well.

Quarters finals: check
Cape Town: check
One week in South Africa that feels like a month: check

Let me get couple hours of sleep before I wake up to go to the airport to Durban. Two rest days ahead oh believe me we will rest at the beach...

Day 5 6/30 - Building up to the big game

You never know how quickly things can change if you set your mind on to something. We had two quarter final tickets that were going to be in Joburg and we sold the Paraguay Spain one for a decent price at the stadium in Pretoria. On this rest day on Wednesday we had two goals. Sell the not so exciting Ghana vs Uruguay game as well and fly to Cape Town for the game of our lives.

Just a bit of background.. Thomas has never watched his German team live at the stadium. We both have not made any plans/research on Cape Town prior but booked our flights and backpacker hostel at Cape for three nights. Now all we need are the tickets to the game:)

FIFA has a ticket exchange office in Sandton that we tried but obviously this game was sold out the moment it was known as Ger vs Arg. We tried our chances with the scalpers on the street and the going rate is around $400 each which quite crazy. After true negotioation skill from both of us We were able to buy the tickets from a guy that had extra tickets for $250. After selling the the other tickets we were even up on the trade! Wow so we are really going to the Green Point Sradium in Cape Town!!

We did a quick tour of the fancy Sandton area checking out Nelson Mandela Square and getting a quick bite to eat. All the nice pics that I took on my camera needs to wait for uploading and can't do it remotely. So for you anxious picture requesters you need to be content with iPhone versions. I try to take daytime pics with my phone and upload to my facebook. I can't seem to do it to the blog directly.

Also I have to talk about my experience on driving on the right side of the car as South Africans do it here. Your sense of the center of the car is jaded by far really. The car skidding to the right on a freeway if you do not pay constant attention. Unbelievable! And the famous turning on to the incoming traffic has been avoided couple of times. Driving in Joburg has been really fun and easy other than that. Freeways are pretty nicely built.

Taking advantage of having a car we wanted to check couple of places that we had on our itenirary. Monte Casino and Melrose Arch. Monte is the small Joburg version of Paris Paris in Las Vegas. All the Vegas rules apply on gambling. tried my chance on blackjack and poker. As always you win some and lose some but in the end house always wins. Counting that as our entertainment time we headed to complete the intenirary at Melrose Arch. This beautiful Santana Row style complex is the chic part of Joburg and you see the number of white peep increase all of a sudden. We went to a nice restaurnt called Moyo which had local African food. Running into the USA old captain Alexi Lalas with his buddies was a fun addition. Towards the end of the dinner we were enjoying our moment with some cigars and vino and we were joined by a local 20 something year olds who were having bday party.

I must say that I truly find South African people very friendly regardless of race gender background whatever.. Everyone I have met so far wanted to help us and gave suggestions on cool places and cheaper places to hang out. Thomas an I have the same mindstate as experiencing a culture on it's entirerty. We have met some rich kids like these and also were in the poorer ones from downtown who were probably making $2-4.a day. Not being scared of them has allowed us to truly see the rainbow culture. I'll save my overall comments on the culture of South Africa on post-Apartheid era but wanted share my experience so far in less than a week.

Oh yeah we still have 2 more weeks here eh... Feels like it's been a month already. When did I meet this Spanish looking Swaziland native chick again? :)

Cape Town here we come!