Quick review: we arrived Friday evening at Tabo airport in Joburg. The entire portion of the airport we saw was very nice and new since our last visit. The airport has also been renamed at least twice since 2000. Friday evening we got settled in at Marty and Peter's house. Gywen is staying in the guest room, and we're staying in the cottage. The houses are a lot cooler than most houses in the U.S., so we're making good use of the space heaters and electric blankets.
Saturday we went to Sandton to catch a bus to the match in Rustengerg, although the stadium is actually in Phokeng. The bus ride took a couple of hours. Rustenburg is not particularly far away, but there are no direct roads there from here. Once we got beyond the sprawl of the Johannesburg area, it was a fairly pretty drive. We passed through some hills that reminded us of southwest Texas, and went around a fairly sizeable lake. The Royal Bafokeng stadium was a large, nice facility in the middle of nowhere. There are no nearby structures, and just across the road are a few modest homes made mostly of tin. During the game we were surrounded mostly by Australians, but there were quite a few Ghanaians in the next section over. When Australia scored early in the match, everyone started jumping up and down in celebration, launching their beer straight up out of the bottles. The Ghanaians really had a good time, with lots of dancing and flag-waving. We saw a lot of interesting costumes, hats, and painted people, which made the people-watching a lot of fun.
The vuvuzela playing was persistent but not too annoying, particularly since we were wearing earplugs. (That made conversation more challenging, though!) I didn't expect to see so many different kinds of vuvuzelas. Our horns, which we brought from home, are longer than the typical South African vuvuzela, meaning they have a lower fundamental pitch. Some of the South African vuvuzelas are painted, but many people have a fabric cover over them with their country's flag, or the colors of a favorite team. These horns can also be carried by a strap. Another type of vuvuzela conveniently curves upward so it naturally blows over the heads of the people in front of you. We also saw twisted horns, in the shape of a kudu's horn, which Peter says is a "kuduzela." We've seen a few vuvuzelas that have been lengthened to about 4-5 feet, and some outfitted with an air pump so you can annoyingly and repeatedly honk the horn with absolutely no talent, or strain on your lips. There are also a number of smaller horns and noisemakers. One thing that I have learned is that, apparently, the object is to blow the horn as loud as you possibly can.
Yesterday (Sunday) we had a brunch at home before heading out for a driving tour around parts of Johannesburg. We drove around the park in Emmarentia and past the Emmarentia Dam and Johannesburg Botanical Garden. We drove past the Melville Koppies into Melville and past the house where Marty and Peter used to live. We then drove toward the Central Business District and took the highway toward Soweto where, form a couple points on the road, we got some great views of Soccer City Stadium. The color of the stadium practically blends in with the nearby mounds of waste from the gold mines, which are actually much larger than the stadium itself. (Much of the waste is being re-processed, so the mounds, which have been a major feature of the landscape in the area, are beginning to disappear.) We then looped back past the Kenwood offices and warehouse, where Marty works several days a month, before heading to the Central Business District and an area being redeveloped called Newtown. We drove over the attractive Nelson Mandela suspension bridge and into an area called Houghton. This area has many impressive homes that were at one time owned by the mine owners. The ridge running through this area, Witwatersrand, forms the dividing line similar to our continental divide. Rainfall to the south of the ridge flows into the Atlantic Ocean, whereas rainfall on the north side flows to the Indian Ocean. We stopped at a great vantage point with a view of Sandton and the other suburbs to the north.
Johannesburg is not an easy city to figure out in a day or two. The city is definitely not organized on a grid; there are a lot of winding streets and a number of hills throughout the city. What throws me the most, though, is the sun. It passes overhead in the north, so I just can't get my sense of direction figured out.
We had a late lunch (chicken on the braai) at home before getting ready for our second match. We put on layers in anticipation of a cool evening, and Barry and I put on face paint. Peter took us to the train station shortly after 5:00, and we got on the train to Soccer City, with approximately 1800 other soccer fans. The Brazilians were loud and rowdy. It was a lot of fun with train cars full of people singing, although it did get pretty warm. We arrived at Soccer City at about 6:30, then followed the crowds out of the station to the security checkpoint. From there, everyone crossed a large footbridge to the stadium, which was a very impressive approach. We could have gotten in a lot quicker, but thousands of people (myself included), had to stop for photo opportunities. We went through a very crowded fan shop before heading into the stadium.
The stadium is beautiful, huge, and fully lit at night (you've seen it on TV...) The pedestrian ramps are inside the curved, orange outer shell. We took the ramp up to our section on the top level. Inside were 84,455 people, most of whom were rooting for Brazil. I joined the minority rooting for C™te d'Ivoire. We got to see both Drogba and Kaka play (red card for Kaka), but the game was not as close as I'd hoped, with Brazil winning 3-1. I had a difficult time focusing on the game, in part because we were far away, but more because of all the excitement in the stands. The vuvuzelas were awesome - at times someone would start blowing a pattern on the horn, and hundreds of other people would join in, causing a loud roaring pulse in the stands. And any time something exciting happened, like a disagreeable call or a corner kick, everyone picked up their horns and made a deafening sound.
The only low point to the evening came just after Brazil's third goal, when a couple of rowdy Brazilians must have pushed the man behind us, who fell over the chairs onto Barry and Gywen, thus knocking Barry over the chairs into the row in front of us. They were a bit banged up and sore, but they will be ok.
Now we're resting and blogging while we watch soccer and wait for dinner. Marty is preparing bobotie and it smells delicious! It's 5:30 and almost dark out now. It's the shortest day of the year - first day of winter.
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