To Pretoria and Loftus Field, USA versus Algeria

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June 22nd

Story of my trip so far: Losing things. I’ve lost more things than I can count. A few things really meant a lot to me, but a lot of the other things are just small and luxuries, not necessities. Like my pocket knife or my cell phone, I don’t really NEED them but they are nice to have. So when I realized (as I went through airport security) that I left my cell phone at Kieron’s house I kicked myself once. And when the airport baggage security saw that I had left my pocket knives in my carry on, I lost those, and kicked myself twice!

It was almost 2am when I had woken up at the Lanseria Airport, in between Johannesburg and Pretoria. I was tired and a bit grumpy and when I found out that they had no shuttles to either large city, I was a bit annoyed. It seems that apart from me, only four other passengers didn’t have a taxi or friend waiting for them at the airport?? Oh well lucky for me two of the other four were a couple German fans that were headed to Pretoria as well. We shared the taxi fare, a whopping 450 rand, about $60, to take us 60 kilometers away.

I didn’t get to my hostel until after 3am, almost 4am and my nonexistent reservation didn’t help matters much, but the security guard was a nice guy and let me in. I sat by the fire and fell asleep until 7am when I was able to sort out a bed for the next night. The staff were friendly and graciously accepted 350 rand ($50!!!!) for a DORM BED. Granted it included a decent breakfast but it was still extortion when typically they charge 100 rand during non World Cup season!

Okay I’m done complaining now. Anyways the rest of the day wasn’t very interesting, I did meet a girl from Minnesota which was surprising. We went to Hatfield, a district very close to Loftus Field (where the US national team would be playing the next day), and bought face paint and supplies for the game.

The rest of the day I sat around using the internet, getting caught up on my online life, and getting some writing done. Later that night I met a group of five Californian guys and went out to dinner with them, lots of chatter about the upcoming game we all had tickets to. I specifically remember the taxi drive to the Blue Crane Restaurant, the taxi driver telling us before we got into his cab he knew where it was. Then getting completely lost and finally finding out where to go when one of us saw the sign!

Anyways, later on that night we headed back to the hostel and tried getting some sleep with the nerves of the upcoming match in our stomachs, and the stadium where the magic would happen right behind us.

June 23rd

The next morning Pretoria Backpackers was full of Yankees clad in their red, white and blue and ready for the match to start kick off that afternoon. I had a huge breakfast (free with the dorm bed!) and went down the block to meet up with Pete, a Californian that I had met the night before.

At the campsite were a few other Americans from Cali, surfers that had been traveling around southern Africa chasing waves. Paul, Dan, and Ryan were friends with Pete from back home and Trevor showed up as a lone traveler like myself. Before long the six of friends were good friends and enjoying beers at noon while Dan painted our faces for the big game.

An hour or so before kick off we made our way over to the stadium, walking down the fan mile on the way to Loftus Versfeld. I ended up selling my extra two tickets to Paul and Ryan and Trevor his extra to Dan. Everyone was happy to get inside the stadium together but then three of us (Trevor, Dan and I) were told we had to go in another entrance gate. So unfortunately we were split up before the match kicked off but we managed to get in on time and find some great seats in the process. In case you were wondering, the seat numbers on the World Cup tickets are basically useless, noone really sits in the seats they are assigned. We had a blast during the game and were expecting to leave the stadium on a sad note, until Landon Donovan was able to pop up in the box in the 92nd minute to score a goal and put the USA into the last 16 of the World Cup. Joyous moments at the end of the game that I’ll never forget!

After the match is where my memory fades a bit. I went back to the hostel thinking it would be a rendezvous point but noone was really there, at least not right away. After an hour or two drinking around the campsite the group took off. I stayed back to get some rest and even took a short nap before going back out with a couple guys from the hostel. I can’t remember their names, but one guy was an older Czech from Prague. It was nice to talk about the Czech Republic with him, I was able to relive some of my memories from Kutna Hora and pivo varsky! The three of us stumbled back to the hostel later on and awaited another day of football.

Hope you like the photos and post!
Until next time, Pura Vida!!!

-Brendan

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Comments

[Bridget]

helloooooo
Great blog Brendan - love the photos too. Glad you're enjoying SA and happy travels to Lesotho, Swaziland and Moz!