Amsterdam to Johannesburg

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Long flight...

Our flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg was 11.5 hours long, so we had a lot of time to watch movies and relax. The KLM service is excellent, the food delicious, and they bring you drinks every now and then which is really nice. The staff is very friendly and they don’t mind all the people getting up and walking around during the long flight.
We landed at O.R. Tambo International airport a little earlier than expected, around 9:15pm, grabbed our stuff and went straight to customs. At customs, the agent told us that Brazil was beating Ivory Coast 1-0 at half-time, and that we should be able to catch the end of the match on TV. I was actually hoping to catch a view of the stadium from the airplane as we came in since they were playing at the Soccer City stadium here in Johannesburg, but we were sitting on the wrong side of the plane. 😊

We quickly found our pick-up person and were shuttled to our hostel, which is actually a lady’s house not too far from the airport. From what I can tell, they did some revamping and built 3 or 4 rooms, got some new bunk-beds, built a couple of bathrooms, and they had themselves a hostel. We like it, looks brand new and the people are very friendly. When we got here, the living room had the Brazil game on TV and a room full of Mexicans watching it. We caught the end of the game, saw Kaka get a ridiculous red-card thanks to some faking on behalf the opposing player and Brazil won 3-1. We talked to the Mexicans for a bit about the World Cup in general, about the weather (it was 13 degrees when we landed) and transportation. They had been to a few cities already via plane and car, so it was nice to get that kind of information from fans/spectators like us.

So, with Brazil winning, that puts us in first place with 6 points, Ivory Coast remains with 1 point and Portugal (1 point) and North Korea (0 points) play their game today. Brazil will likely play Portugal in a few days in their last group match knowing a tie guarantees us first place. Because we will follow the winner of group E, we need Brazil to win the group in order for us to have a chance to see them play. The only problem is that Spain might be our opponent in the Round of 16, which might mean we will never see Brazil play the quarter-final game we have tickets for. So I am really hoping that Spain rebounds and wins group H.

We slept really well last night, the little blankets we brought with us worked like wonder. I don’t know if we will be able to roll them up nice and compact like my magician mother did, but we’ll see.
We’re here at the airport now, set up the cell-phone we got from Peter and Laini back in Calgary. Peter and Laini travelled through Africa last year and were kind enough to meet with us a couple of times to share tips, stories, show pictures and lend us adapters and a cell-phone. Thanks again guys for the help. YAY!!!!

Tomorrow morning we will fly to Cape Town, site of our only encounter with the Indominable Lions (Cameroon’s nickname), or should I say the not-so-Indominable Lions, as in the first team eliminated at this World Cup. Hehe Looking forward to seeing Samuel Eto’o play along with Dutch starts Sneijder, van Persie and company. If Holland ties or wins, we follow them the rest of the way, and there has been a lot of talk about the Dutch caravan of fans. This caravan is 140 cars long, travelling around South Africa following the Dutch team. Can you imagine the patience I would need to have in order to travel in that pack? You think I would be able to travel and coordinate with another 139 vehicles? Not a chance. Hehe

But I am looking forward to hanging out with the crazy and always-friendly Dutch crowd.
We’ve been hanging out at the airport Fan Village, where we just met 2 guys, one Mexican from LA and a Chilean from Victoria,BC, and both had some excellent tips about Johannesburg and Cape Town. It seems lots of people hang out at the airport because it has food, internet, shows all the games and is safer than perhaps another part of town. Also, the Johannesburg airport is well connected to other districts and neighbouring Pretoria by the new train system.

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Comments

[Chelsea]

Sounds like you are having a Great time!! Love the Blogs! Keep them coming!!

[Heather]

I loved your post about arriving in Joburgh, and that mascot is too funny! My boyfriend and I spent a couple of months in Brazil last year and fell in love with it, so we too are rooting for the team, and can't wait to watch them kill Portugal! :) Our community blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, etc, to share (like maybe of that house-turned hostel?!?). If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email me at [e-mail]. Continued fun on your travels, and enjoy the World Cup (we really wish we were there)! Heather :)