Hey Africa! We're here!!!

Well, the last 36 hours have been a bit surreal. I took a train from Harrogate to London on Thursday morning, and met Ryan at the Kings Cross train station. We had 5 hours to kill before having to head to Heathrow, so we found a nice pub and began drinking. Yes, I know it was morning, but to be fair, we were on vacation, and we had a 12 hour flight to look forward to. (Queue the Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated) The flights were actually pretty good. I was expecting to be ducking drunk English for 12 hours but instead found my plane to be invaded by drunk Mexicans. Wow, the Tri-Colores were out in force, sombreros and all. The flight wasn't full, though and I had an empty seat next to me which allowed me to sleep which never happens. When I got to Johannesburg, I was greeted by something that I soon realized would become part of my daily life here, and would haunt my nightmares for the rest of my days: The vuvuzela. You know that thing you hear in the background of the games on television? Yeah, that thing sounds like a swarm of locusts? They are everywhere, and there doesn't have to be a game going for everyone to blow them...constantly. It is a constant backdrop to life in South Africa right now.
I met up with Clint, German, and Ryan and we picked up our rental car. I had a definite advantage here. Of the 7 of us, I am the one used to driving on the left hand side of the road (and the right hand side of car). Therefore, with the help of our trusty GPS our 30 minute drive to Pretoria was uneventful. We arrived at the About Guest Lodge, and the group was complete. Curtis, Jim, and Corey had gotten here the day before so they had the lay of the land, and we were on our way to pick up our game tickets.
Quick travel plug. If anyone is ever thinking about coming to South Africa (which you all should because this country is awesome), the About Guest Lodge, is frigging awesome. Ian and Letty, the owners bend over backwards to make sure everything is terrific, and the accommodations are top notch. I highly recommend it.
Sooooo, after a trip to get our tickets, we decide to watch the opening match in the Guest Lodge. Great start to the Cup. We are all pulling for South Africa to do well. Anyone who has been to a World Cup knows that the entire atmosphere is better when the host country is doing well. For the second game, we decide to take a trek down to a popular square where they are having a "Fan Fest". The walk was interesting, as we were already a few sheets to the wind, and it was our first time out in the "Big Bad Dangerous" world. This proved to be most amusing as a drunken Curtis was sure that the map was printed upside down..he even stopped to ask some local ladies about this topic. They merrily assured him that the map was definitely upside down....giggling the whole time.
We found the square and it was off the hook. It was a huge courtyard surrounded by bars and nightclubs. It was wall to wall with reveling football fans, and had a giant screen set up at one end to view the matches. Very nice. We found ourselves in an upstairs bar/nightclub called the Drop Zone, and things proceed to digress rapidly. Honestly, a round of beers for 7 guys was $18. Right then we knew we were in trouble. All good fun though, and the worst it got was Curtis taking videos of a bunch of thirty somethings dancing around to dance remixes of old 80's songs. I Curtis is going to blackmail us all with those videos and retire to the Bahamas.
Anyway, This morning we got up and had a fantastic breakfast prepared by the Guest Lodge...well most of us. Ryan decided he was going to skip breakfast and catch up on his beauty sleep. I think that is what he grunted at me as I left the room. After breakfast half our group decided to head back for a post meal nap. I mean, they had been up for nearly and hour at that point.
German and I are arranging for a transit bus to take us to Rustenburg this afternoon for the biggest game in recent US history...England. I will let you know how it goes. As for now, I am going to try and go run....if anyone finds internal organs on the road, they would belong to me and I would appreciate getting them back.

I'll see you after the game tonight