June 14th....still catching up

Monday was a bummer. We were all geared up to head down to Johannesburg and Soccer City to see if we could "acquire" tickets to the Holland v Denmark match. What we learned was that Soccer City was in BFSA and that traffic in Joburg is insane. We ended up getting to the FIFA Park and Ride, only to find out that you needed to purchase tickets online and pick them up at some other location (after many, many rereadings of the official FIFA Fan Guide, there is no mention of this). By this point the match has already kicked off, and we are still a minimum of 30 minutes from the stadium. We decide to cut our losses and head back to the FanFest in Pretoria to watch it on the big screen. After making our way back we find that the FanFest scene in South Africa is much different than the ones in Germany. The place was empty. Maybe 200 other folks in the Centurion Cricket Ground. I guess this is a result of so many non-African deciding not to make the trip. In Germany, there were millions of folks that made the trip with or without tickets and it led to a festive party all the time. Not so much here, and it is a pity. We took in the warm day, cold beer, and non-vuvuzela vibe, and relaxed while watching the next two matches. Jim, German, Clint, and Curtis even participated in a mini 4x4 tournament, only to be bested by a group of Argentines and some suspect goalkeeping.
The rest of the day was pretty mellow, because the next day were were going on a Safari/game drive. Whooo hooo