June 10th - 13th, Johannesburg, Hanging out at the mall and fanpark!

Our initial impression of Johannesburg was not great. In all honesty we were ready to leave the moment we arrived. If it wasn't for the world cup I'm sure we would have left the next day. However staying true to our love of football we decided to persevere with Johannesburg and Rosebank lodge - and in the end we were glad that we did. I remember reading before we flew out of the UK a quote about traveling saying that every situation is either a good experience or a good story and the second is probably true of our time in Johannesburg. The fact that the hostel was so poor in the beginning meant that it wasn't hard to find conversational topics with the football fans and travelers that we met whilst in the hostel.

We spent the majority of our time in Johannesburg staying around the rich suburb of Rosebank, partly because our transport options were limited, partly because it was despite the hostel a very nice area. The mall was a short walk away from where we were staying so most of our time was spent browsing through the shops, food places, internet cafes and of course bars at the complex. Our second day in Rosebank we departed from the traveler's mentality and treated ourselves to dinner at a seafood restaurant in the mall.

This coupled with the fact that we had returned to the airport (via taxi not the rip-off service!) and we were able to obtain our world cup tickets lifted our spirits and we were ready to get stuck into the World Cup spirit.

Our first attempt at getting in the spirit was whilst watching the opening concert at the hostel on a TV taken from reception with pretty appalling signal, with a few bottles of large beer. The concert we all agreed was pretty average (I'm sure it was amazing live) and we spent the majority of time whilst the concert was on talking with two American girls named Andrea and Brittany. They were quite amusing to talk to, although the majority of conversation revolved around the differences between black and white people (they were the former). Needless to say as a result Silver got the piss taken as he didn't conform to the stereotypical behaviour the two ladies wanted him to adhear to. Not that he cared. In particular they complained about his hair as his family had in Zambia. The next day we ran into our Mexican roommates who had subsequently moved out of our room. Paul informed us that he had his camera stolen and his cousin had the battery from his video camera stolen at the concert. Although they really enjoyed themselves they warned us to be careful as their pockets had been constantly felt up whilst they were in such close proximity with chancers the crowd.

For the opening game we decided to try and find the fan park and we failed miserably. Instead we opted to go to instead to a sports bar named Bulldogs at the mall which was recommended by an Englishman named Mike who was at our hostel. The bar was really nice and had typical sports memorabilia that you would expect. We turned up half an hour before South Africa and Mexico were due to kick off and we were told unless we had a reservation (for a bloody bar!!!) we couldn't get in. So we left and walked a few bars over where there was a café/bar named Vanilla which had a screen facing out into the plaza where there were numerous South African fans sat outside ready for kickoff. As kickoff approached more and more people off the streets started to gather round the screen, to the point where the staff and owners of neighboring bar called Bangkok which was not showing the football joined the crowd of people meaning that in the end we had a good atmosphere. Now in light of the past 48 hours events we were less than fond of South African and due to our shared experiences rather fond of Mexico so going into kick off we were cheering on Mexico (they have since become our second team!). However when the game got underway and the fans at the bar started blowing the vuvuzelas it became increasingly difficult to cheer against the home nation especially as there was such hope for the team and the team was so useless. In the end we were cheering for football and celebrated equally when both the goals went in for both sides. In the end a 1-1 draw was probably the best result for us.

For England's opener we decided that we were DEFINITELY going to find the fan park so proceeded to wake up early and somehow find the place. We asked taxi drivers, Rosebank representatives, and even police officers and none of the locals we asked seemed to have a clue. It was by chance when walked down the street that we met a local couple who were immensely helpful. We were all in our England shirts when we walked past the couple named Wayne and Venetia and Wayne when walked past said "aren't you in the wrong place!" Silver spun his head and in passing brushed off the comment and said no we're not and continued on walking. I decided on a whim to follow up Silvers disregarding remark by asking if they knew where the fan park was and it turned out they did. They attempted to direct us but upon realizing our Johannesburg geography was less than adequate and helped by the fact we didn't even have a map Venetia volunteered her more reluctant partner to drive us to the fan park after they had their breakfast. We took them up on the offer and Wayne true to their word gave us a lift to the fan park on the way giving us a 101 on Johannesburg geography, and gave us his mobile and office number to call if we ever needed any help getting around - very cool!

The fan park we went to was situated in Innes-free Park, Sandton. It had a capacity of 40,000 and for the opener it was apparently full to the brim so much so that they ran out of beer. When we arrived it was pretty empty courtesy of a Monday afternoon game between Greece and South Korea so we were able to find a good spot to sit for the remaining two games. The fan park itself was well organized with memorabilia, vuvuzelas, braiis, and beer tents. At no point on either of our visits to the fan parks did we experiences big queues, or poor facilities we were left very impressed. After the first match we became surrounded by Nigerian fans for the following Argentina game. The Nigerians were completely over dramatic throwing themselves around and screaming any time the ball got remotely near on of the net. At half Scott and I became local celebrities towards the now drunken Nigerians as we were in our England shirts. As a result we had to pose for numerous photos with a guy who had a portable photo printer attached to his camera!

The reason we were at the fan park though was for the man event of USA vs England. The two hour break inbetween the game was filled by a hip hop concert with TKZ (our new favourite hip hop act headlining. The park was packed for the England game with a small helping of fans from both nations but the majority of locals were cheering for England. We stood and two of us sang the national anthem before sitting to watch the game. Instantly we were back on our feet with Gerrard netting after 4 minutes. After the goal we were in the party spirit and we thought we would go on to win the game. Throughout the4 game we never looked like conceding and we were starting to feel the optimism build. Of course it all came crashing down when Rob Green fumbled the ball in the net. The crowd let out a gasp of despair and by half time all the English fans looked like we were losing the game not drawing and in truth by the end of the game that is how it felt. We played well but no result - fine as long as we play well against Algeria and Slovenia hmmm.

Disappointed at the nature of the draw we now had the task of attempting to find our way home. Wayne had told us the route to walk home and estimated the walk at 3km which he thought would take around 45 minutes. With no taxis in sight and the local time being 10.30pm we set off to walk back to Rosebank on the predesribed route we were told. We arrived back at the hostel 2 hours later!!! We had walked through the city of Johannesburg at night getting in at midnight - not advised in any travel book. Now if I'd have told my mum before she would have killed me no doubt and in truth none of us felt comfortable walking home. To the city's credit thought we hardly encountered anyone on our walk home and we had no trouble whatsoever. I think the areas we moved through we mostly up market suburbs similar to Rosebank, and due to the increased security presence the walk was actually not too bad although long. On our walk we encountered a scene with a group of ladies at a bus stop. In my head I was wandering what buses ran that late at night as it was approaching midnight. All of a sudden I saw a car I presumed was a taxi being flagged down but only one of the ladies at the stop got in which I found bizarre. Bizarre that is until the other two alerted me to the fact that the ladies were in fact prostitutes and the world made sense again in my naïve little head - I guess that's what you get for growing up in a village. On our way hope we must have encountered a dozen or so ladies of the night and damn they must have been cold! We eventually got in and slumped off to bed deeply into the spirit of the world cup following England's good performance. Hopefully there would be much much more to come.

DC, Scott, Silver x