Day 2: Drinking and Driving

Day 2’s legacy will consist of driving, driving, and more driving, which would seem like an uninteresting campaign, but when you’re driving on the left side of the road in a foreign country there is an adventure at every turn. We had four tickets to the Germany vs. Ghana match later in the day, but we still had time to do other fun stuff. Much to Tariq’s chagrin, that fun stuff involved alcohol consumption at the SAB World of Beer! We sampled traditional beer, which isn't carbonated and looks like muddy water, but doesn't taste all that bad. The best part about the tour was that for about $4 we got an awesome 1.5-hour tour and two pints of Castle Beer on the patio overlooking Soweto.

Drinking beers and eating at SAB World of Beer

After taking our time to chill on the patio, get our complementary pints, and grab some grub, the adventure began. We bought a GPS and updated it with the latest maps when we arrived, but the roads that were built around the World Cup venues are so new that none of them appear on travel maps, or in our travel books, and the materials we got were pretty oversimplified with schematic diagrams showing how easy it was supposed to be to get around the stadiums. To add to the frustration, when we finally got to the stadium we were told we needed to have pre-purchased a parking ticket, so we got the runaround from all the security at the parking facilities. This drive took us through some...interesting...parts of the city that were not where one would typically find tourists. This whole process took about 4 hours...in a 7-person car...with 8 people in it...all with different opinions. When Tariq, Nidal, Rena, and I arrived at the Stadium, it was all I dreamed it would be. The Soccer City stadium is designed to resemble a calabash.

Soccer City Stadium on 23 June, just before Germany v. Ghana

I love these new stadiums! Like the Bird's Nest stadium used at the Beijing Olympics, these stadiums really raise the bar for design. They're no longer simply megastructures. Here are some pics from the game, which ended in a Germany win 1-0.

The kids, post game. Nidal is behind the camera.