MABUHAY!

We are so lucky. We had the best time in South Africa for most of June and then we were able to spend a month in Washington with our friends and family. What an awesome summer! We had so many wonderful events happen while we were back (weddings, bbq’s, birthdays, adventures, etc) and the time flew by!

Breakfast stop at Bomma's house in Kirland after her flooding!

Hung out with Becca in her pool!

Birthday dinner for Melissa at Margaret and David's house!

Sounders game, new anniversary ring and a night at Hotel 1000 with Ryan!

Mely's bachelorette party in Seattle!

Melissa and Greg's wedding!

I got Danny to take a picture with me in our matching attire!

With Brita at Vanessa's wedding in Blaine.

We did a park and ride (with the tickets we bought the day before, instead of napping). It worked amazingly well. Walking into the stadium was really one of those weird, once in a lifetime feelings… we knew it would be our last game at the World Cup - our last big night in South Africa… we didn’t want it to end!

On our way to the stadium. Ryan was excited!

  

 

The crowd was intense! So many fans from both countries!

 

 

 

 

As soon as the whistle blew - there was toilet paper being thrown everywhere!!

 

 

  

 

Mexico was upset and approached the linesman after a sketchy call.

 

 

We woke up early, early, early to get the heck outta Durban and on the road for the game of our lives: USA vs GHANA. At this point in the tournament, it was the first game for the round of 16 teams. Ghana was the last standing African team. Every African was cheering for Ghana to win. USA, as usual, was in the minority. : ) During our entire trip, there were street vendors and salesmen walking up and down the streets trying to sell flags, team gear, and really neat covers for the car side mirrors with team flags on them. In each city we travelled through it was easy to find the big names like Brazil, South Africa, England, France, and Italy… but nowhere could be find anything for USA! Some of the ‘neat’ things we found didn’t even COME in USA stlyes!! Grrr. When we finally made it to Rustenburg for the big game, we found some American flags - but we had been searching since the beginning!! (We could have found USA stuff in the malls, but they were not at all as common as the other teams).

From Durban we drove approx 7-8 hours to get to Lynne Morris’ house. She is an acquaintance of my Grandma Lora who met her on a cruise last year. She lives in Johannesburg (originally from Canada) and offered to rent us a bedroom in her house. We got to Lynne’s, dropped our stuff and HOPED to nap for an hour or two - but instead Lynne insisted that we get online (DIAL UP) and purchase parking tickets for our game that would be the next day. She was convinced they would be sold out if we left it until tomorrow. The system was set up so that you can do a park and walk or a park and ride, either way you needed a pre paid ticket to enter the gates. We searched and searched online for the closest place to park and finally (after what seemed like eternity on her DIAL UP internet) were able to secure tickets for our game the following day - Argentina vs Mexico. We were glad Lynne helped us out - because we would have preferred to take a nap during that time, but the tickets would have been sold out if we had waited!

We got on the road for Rustenburg… another 2 hour drive to the stadium. By now, we were almost in a zombie state. We had been on the road (think of Eastern Washington for hours and hours and no radio). This drive to the stadium wasn’t so bad - there was at least some new scenery and other cars around.

We made it to Rustenburg and the park and ride lot (no prepaid tickets needed because it was not a very popular venue, the stadiums in Jo’burg were much more crowded and parking was a bigger deal). 

We laughed while we were parking, because we felt like we were parking in a cow pasture!

We took the shuttle to the stadium as the sun was setting behind the mountains. 

The stadium was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere - we had no idea where the actual ‘town’ was - but it definitely wasn’t anywhere near us!! We walked into the ‘fan’ area after the loose security checks and as I looked down I saw hay! Farm hay!! We really WERE in a cow pasture! Haha. (Not really, but it felt like it). I sort of felt like we should be tailgating in the back of an old pick up truck!!

We had a really good time at the game… there were more Americans than we expected. But we were no contest for the entire country of Africa supporting Ghana! We sat near really interesting people and kept quiet for most of the game. There was a Middle Eastern man sitting behind us yelling put downs to USA and he was teaching his 5 year old to do the same. We had intoxicated Africans in front of us who were yelling at security. There were ridiculous Americans who complained about anything and everything. And of course - the crazy people who wouldn’t have even been able to tell you what teams were playing. We pretty much kept our cool and hoped for the best for our team internally!! : ) This was the most intense game we went to!

Big smiles in that picture, but I think our eyes show just how tired we are!!

Some of the American section!

 

Landon Donovan.

 

 

 

This man got really crazy. He would walk into the aisle and lay down while dancing and blowing his vuvuzela. Nutty. But hilarious.

 

 

Awesome outfits. Yes, that man is a human cleat!!

 

 

Security. They wore armadillo style armor!

 

 

It was really fun to be surrounded by other crazy USA soccer fans! Even though USA lost, it was a great game and we had tons of opportunities - we just couldn't finish. We went out fighting and that's what matters... we'll be back for Brazil 2014!!!

 

 

 

We spent 4 days driving from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth to Durban to Johannesburg  This is the main highway… there is the N1, N2, N3 and N4 that connect the main cities. At times, the highways are very modern looking and complex. This however, is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and is very simple. : )  

Yes… we did see many ’stray’ animals. We even saw random men in orange suits sitting on the road side (their jobs were to shoo the stray animals off the road so no one would hit them).

Several trucks passed us with tons and tons of sugar cane! Kids on the street would pick up the fallen pieces and eat it right there!

  

 

Lucky it wasn't us. This happened very shortly before we arrived at the scene. They were South African and were on their cell phones - so we didn't stop and get involved. It didn't appear that anyone was hurt. My main concern was from what direction the cops/ambulance would be coming... we had drive many hours in one of the directions up to the crash and there was NOTHING that remotely looked like it would be a host to such a department.

 

Driving through one of the black townships. I think this was the town where Nelson Mandela was born.

 

We had no idea how safe it was - so we just drove through.

 

Gorgeous!! We would sit in silence for hours (because the radio was pretty dull and we ran out of things to talk about) and just stare out the window at the amazing beauty of this country.

 

We LOVED this!

 

 

On the hillside before we got to Durban!! So great!!

 

It was so amazing to be able to experience South Africa this way. Ryan and I love road trips (minus Ryan’s driving abilities) and this was such a great time for us to just ‘look at South Africa.’ 

PS - did I mention the car we rented was a STICK SHIFT??!! Yes… the same nightmare we had in Australia 2 years ago! At least this time it wasn’t a huge campervan. We only had a small vehicle this time and Ryan, to his credit for once, did a pretty good job handling it (and my criticism).

 

COMICAL!

I asked about whether we had made reservations and found out that this was NOT the right place… darn! So we got in the car and followed the unclear directions of the receptionist who tried to tell us where our place was. We drove around for about 15 minutes and couldn’t find it. The town was on the ocean and our hostel was supposed to be on the road that runs parallel to the waterfront. We were so tired by this point and all we wanted to do was get out of the car, watch the USA re-run, and sleep! Being so tired, we finally decided to get a hotel room. We didn’t lose much money on the hostel we had already paid for, and the hotel was right on the water with a beautiful view and it was only 50 dollars a night! Man… I wish we could have stayed longer!! We went for dinner on the water (at 10pm) at a cute italian place and then hit the sack.

The hotel we found, too easily. We ate at the little restaurant in the bottom right corner.

The waterfront right across the street from our hotel.

So the good news was that USA won. The bad news was that the sun had set and we had just embarked on a 2 hour journey to East London… on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere! While we were intently focused on the USA/Algeria game, we hadn’t paid too much attention to the fact that our GPS was leading us in a very strange direction and that the road and surrounding area was gradually becoming more and more rural/dirty/abandoned. By the time the USA game was over, we had no clue where the ‘real’ paved highway was and how to get there! Our GPS had us on a route that seemed to be a back road that was under construction and winded around non existent towns. 

To be very honest, we were frightened.

We couldn’t see - because there were no street lights, no town lights, no house lights, and the grass surrounding the road was taller than our car. We drove and drove and didn’t see a thing besides a couple upside down road signs. Yikes. We even had random cattle in the road. That was freaky because we didn’t even see it until we were super close and had to do a major swerve in order to save us and the animals!

At times, we would come upon a slow moving vehicle with busted headlights and we would automatically assume that it was a trap… that the car was going to stop and cause us to stop then come out with machetes and chop us to bits. (That didn’t happen). We also had crazy fast drivers come up behind us and pass us - we also had nightmares of these cars crashing into us on purpose or pulling in front of us and somehow attacking us. (That didn’t happen either). Another pessimistic thought was that at any moment, a band of thieves, murderers and rapists would jump out of the grasses and kill us/rob us. (Again, that didn’t happen). We had a plan for each scenario - and all of our plans pretty much revolved around Ryan driving as fast as our little rental would go and us fighting to the death. (Thank goodness neither of us had to prove our bravery).

We made it out alive and we made it to our destination (I think we took a short cut)… but it was one of the scariest 2 hours of my life. We laugh about it now - but we were definitely NOT laughing then. Next time, and for future reference, make sure you double check the route and take a MAIN road… short cuts in a country where the roads are not all the way finished and where the country is known for 50+murders a day is not the safest way to travel!!

As we were driving out of Grahamstown, the sun was setting and we were being led by the GPS into what seemed to be the opposite direction of the highway - and into the slums. Yikes. The only comfort we had was the USA/Algeria game on the radio! The announcer was terrible, no doubt, and kept rambling about unrelated topics. Grr. Several times we thought we might have to pull over and scream!! The England game was being played at the same time as the US game, so the announcer kept switching back and forth between games, as well as rambling about nothing. The US ended up winning the game in the 92nd minute!! We were PUMPED and couldn’t wait to get to East London where we could check the internet and see if there were available tickets for the upcoming game!!

We ended up buying the tickets and then having to drive over 9 hours to get to the game 2 days later!! Such an amazing memory!

We woke up for breakfast at the Cozy Corner in George and then headed out as soon as we could to get to Port Elizabeth by the afternoon - so that we could get to Grahamstown to watch the USA/Algeria before finally reaching our sleeping destination for the night (In East London). Overall, we had a big drive ahead of us and we NEEDED to be settled in a decent city to watch the USA game. It was do or die for the US at this point and we were aching to watch the game. It was not necessarily all that easy to know, just from looking at the map, which little towns would be a place where we could safely pull over and expect to find a place with a working TV to watch the game. We did a little research and we knew that Grahamstown held a jazz festival every year and that there was a University in the city - so we figured it would be the best option (and time wise, the only option). A lot of the towns we passed while driving were very small, non existent, or small farming communities with no electricity (the picture of Africa that you would see in movies). 

Our first stop (after passing through Knysna and WISHING we had time to stop) was Port Elizabeth. England was playing in Port Elizabeth on this day and the town was CRAZY was England fans. Let me tell you - England knows how to support a soccer team!! : ) We drove down the road that runs parallel to the boardwalk and hosts many, many restaurants/bars and the English were in MASS numbers and full spirit!! We loved it! We stopped for lunch in a bar that was packed wall to wall with English fans - even without going to, or watching this game - we had a blast being ‘apart’ of this culture!! We were too shy to take pictures of all of the craziness - but it was awesome!

Port Elizabeth wasn’t much to write home about, there was a nice boardwalk area but most of the city seemed very industrial. The beach was okay… and since it was a gorgeous day - it probably seemed better than usual! : )

We knew we didn’t have much time - so we quickly got back in the car and prepared for about a 2 hour drive to Grahamstown where we were crossing our fingers that we’d find a place to watch the USA game!

Grahamstown… oh Grahamstown...

Well, the town itself was not as impressive as we had imagined. The several streets that we drove up and down in search of a bar were very artsy and old. We were getting frustrated because in all the buildings, we couldn’t tell what was a bar or what wasn’t and the game was scheduled to start any minute. We got very lucky and saw several Americans (wearing USA jerseys) running towards an unmarked building right behind us. Ryan swerved across 2 lanes of slow city traffic and parked on the side of the road where a couple beggars immediately rushed us - we shoved them off and prayed they wouldn’t slash our tires for being so rude! We followed the Americans into the bar - the USA game was playing downstairs and the England game was playing upstairs. Very cool to have both games and both sets of fans in the same bar! Everything was fine for the first half - the score was tied 0-0 and Ryan and I were enjoying a beer. All was great until all of a sudden there was a spark and our lives went DARK… the power went out in the city!!! The entire city!! We were hopeful that ‘because it was the World Cup’ that the power would be restored and we’d be able to watch our team play out the 2nd half… nope. We hung around for about 10 minutes in the dark and finally realized that we were in trouble when the staff started lighting candles.

Candle in a beer bottle. Clever. And yes, the brand is HUNTER. Haha.

Welp - our hopes and dreams were shattered… our whole day that we had planned JUST so that we could be in Grahamstown to watch the game… over. All over.

We got back in the car (which had 4 perfectly normal and inflated tires attached), turned on the only sports channel we could find, and followed our GPS directions to East London where we’d booked a hostel for the night.

After an amazing 5+ days in the Cape Town area, we headed off in our rented hatchback for a 4 day road trip!

On the day we left, we found our car out front with a flat tire… wonderful. Ryan, fortunately, knew how to change it. While he changed it I packed our things - we make such a good team! : ) The only real bad part about this was that THRIFTY did not cover tire damage on the car and we had to get it repaired on our own. We were lucky to find a nearby auto shop that took pretty good care of us, and very quickly. The tire had been slashed and was un-repairable, so we ended up buying a new tire for about a hundred dollars. Great.

As soon as the tire was replaced, we took off in the direction of Port Elizabeth. We knew we wouldn’t get there by the evening, so we planned on stopping in a cute town called George. We had already set up accommodations at The Cozy Corner Guesthouse so that made the drive easier - knowing we’d have a place to stay.

We followed the Garden Route through all of the cutest coastal towns - we LOVED the areas near the coast! Our first stop was George. Then on Day 2 we drove further towards Port Elizabeth (not shown on the map). If we could go back - we'd LOVE to spend time in a town called Knysna!! We wanted to stop so badly - but we just didn't have time at this point in our car ride!

George was a cute little town, and it actually hosted Japan’s National Team! We found out when we got there because there were big welcome signs! We arrived at the Guesthouse just before dark - it was much more similar to a converted house than the other places we had stayed, and much cheaper (which was great because we had been frustrated at the outrageous prices we had been stuck with in Jo’burg and Cape Town for accommodation). We quickly threw our back packs in the bedroom and took the advice of the owner and set out for a quick drive through the sleepy old town and had dinner at a GREAT authentic South African restaurant. Now - this was not like Moyo’s with AFRICAN style food - this was more of a fancy restaurant, been in the town for YEARS, and serves mainly the white South African population. It was very old, looked like a converted house/restaurant with maybe 10 tables. We sat upstairs and had an open view of the tables below. It reminded me of ER Rogers in Steilacoom, WA. There were 2 servers and the ‘host’ which seemed to be the manager and he knew everyone in there (and was drinking behind the bar). It was a great experience!! We both had 3 course meals … Ryan had Kudu! We can’t find the name of the place anywhere - but it was great! We were intimidated by the ‘confusing’ menu - it seemed very German to us, but we managed and ended up very full!!

Day 1 of our road trip = success!!