Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Last week in Cape Town

This past weekend, we all went on our own somewhat separate adventures into different cities in South Africa. This is the first time we got to go somewhere different, not in the vicinity of Cape Town. Karinna, Maria, Justin and I went to Port Elizabeth(PE) to watch the Chile vs. Switzerland game. Actually Justin had a pit stop in Joburg for the USA game. What a game that was! We drove to Port Elizabeth from Cape Town on the garden route which is as beautiful as it sounds. There are no gardens per say but the mountains, the water, the green grass, ostriches, cows, and countryside were all a great escape from the city. I was pleasantly surprised by PE. We did not get to explore much of it, but I got the feeling it was a smaller city to maybe settle down and raise a family. You definitely need a car there to get around, but it’s not big and seems quiet and maybe even safe, although some of the white people we talked to seemed to act like it wasn’t. The stadium there was smaller than the one in Cape Town, but the energy was much better since the last game we attended (Italy vs. Paraguay) it was raining so it was hard to get as excited when you’re freezing and wet. Also, we met up with Chilean friends of Maria and Karinna, so we had a great time in Jeffrey’s Bay, which is about 30 minutes from PE. It’s the old hippie, surfer hang-out apparently. We wanted to surf, but the waves were terrible, so we decided it wasn’t worth it. The water was really cold too. But we got to be on the beach and relax a bit in a quieter setting. The night of the game, it was not as quiet since we were around the rowdy Swiss and Chileans. The Swiss people didn’t bother to speak to us (we probably wouldn’t understand and we had Chilean flags on our faces), but we enjoyed their chants since they sat behind us in the game. The game should’ve been about 4-0, but Chile won by only one point. It was quite a game since we were sitting be the goal and the entire second half was dominated by the Chilean team. I think the Swiss got lucky in the Spain game and even though they lost this one, they also got very lucky. Now, it’s time to cheer on Mexico against the bloody Argentinians. Mexico lost last night 1-0 but I think they can take on Argentina. It’ll be a great game, but we are leaving Cape Town the same day to go to Namibia so we might not be able to watch it. A few of us are continuing our travels through southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique). I am thrilled about getting to spend time in rural areas, in villages, and not just cities/towns. I have had an amazing time in Cape Town and South Africa in general, but we have only been to cities or towns and since SA is more developed than the rest of Africa, I am excited to see other regions and explore other cultures.

No comments:

Post a Comment