Time for another update.  We're now in Port Elizabeth and preparing to go to the Ivory Coast v. Portugal game tomorrow.

After we left Drew's house in Cape Town on Tuesday, we arrived on Long Street at our hostel at Carnival Court.  The first night was pretty chilled, but we did run into some old friends from our time at Rhodes, Lindy and Victoria, which was nice to see.  We also picked up our tickets, which was surprisingly easy, considering all the bad stuff written in the press about the tournament.  I have to say that the organization shown by the people who planned this tournament has been quite impressive, but more on that later.

Thursday was quite a busy day for us, as we rode the metrorail out to Simonstown, a seaside suburb of Cape Town.  Tim and Caitlin were our tour guides, and showed us around.  It's a really nice village and we visited several local sites.  The Metrorail is a great way to get around in Cape Town, I wish we had public transport like that in more places in America. 

By the time we met up with Xanthe later, the city was going absolutley mental with anticipation.  When we got to the train station around 5:00, we heard that the fan park had already been full for 2 hours (It has like a 50,000 capacity) for the kickoff concert.  There was also a parade and people were literally running through the streets, blowing vuvuzelas, cheering, chanting, and singing.  We went to the parade and then went out on Long Street afterwards.  We met our first group of Frenchmen on the balcony at the bar, and the whole place was doing the ole chant with people on the street at one point. 

It got even more mental later, as we made our way back to the hostel, which was packed, and met another Frenchman, who had a live chicken.  We got an amazing picture which will someday make an appearance on this blog, and the next day we saw that he had actually gotten the chicken into the France-Uruguay match.  The party lasted late into the night, and Friday brought the first games and opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony was pretty stunning, I would have been extraordinarily proud to be a South African on Friday.  Everyone knows South Africa has its issues, but everyone has pulled together and the tournament is now happening, and its pretty much gone off without a hitch.  Hosting a world cup, especially the first one on the continent, means so much more for South Africans than it would for a lot of other people, and its just been fascinating to watch everything come together.  Bafana Bafana did well to get a draw against Mexico, and while the bar we were in went mental when the satellite feed cut out right at kickoff, it was even more manic when South Africa scored.  It was a good result, and I reckon they have a decent chance to advance.

The Uruguay-France game that night wasn't the most exciting but the stadium was pretty stunning, and when we woke up at four AM to catch our 6:55 flight, the party was still going in the street.  We had some trouble rolling out of bed since we stayed out until 2 am(especially Paul), but we did make it into PE.  We're really going to miss the hospitality of our Cape Town guests, and we'd like to give a special shout out to Tim, Caitlin, Xanthe, Jared, Drew, and his parents for letting us stay with them and driving us around, but also to everyone else who we saw and was so great to us. 

We arrived in Port Elizabeth and went to the Greece-Korea game.  Adam and I ended up sitting with the Greeks and while we were loving it at first and really getting into their chants, they eventually proved to be second best and it was dissapointing to see them lose.  That stadium is really nice as well.  We met up with an old friend from Rhodes for a meal after the game at Adam's insistence, and only caught the last shuttle as it was heading back to the depot.  We were assured by the bus driver that we could get a ride back from there, and while he came as close to killing a man with a bus as anyone I've ever seen, we made it there without any casualties.  We then had to ride in his mate's van (I sat on the floor on a tire) back to our hostel, but Adam has still yet to actually contrive a way of getting me killed, despite several unsuccessful attempts(some of you will remember Durban '08). 

After that game we went to the fan's park, which is located at the St. George's cricket ground, and it was incredibly impressive.  The beer and food was cheap, there were enough people there to have an atmosphere but not enough to overcrowd things, and the screen to watch the game on was absolutely massive.  There were a ton of American fans and we went mad when we got the draw against England, even though Adam was going for England all the way(bastard).  There was also an extremely intense football match on the pitch afterwards, as well as an extremely intense encounter between Adam, an Irish lad, and the security team outside the ground. 

We went back the next night for the Australia-Germany game(somehow Adam got in) and it was not as happy a time for our little group.  In a shocker, there were no Aussie fans besides Adam and Paul, but a ton of German people.  The game was not pretty, so we won't dwell on that, but the fanspark as a whole was massively impressive. 

Today we had a late lie-in and didn't do much, but tomorrow we'll be off to the stadium for Ivory Coast-Portugal, which should be a cracking game.  Hopefully Drogba will be able to play, but seeing two of the world's biggest stars, Drogba and Ronaldo, is a mouthwatering prospect.  There's hardly a bad seat in the house, so we should have a great view. 

Well we'll sign off for now, but we're really enjoying our stay at the Hippo hostel and have made a lot of good new mates, which has been good craic.  We'll check in from our next stop, Durban, where we have a game between Spain and Switzerland and a potential meet-up with my stepbrother, Drew. 

Peace.