Slept in today (well, until 9:15am) then had some breakfast followed by lounging around the pool at Cowrie Cove guest house. After a few hours playing with the four resident pugs we were looking for something to do and the staff recommended we head over to the promenade area in Umhlanga. They nicely gave us a ride over to the Oyster Box Hotel. As we pulled up, I noticed the Cameroon team bus sitting out front. Cool! We walked around down to the water, and walked along the promenade a bit. Chatting with one of the hotel staff we found that this was indeed the Cameroon team hotel, and that Samuel Eto'o was in the room "right up there" as he pointed to his room.
We had lunch in the hotel, Sarah had vegetable korma and I had a brick oven pizza with spicy chicken. More importantly a few tables over were two Cameroon players having lunch. After lunch we decided to walk the mile back to Cowrie Cove guest house, was a nice day for a walk.
Pictures from our afternoon here
For dinner we headed into Umhlanga to Ile Maurice, French-Mediterranean cuisine. Sarah had a curry dish and I had a steak with mushrooms and we split a bottle of red wine. Everything was excellent! After dinner we moved into the bar area and watched Mexico take care of France. Then back home to Cowrie Cove!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
June 16, 2010: Spain-Switzerland match
Our departure for the match finally arrived after hours of staring at the clock as we were excited to get over to the stadium. In anticipation of some match day traffic, we left at 1:30pm. We hit very little traffic, as many of the highway exits around the stadium were closed to keep traffic flowing. After a quick U-turn the taxi driver let us out on the side of the highway next to the stadium. We scrambled down an embankment and there it was - Moses Mabhida Stadium!
We had 2 extra tickets to sell, and it took us about 30 seconds to find someone with a sign that read "need ticket". Two nice kids from Japan were eager to purchase our tickets, which we happily sold for face value, all we were interested in was being at the World Cup and more about watching the matches than making a few extra $. =)
Once the crowd filled in, and the teams walked out from the tunnel, the vuvuzelas made the stadium the loudest I had ever heard. We knew it was going to be a great match! Spain dominated play for most of it, but Switzerland managed to sneak a goal in the second half against the run of play. Spain's best chance came late in the second half with Xabi Alonso slamming one off the crossbar. It was not to be though, and the Swiss fans got to celebrate the huge upset.
After the match, we walked with the crowds over to the FIFA Fan Fest on the beach. Starving, we grabbed some Shawarma (spicy chicken and falafel) pita sandwiches as they were the only thing we could find, even though the travel guides advised against eating food from carts. They were delicious!
We then watched the first half of South Africa and Uruguay on the big screen with all the local fans. Then we headed over to the Suncoast Casino, figured we had to at least throw a few Rand down on some video poker (my favorite) and slot machines. After that, we called our driver from Umhlanga Taxi and headed back to our hotel. What a day!
We had 2 extra tickets to sell, and it took us about 30 seconds to find someone with a sign that read "need ticket". Two nice kids from Japan were eager to purchase our tickets, which we happily sold for face value, all we were interested in was being at the World Cup and more about watching the matches than making a few extra $. =)
| From 2010-06-16 Spain-Switzerland |
Once the crowd filled in, and the teams walked out from the tunnel, the vuvuzelas made the stadium the loudest I had ever heard. We knew it was going to be a great match! Spain dominated play for most of it, but Switzerland managed to sneak a goal in the second half against the run of play. Spain's best chance came late in the second half with Xabi Alonso slamming one off the crossbar. It was not to be though, and the Swiss fans got to celebrate the huge upset.
After the match, we walked with the crowds over to the FIFA Fan Fest on the beach. Starving, we grabbed some Shawarma (spicy chicken and falafel) pita sandwiches as they were the only thing we could find, even though the travel guides advised against eating food from carts. They were delicious!
We then watched the first half of South Africa and Uruguay on the big screen with all the local fans. Then we headed over to the Suncoast Casino, figured we had to at least throw a few Rand down on some video poker (my favorite) and slot machines. After that, we called our driver from Umhlanga Taxi and headed back to our hotel. What a day!
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