Soccer and the City Called Jozi
Joburg isn’t a place you should try and visit in a day.
It doesn’t have a mountain. It doesn’t have beaches. Despite what billboards on the Bill Nicol say, the bush is more than a short drive away, and it is fairly easy to find your way into a traffic jam, behind road construction of some sort and rub shoulders with nosepicking, pavement driving taxi drivers for a half an hour or so enroute to anywhere.
As a visiting comedian at a recent Joburg festival said,
“I love Johannesburg.”
“I will love it even more when it is finished.”
But let’s talk about being a soccer fan in Jozi and the Confed Cup.
Lets talk about a crisp highveld Sunday winter afternoon. Beanie in the pocket, Vuvuzelas, long johns and ticket. Brazil vs the USA at the end of a great soccer festival that hinted at great things to come in 2010.
The Journey to Ellis park is much more fun when it is shared with mates. Too many people squashed into taxi, bakkie or 7th hand Toyota, with madly flapping flags and vuvuzelas sticking out the windows. The cops smiled and nodded and pretended not to notice how overloaded the vehicles were as they snaked towards town.
With 3 hours before the closing ceremony we had time to kill and a plan to kill it. Flags, colours, cameras and people poured out of cars onto the pavement outside a Joburg City landmark, The Troyville Hotel.
It is a pub that has done its time. Not spectacular from the front, back or any other side, its charm is found in the people, and years of stories seeping out of the bricks, and well worn, alcohol stained wooden bar. It was the perfect place to start the evening before the confed cup final…and then end it again four hours later after spilling out of Ellis park, singing and laughing, arm in arm with brightly coloured fans of every race all happily oblivious of work the next day. That night I fell in love with Jozi all over again.
But that was months ago…
It is spring time in Jozi at the moment. It took 3 days to arrive. Bright green leaves are as prolific as union strikes and the stream of people in and out of the Gym is increasing on a daily basis. Self tan, mini skirts and jacaranda trees in bloom all make an appearance. It is a wonderful time to be in Jozi. Slowly but surely the City will seep into your soul, the more time you spend in it.
Despite all this, operations are in full swing for “Team Allan” to leave our home city and head east on an adventure that will take us from Bangkok to Delhi over 4 months. There should be photos and updates posted on this blog.
You might notice a new tab on the left called Subscribe to “chrisallan.co.za” if you click on that and enter in your email address, you will hopefully receive blog updates in your inbox from the adventure through the east. This means that you can opt out of receiving updates as I will no longer be using my standard email distribution list or you can be the first to find out when we are taken hostage by hill tribes in the North.
The 30th of September departure day looms, and the “to do” list grows longer. I revisited the archives and found some past travel pics that I hope to improve upon as we explore Thailand, India, Myanmar and more. Check out the gallery “Travel Characters”…
Awesome.
Now…where is that to do list?