Every day, the crowds have grown and grown and each day has been busier than the last. Finally, with one day left until the games start, we decided to stay close to the hotel and have some fine dining that the locals call beer and pizza. We crossed the street to a local Italian Pizzareia, through a group of six to eight soccer fans of mixed nationality chatting about who they're supporting. We rounded a corner, entered the pizzareia, and were seated immediately. Within three minutes a small police car with flashing lights sped to the small side-street we had just crossed. Moments later a van with flashing lights followed. We were ordering, so I couldn't check it out immediately, but after our waiter walked away, I ducked out to see the commotion but all that remained was the van with flashing lights and nobody around.
Today was the last touristy day before the opening ceremonies. To kill off this last day of pre-tournament waiting, we hit some of the famous sites near Cape Town: Robben Island and Table Mountain.
First off was a tour of Robben Island, which required a 20-30 minute ferry trip on the Sea Princess. Lining up (queuing) for the ferry and winding through the building to board eventually led us to an unexpected security checkpoint with metal detector and handbag x-ray. For the games I expect this, but the ferry ride took me by surprise, so I had to ditch one of the staples of prison life before I could go to this island prison; The Shiv. This was a sharp, distinctly metal implement I was carrying just in case I needed to defend myself in a foreign country. I ducked out of line into a restroom before the checkpoint and went into a stall. The only other person was a French guy who had stopped at the "Hot Dog King" stand before the trip and was brushing his teeth before the ferry ride. Above the toilet and eye level was a small vent on the back wall where I dropped my metal implement, leaving the leather strap sticking out just slightly for potential retrieval. Then it was off to prison. (It turns out they had me walk through the metal detector with a handful of pocket change, so it probably wasn't even turned on.)
Robben Island was fascinating. After disembarking from the ferry, we were loaded onto buses, where the clattering of many different voices in many different languages provided an orchestra of beautiful nonsense for the ear. And after the orchestra, it was time for the solo. Our first guide boarded and spoke in probably the most amazing oratorical voice I've ever heard. Stood on the bus as we drove around the island and tied every nationality on the bus to the history of Robben Island. (One of his jokes: Why do Indians never win at football? Every time they get a corner, they open up a shop.) After the bus tour, we arrived at the prison complex on the island and were walked through the different areas by a former inmate named Jama. We were shown the large communal cells and the private single cells, including a walk past Nelson Mandela's cell. (Pic). If you happen to travel to Cape Town when the World Cup isn't happening, then Robben Island is by far the most important thing to see. Once we're back, The Blonde ducked into the gift shop, and I ducked back into my bathroom stall and retrieved my pointy shard.
After the ferry ride back, and with daylight still to spare, it was time for a drive to Table Mountain. This is the huge flat-topped mountain which features prominently in the Cape Town scenery. If I find out how to mail postcards from here, some of you will probably get one featuring this massive rock. The trip involved driving up a windy road to a cable car station situated only a quarter of the way up the mountain. An sharp incline up the rotating cable car took us to the top of this immense table where you could see nearly everything around. If you look at the picture, the tiny little bump you on top and to the right of the flat portion is the destination of the cable car.
This driving portion of this journey was perhaps one of the most frustrating parts of the entire trip because it turns out The Blonde is an absolutely horrible navigator. She drives poorly in the States, so I was reticent to let her drive here. However, it turned out she's even worse at guiding a driver. I'm driving a stick, in a foreign country, on a different side of the road, and to say that it takes a bit of my concentration would be an understatement. I'm focusing almost entirely on lining up my car with the lines on the right instead of the left, merging from three lanes to two and back again, not hitting cavalier and drunken pedestrians, and a number of other random occurrences. She is tasked with identifying our location and telling me when a turn is coming. However, she would occasionally pull out the video camera or fold up the map as if the journey was over. Even when the map was open, identifying our location or even the general orientation of the map was near impossible. This is why she's only in charge of changing CDs during the carpool to work.
Tomorrow, South Africa opens up against Mexico and we'll be standing in a fanzone wearing our newly acquired South African jerseys rooting on the Home Team, before heading to our first game in the evening between France and Uruguay. Having been around some French and Uruguayans today, it's hard to pick a favourite based on the characters that have been walking around. Instead I'm going to have to root for the one that has more players I know, which is France. But as long as it's a good game, I'll be happy.
There are reports that known hooligans are being arrested back in England for trying to leave the country in a supposed attempt to travel to the World Cup and even some people who were pulled off planes immediately after landing in Johannesburg. I expect they're culling most of the bad apples, and unfortunately maybe even some good ones. I'm not sure why they'd risk a ten-year ban to any football matches just to come start a fight, but maybe some of those fights are just drunken by-products. I'd also hate to be marked for ten years just because I fought back against some drunken hooligans.
Finally, on a sad note, SkyNews reported that a bus carrying twenty or so Britons overturned in the North East area of South Africa today, and three college students were killed. It's a sad way to start the tournament and thoughts and prayers go out to their families.
