Game Parks and Celebrity Encounters

Meeting a rather spirited South Korean fan


Old man elephant


A curious zebra


Wildebeest, just hanging out


Hup Holland!


After awaking the morning after USA-England, we decided that we would go to the game park that was within a ten minute drive of the stadium. Though we were tired and quite disoriented after crossing the globe over the previous 30 hours, the sunshine and the warm temperatures made it an easy to choice to go to see some of the animals out in the wild. We were not disappointed.
The trip started off slowly, as we drove for a solid ten minutes without seeing any animals at all. However, our patience was rewarded when we rounded a corner and were within fifty yards of a preposterously tall giraffe. In what would become a theme for the rest of the trip, the giraffe was unfazed by our presence in its habitat, and even came a little bit closer to the car. I'm going to post some grainy cell phone pictures now, and when I have the means to upload pictures from my real camera in a few days I'll put up some shots of better quality.
After the giraffe, the animals came in droves. We saw hippos, a rhino, zebra, wildebeest, and capped the day with a rather elderly elephant. Unfortunately, we missed the prime period for seeing the lions, but we may go to a lion park before the trip is out.
On Monday, we decided a trip to the Netherlands-Denmark game at the massive 90,000 seat Soccer City complex would be a fun way to spend the day. A 1:30 kickoff time combined with the hideous traffic made for an all-day affair, but it was a great experience. The Dutch fans are always a fun and boisterous group, and we even met a group of young women who have made national news in South Africa. FIFA has strict rules against marketing by competitors of World Cup sponsors, and these women in their skin-tight orange dresses were found to be sent by Bavaria Beer, a competitor of Budweiser (the tournament's exclusive beer sponsor). They're still being held, although it seems a resolution is near.
When we were walking towards the stadium, I noticed a rather tall and slightly unkempt looking man taking a picture with someone in a USA jersey. I thought nothing of it, but then as I got closer I realized why the American was taking a photo. It was Steve Nash. He is very unassuming in person, and after we encouraged him to come to Boston we watched as he walked the roughly 1/2 kilometer path to the stadium without anybody saying a word to him. I'm sure he enjoyed the relative anonymity, since if he were in America he would have gotten mobbed the entire way into the stadium. Here he is completely unimportant compared to all of the famous soccer players in the country.
Coming up next, some tourist activities in Johannesburg and a mass public viewing of the South Africa vs. Uruguay match in lovely Melrose Arch.