Author Archives: aaalbee

Good Bye Bloemfontein, Hello Rustenburg

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June 24

This day has gone by so quickly!

We slept in this morning after our late night of celebration and by the time we were completely ready to check out of the Guest House it was a little after 12 pm.

We had planned to go to the Voortrekker museum, but changing our plans from Bloemfontein to Rustenburg occupied most of our day. Luckily it looks like we will have several extra days that we had not planned for in Joburg/Pretoria area so we are going to visit museums and monuments when we get back from the USA-Ghana game.

Went to the Translux ticket counter at the Joburg bus station this evening to inquire about refunding or exchanging our tickets that we had purchased from Joburg to Bloemfonetin. We have not had a lot of success with refunds thus far in South Africa (Gemini & Computicket), so I was not holding my breath. However, a lady at the Translux ticket counter was wonderful and quickly with no hassle agreed to refund our tickets cash back. Thank you Translux!

Alex from England contacted Alex this morning about meeting up to exchange our tickets and it was agreed upon that we would meet them half way in Kroonstad on Saturday to make the swap. I never thought I would ever get back to Kroonstad, South Africa in my life and I am going for my second time in a week period. Once we make the switch Alex and I are driving from Kroonstad to Rustenburg for the 8:30 kick off.

We had a delicious dinner (avo/bacon burger and surf&turf) at Mikes Kitchen where once again our iPad attracted some South Africans attention. Our meal was completed with two delightful after dinner drinks- Alex had hot chocolate with Amarula and I had Strawberry Cape Velvet with Amarula. Mo if you are ready this YES it was amazing; we forgot the camera tonight but will send a picture soon. Tonight we are staying at Leliewijk B&B in Benoni, which is quite lovely.

Tomorrow morning we are off to the airport to return our car and hopefully rent a new one that is not a Chevrolet. I’m crossing my fingers for a Toyota Corolla 🙂

South Africa vs France

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ZA vs. France – Match Day

After a great sleep in a comfortable bed with an electric blanket and a hot shower I didn’t think it could get any better at La Porte Vase B&B, but I was delighted to be wrong. The breakfast was delicious and quite filling. We had fruit salad with pineapple, papaya, and grapes to start followed by Yogurt and cereal for the second course. Our third and final course was scrambled eggs, 2 sausages, a slice of bacon, grilled mushrooms/tomatoes and toast. Although Kroonstad is not a typical place for foreign tourists, if anyone is driving the N1 in route to Port Elizabeth I would highly recommend La Porte Vase as a sleep stop. It was well worth the money.

It was only a two hour drive to Bloemfontein, so we arrived at Grace Cottage just after twelve in the afternoon to check in. In our room the owners had prepared a very helpful world cup packet with all the information we needed on parking.  Bloemfontein was offering a park and walk option which we decided would probably be easier for exiting the game later. We noticed a big store with a sign saying “uniform store designs custom sports uniforms” that caught our eye and would later visit.

Face painted and anxious to get there we arrived at the park and walk 3 hours before kick off. It was the first FIFA parking to ask to see our official match tickets for entry. I don’t know how it is possible that every time we have parked it has been completely different, I thought they all were supposed to be following the same protocol.

We had a lovely scenic walk to the stadium, passing by the Bloemfontien zoo and Kings park. Bloemfontein is known as the “city of roses” because of the over 4,000 roses bushes in the park and around the rest of the city. Continue reading →

Sunday in Newtown

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Enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning and then made our way to Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown.

The square is one of several fan parks around Joburg with large jumbo trons for public viewing, but when we arrived there were very few people walking around. We thought that it would pick up once the games started for the day but it remind quiet with only a few more people trickling in for the match. A unique art feature of the park was a giant red man made of Coca Cola boxes that toward overhead.

Next to Mary Fitzgerald square was the Museum of Africa that I had read about in Lonely Plant and was interested in check out, especially because it was FREE. The entire square was fenced off for the fan park making entrance to the museum a little more challenging. We didn’t feel comfortable walking around along the street because the area around the square is not the safest neighborhood in Joburg, so we decided to go through security for the park and cut across. The security guards could have cared less if I was caring anything illegal; one squeeze of my closed bag and I was cleared to go through. At the other side we realized that there was no exit. I was ready to just hop the fence given that it was only a little taller than waste high, but some security guards who were also looking to get out took the fence apart for us. Continue reading →

US – Slovenia Recap

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June 18

Woke up to no power, no hot water and a very cold, non-insulated room. Not happy. It wouldn’t bother me if we were paying typical ZA pricing but World Cup pricing is beyond a rip off and should at least guarantee some hot water in WINTER. When your room in a village in Ghana is nicer then the place you are paying high nightly rates for, that is a problem. The morning was only made worse by our cold eggs and beans for breakfast.

We had an hour or so to kill before the park and rides opened for the game, so we quickly packed up and headed off to the Rosebank Mall to walk around and warm up our chilled bodies. I took advantage of our sun drenched parking spot to paint a flag and USA on my face.
Continue reading →