First of all on the 11th, all of the roomies and I got DECKED out in our SA gear…we gotta rep Bafana Bafana (the name of the SA soccer team)! I mean, if you can’t tell in the pics, we got pretty dressed up, and I’ve never worn this much American stuff for any sporting event, haha. So most of the roommates wanted to make it to the fan park for the game, but the girls and I were just chilling and hanging out. We had a dance party in the kitchen at around 11am that may or may not have involved wine and lots of pictures, and then we headed to the fan park to see if there was any chance in hell that we would make it into the fan park for the game at 4pm. This is us waiting for a mini bus:
When we got to town we realized there was not a chance. But we were not bothered. We were so dressed that people wanted to take pictures with us, and town was crazy…so many people around all wearing their yellow and green in support of bafana and all blowing their vuvuzelas (those horns you hear on tv while watching the games). I bought a vuvuzela and had a great time with it. We walked around town, joined a few spontaneous parades:
and just had a great time in the street with the crowd. Around 2pm we decided to get lunch on Long street at Royale, and had a great balcony view of all the craziness going on in the street below us. I had a delish veggie burger and a shooter shaker of shots to split, and then tried to find someplace to watch the game. Unfortunately, we waited just a bit too long and all of the bars on Long street were so packed. But we managed to find someplace to be, some coffee shop that was also packed.
We squeezed ourselves in and made a few friends watching the game, and just enjoyed the general atmosphere of happiness and craziness on Long street…the coffee shop flowed out into the street with people watching the game from the street through the windows, and Bafana tied with Mexico! So it was a good game. I am no soccer officionado but tying is just so un-American…I guess just for the group stages then we get some real wins and losses. Anyway, the game was great and we made friends with a guy named Johannes Berg…hahaha, in South Africa we met a German named Johannes Berg, probably a highlight of the day. So we walked with our new friends about half way to Greenpoint stadium because we were attending the France v. Uruguay game! Somehow we lost them, and ran into all of our other roommates?? I don’t know how this keeps happening when we are in Namibia and in Cape Town…its not like they are small places, haha. Anyways, we had a fun walk to the stadium with them and then all split up because we were all sitting with one or two other people, and me with Amanda! So Amanda and I went in, and found our seats and being in Greenpoint was indescribable…its such a beautiful stadium.
The funny part was that they didn’t even check our Ids when we went in…security was not so tight, but whatever. And the food situation was not good, there was no veggie food and it just took forever and a day to get food so we missed the national anthems and the players walk out and such…and I ended up having beer for dinner, haha.
The game itself was rather boring…not a big deal, I was going more for the experience than to watch soccer anyways, and I was wearing all my SA colors and gear…not really rooting for either team. After the game all of us met up at the McDonalds right outside the stadium and headed back to Long street to celebrate my 21st birthday at midnight! It got a little bit stressful with everyone asking me what I wanted to do when I was just happy being with everyone and all I really wanted to do was eat, but it was about 1130 and not many places were open. So we just headed to the Che Bar on Long street and began the celebration with people buying me lots of drinks.
Fortunately for me, Jess S also bought me a veggie burger so I had something in my stomach to handle my 21st birthday. From the Che Bar we moved onto Jo’burg, one of my favorite dancing places in the city but of course it was just packed as hell, you could barely dance, and I got my wallet stolen there. Which was not fun, but then we made it to another bar, and finally ended the night at the Dubliner. Somehow my roommate Ari and I lost everyone else, and just ended up by ourselves and then found out everyone had gone home, so ended up home. And very happy with a very very successful 21st birthday. It was one of my favorite days in Cape Town, and one of the most fun birthdays ever. I’m so glad most of my good friends here were still around to celebrate it with me.
Day 2 of my birthday consisted of being very very very hungover (see evidence of a hot mess here):
but getting the best birthday montage of pictures from my family. That totally made my day. We then went to the biscuit mill, but I didn’t enjoy it very much because of the state I was in, haha. Then we all layed around all day and watched soccer on tv until the USA v. England match that night. Taryn, Amanda and I were the last ones there and the bar in Obz, The Scrumpy Jack was just packed with lots of people we know and it was really fun to be there.
Even though the thought of alcohol made me cringe, somehow I managed to drink again (you don’t really have a choice on your 21st birthday, cuz everyone buys you drinks). After the game we all came back to our house and had a crazy dance party in the kitchen and then all just passed out and never made it out. It was a great great birthday celebration.
Day 3 of my birthday consisted of lots of laying around again recovering, haha. That night we went out to Beluga, which is a great sushi place in town that has half price sushi on Sunday’s so we all went there to eat. We had delish sushi, ONE cocktail (bleh)
and just enjoyed each other’s company. My 3 day birthday celebration was absolutely incredible and I am so appreciative of all the birthday comments and all my friends from home, school, and SA that made it the best day ever. Oh and my incredible parents :) here's a lil taste of the gift they made me:
I LOVE YOU GUYS.
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