South African Stories #2: Stephen on Location

Our "Senior South African Correspondent", Stephen Craig, is on the ground in South Africa and here's his second update. Stephen is a member of American Outlaws: Austin Chapter.

6/14/10 - Monticasino

Yesterday was a long one. We all got up fairly early and heading to Fourways. The rest of the group went there the night before and had a really good time. We got there at about noon and had some lunch and had a beer. There were a couple of guys that arrived for lunch. They were dressed like white collar workers and after a bit I asked if there were any other pubs or areas to hang out and meet other World Cup travelers.

Wayne (the big guy) said there was a place about 2km away called Monticasino. As the conversation went on the other guy Chris said that they had meetings all morning so they were pretty much done for the day. They started drinking double Jack and Cokes and Vodka and Lemon Dry. The shots here are a little smaller at 22mls so it is like a shot and a half, give or take. Nigel and Kellie decided to head back to the lodge and Esfandiar had to drive them so Nick and I rode with Wayne and Chris to Monticasino. Lots of nice cars here in SA and they had a Mercedes and a Nissan 370 sports coupe. We arrived at this amazing complex.

Survivors. 40+ shots later.

It was a like Vegas. Inside it was all shops and gambling with the façade of European style buildings. After you walk through you come to this giant open square. It was really nice. They had giant screen, great restaurants and shops. We got a table at one of the cafes and after about 10 rounds of shots and 43 vodka and lemon drys later between five people I was done. I was glad that Esfandiar came back half way through the drinking mission. He was our designated driver. The guys said that drinking and driving wasn't a problem. They said just pay them 200 Rand and it would be fine but I didn’t want to find that out on my own. People drive crazy here and also on the other side of the road so it takes some getting used to.

6/15/2010 - Big Cats

Hey buddy.... I bet I could beat you in a race.

We had an early wake up. Up by 5:45am to get a ride out to the Ann Van Dyke Cheetah Sanctuary. I felt fine at first, but during the ride that took about an hour I was getting a little car sick (Editor's Note: "car sick" riiiiight). I was glad to have arrived. It was really cold today. It was in the 30’s this AM and got to about 45 for a high and the wind was blowing like mad. It was at least blowing at 35-40 miles an hour at times.

The tour was great. We got to see the cheetahs run and pet them and saw many other animals. It was great fun, but we were all freezing by the end. Who thought that Africa could be so fucking cold? The ponds here had ice over them. I was glad to get in the van and get a coffee. I slept well after lunch and then chilled back at the Owl Lodge watching the games for the rest of the night. I did get to speak to Danilo’s mom (My South African friend who now lives in Austin) and she wants to meet up at some time this week or next. I’ll have to see what the plan is with the rest of the group.

6/16/2010 - "Big Bad Joburg," Castle Brewery, and the oldest bar in Johannesburg

I got a late call from Danilo’s friend Ben and he said he and his wife Natalie would show us around “Big bad Joburg.” We called them first thing in the morning and decided to head out at noon to meet them. All five of us crammed into our clown car and headed out. We put Nick in charge of the GPS and set south…well, we thought we were heading south.

Dan told us to head south on M1 and after looking at the map we decided he said head south on the N1. So we head first toward Rustenburg and with a little encouragement form Nigel I crossed the highway median and headed the other way. We then were in West Pretoria and found the N1 and headed south. We gave Ben a call and he said we were on the wrong road. So here we are in a tiny car going 130km an hour heading into Johannesburg. Esfandiar took over navigation and we found the BP station they were going to meet us at on the GPS and kept on cruising.

I want you to remember that I am driving a car on the opposite side of the road and the wheel is on the right hand side of the car. When you first try to put on your turn signal you turn your windshield wipers on and everyone gives you the business. It's good stuff.

Nelson Mandela Bride (with Cristiano Ronaldo creeping behind)

We finally find Ben and Nat and we follow them into New Town Joburg (Esfan and I can’t remember if it is New Town or Old Town). We crossed over the Nelson Mandela Bridge and parked just outside the Fan Park (the big area where people can watch the game). We were not in an area where most tourists go, but that’s why it's always good to have locals to show you around. We went to the South African Museum and checked it out.

After checking out some of the exhibits we headed to the Castle Brewery for lunch and a tour. We got to eat ostrich and drink some good beer and the tour was pretty cool. We even got to sample some sorghum beer. It was the beer that the local tribes made and drank during celebrations. They gave us a big pot to drink out of and then passed it to the next person. Haven’t these people heard of germs?! I got to go second so I didn’t care. When in Africa…The beer was not bad. It was very thick and a little sour. It looked like watered down glue.

Can I get one straight from here?

We made our way though and they then served us a small beer in the old SA part of the tour. It was a cross between Disney World and a museum that served beer. We also got to sample some of the beer before the tour so it was good all the way around.

Free Beer Movement... South Africa.

We headed next to the Carlton Center. This is the highest building in the south of Africa. Esfandiar paid the guys at the center so we could go up to the observation deck. It was pretty spectacular. We were the only ones up there so it was kind of surreal. There are large office buildings everywhere, but Ben said that most of them are now low-cost housing. While driving around downtown you didn’t feel like you where in danger, but I would not walk around at night.

I guess it's not so different from any other big city.

On top of Johannesburg.

It was also a different feeling to be a minority. It's about 90% blacks and maybe 7% whites so you can really feel the difference, but that feeling seemed to go away quickly. All the service jobs are done by the black population; from trash collection to the wait staff, to bartenders. It's kind of a trip.

Money goes a long way here. We had 14 people in our group last night having drinks and food and it came out to 1900 Rand. That’s about 250 bucks. At the beginning of the night I ordered three double gin and tonics (everyone does doubles) three Guinness and two big (they are European size at half liters) Hansamarzen Lagers and the total in dollars was $16.80. Crazy. Good wine runs about 70 Rand (less than 10 bucks).

Enough of that tangent…we next headed to The Radium. It is the oldest existing bar in Joburg at about 70 years old. We met lots of Ben and Nat’s friends and the bar was packed with excited South African fans ready to cheer on Bafana Bafana. It was a little hard to talk to the group because some of the group had the vuvuzelas and my voice has never recovered from the first game. It was kind of funny because those horns are almost solely used by the black population and not by the whites, so it seemed to be a novelty for the whites to be using them. It was funny but at the same time it shows the separation of the two cultures.

The best explanation I can make is if you took two groups of people and laid them on top of each other. They have to interact on a daily basis but at the end of the day there is no overlap. Whites have their world and culture and blacks have theirs. Esfandiar and I discussed that this might be because they are in their infancy with the end of Apartheid and they are still making their way forward in a sense.

How about some more drinks? Sure! The Radium.

Well, South Africa lost 3 –nil in their game and that pretty much cleared out the bar. We loaded up and headed home. It’s a little tough to party too hard here and I was the designated driver so I was a good boy and only had a couple big beers with dinner.

A really big day with Slovenia tomorrow so I’m going to lay low. Nigel and Kellie are heading to Monticasino and Nick and Esfandiar are going to the Cradle of Life. I’ll try to update as soon as possible, but it will probably be after the game tomorrow.

Stay thirsty my friends!

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