Johannesburg / the worst 24 (part 4)

So because it's Friday and because I felt like it, I created a special drawing in paint to convey the remainder of the worst 24 story. So Jordan and I accepted the fact that we had to sleep in the police station. We start to fall asleep sitting up, but this is too difficult for me. I need to lay down. We are also sharing the police station benches with a drunk South African, who happens to be in the middle of the benches. So I, the baby blue stick figure, lay on one bench and Jordan, the green stick figure, on the other. And between us lays the South African. The blue stick figures are the police officers who stayed behind the counter the entire evening and were laughing and joking amongst themselves.

At about 4am, the door of the police station bursts open. In walks one of the Canadian guys who simply says, "I'm here to rescue you." I am so excited I jump straight from the bench and follow the Canadian out the door. Apparently the police man they talked to knew what he was doing. The Canadians had a brand new car with four full tires. We enter in the GPS coordinates for our hostel, and the Canadians drove us the hour and half it took to get back to our hostel. I have never been more grateful. Not only did they come back for us, but they drove us out of their way at 4 in the morning in South Africa. Very, very, just simply amazing.

We get to the hostel around 5:30, and realize none of the Israeli vehicles are there. We get a little panicked that they're still looking for us in Rustenburg, but they end up arriving about 15 minutes after us. They waited until they were the last car in the parking lot at the stadium before driving back to the hostel, and they got lost on the way. So, despite our ordeal, we still ended up beating them back.

I was - and hopefully will never again be -happy to be in my 8 person bunk, with 6 snoring Chileans....

Johannesburg / the worst 24 (part 3)

So Rustenburg, the town we watch the game, does not have alot going on. You should not visit here if you visit South Africa. It's not really located near anything fun, and doesn't have much to offer. I may be a bit biased because the time spent here was horrible, but regardless of that, I still believe it's not worth a trip.

As it turns out, the bus we boarded after the game did not take us to the parking lot we needed. We asked an attendant for help, he directed us to a mini bus that proceeded to drive us around to the other lots for an hour. We still were unable to find the parking lot with our Israeli friends and a ride back to the hostel (an hour and a half away). The attendant man that drove us around was very friendly, but after an hour he told us he had to get back to his family. So he dropped us off on the side of the road, in front of the stadium, around 1am.

We start walking, with no real plan. It's as we're walking that we run into two Canadian guys. Their car has a flat tire and they're looking for a mechanic/auto shop. With nothing else to do, we start walking with them. As we're walking, we try to flag down police officers to help us. Several drive by without stopping. One stops and tells us he doesn't know where the police station is because they had bussed him in from another city. All in all, very helpful. Finally one car stops and the four of us pile in to go to the police station.

The Canadians start talking to one cop, and we to another. We call hotels and hostels, there are no vacancies. We call rental car companies, none are open. The Canadians discover there are no auto shops open, but one of the cops knows a guy, who knows a guy that can come out and fix their car (at 2 in the morning). They tell us if that doesn't work, they will sleep in their car until the morning. They had left a third friend with the car. So there would be 5 of us in a VW golf for the night. The decision was easy. We were going to sleep in the station until the morning, and then rent a car to take to the hostel.

Johannesburg / the worst 24 (part 2)

So, if you read the previous post - the first of the worst, you're probably thinking that what happened wasn't so bad. And it wasn't. It was just the beginning of a series of unfortunate events....

So we join our new Israeli friends on their adventure. South Africa has a bunch of animal reserves. Basically they put a fence around a large piece of land where wild animals live and declare it a park. You pay about a dollar per person and then drive through on your own taking pictures of the animals you see.

We went to Pilanesberg Game Reserve, which is one of the largest at 55,000 hectare. 1 hectare = 2.5 acres, so the park was approximately 137,500 acres. Right? Or something. I'm not good at math. Regardless, it was big. Gigantic even. The all inclusive tour would take three hours, we were told. Of course this was too long, so we decided to drive the shortened, hour tour. We were also given strict instructions to not leave our vehicles or roll down our windows more than half way. There were lions and hyenas in the park. This makes sense. So we start driving, see some elephants, a giraffe and baby giraffe. We're having fun. It's a narrow dirt road. The car we're in starts driving a bit faster and then swerving a bit - still having fun. And then the fun stops. Our car runs over a rock and into a ditch. We are stuck. Everyone has to exit the vehicle to survey the damage and attempt to unstick the car. We are in a game reserve surrounded by waist-high grass. The Israelis are yelling at each other in Hebrew, and I start to freak out. No one was eaten, thankfully. After an hour we got the car free and drove back the route we had taken. The car had a flat tire, which was fixed. We shake ourselves off, happy to have made it out alive.

At this point, we're running late to the game, which is the whole reason we were with the Israelis. We park the car at the stadium and start to run to the stadium. We quickly exchange phone numbers with the Israelis and a plan to meet back at the car after the game. We get to the stadium ten minutes late, and had missed Ghana's first goal. Bad mood. The game was good. Sad to have seen the US lose, but happy it was to an African team. So we start walking back to the shuttle to take us to the car.

This was our first game, and we quickly realized it wasn't very well organized. There were no lines just masses of people being funneled onto buses. We also realize there are many, many parking lots. And we also realize that neither of us can remember what parking lot our Israeli friends are at. The game went into overtime, so it's around 11:30pm by the time we find our way onto a bus, going to a parking lot we hope is the parking lot.

Johannesburg/ the worst 24 hours (part 1).

So we ended our drive in Port Elizabeth and were preparing to board a flight to Johannesburg for the next leg of the adventure. We flew on an airline, strangely named 1time air. It was here that things started to go bad. Our flight was delayed two hours putting us into Johannesburg around 11pm. The man from our hostel, Sunnyside Up, was waiting those extra 2 hours to pick us up. He drives us to the hostel. Apparently booking a chalet 'with the possibility of sharing with others' meant we were stuck in an 8 bed dorm. I went back through old emails, and never were the words 'dorm' or '8 bed bunk' mentioned. I argue with the man, Martin, and realize there is no alternative. So we head to our bunk.

It's the coldest winter South Africa has had since 1912. Our bunks were in a thinly insulated hut. And the rest of our bunkmates were Chilean dudes. All of whom had major snoring problems. Six of the loudest snorers I have ever heard, all snoring together. This and the cold permitted me to get about 2 hours of sleep that night. This hostel, too, was located in the middle of nowhere, and there were no towels for us to purchase, nor anywhere for us to walk and buy. So aside from the cold and my lack of sleep, I woke up dirty.

We go to the main lodge at the hostel to make some tea to warm and wake up. It's here that we meet some of the other hostel members: seven Israelis. The Israelis tell us they were at the game the night before and saw advertised tickets for the game that evening - the USA vs. Ghana game. When else are we going to get to see the USA play in South Africa? We go online and purchase tickets, with 9 minutes left to do this. The Israelis have two cars and say they have room to give us a ride to the game. Perfect! The game's at 8:30 pm and an hour and a half away in Rustenburg. The Israelis want to do touristy stuff in the area, so we tag along, leaving our hostel around noon.

This is our first tour through the northern part of South Africa. It's in the middle of the country, so it's more dusty and warmer than Cape Town. I very much prefer Cape Town to Johannesburg. And not just for the story that will follow.