Pretoria - Cameroon vs. Denmark

The Denmark vs. Cameroon game was my first game outside of Johannesburg. This posed certain transportation challenges. There's really no information about traveling around the country. It took me two days to figure out there was a train between Johannesburg and Pretoria, where the game was. I also got a number of different answers as to what the train schedule actually was, so I decided to leave very early, leaving at 10:30 AM for an 8:30 PM game.

I got a cab to the train station, only to find that the train station closest to my guest house didn't have any way to actually buy tickets, or any indication as to which train was going to Pretoria. I had to take a short walk to a different train station. There, I found that the ticket was only R9, or R15 for first class. I decided to splurge. I headed down to the tracks and noticed a curious phenomenon. The sign indicating the ETA for the train kept getting pushed back every minute until the train actually arrived, and it seemed that one train was an hour late. It did not run with the efficiency of the KTX. Nor was it as comfortable as the KTX. The train itself was rather dirty and dark, though first class was better and advertised more security. Hawkers walked up and down the train with chocolate, oranges, and newspapers. It was a slow journey - about an hour and a half - but considering that a taxi would cost about R500-700, I considered it a bargain.

Getting off at the train station, I sought information. I got two different answers as to when the last train was. A woman at the ticket window told me 7:30 PM, which obviously wouldn't work. A woman at the information booth told me the last train was specifically for the World Cup, at 11:20 PM. I hoped the latter was correct, but resigned myself to the possibility of taking a taxi back. I also couldn't get any information about what to do in Pretoria while I killed a few hours. Thus I just wandered down the street. It was a beautiful day and Pretoria is an interesting city. The city hall and church square are definitely European. Your average stores and apartment buildings look frozen in the 1970's, from the architecture to the style of font on the signs.

I stumbled across the Transvaal Museum, which is dedicated to natural history. They had impressive collections of stuffed birds and African animals, an extensive exhibit on the minerals of South Africa, and a good introduction to the evolution of life (if you actually believe that scientific voodoo). My favorite part of the place though was the various examples of proto-human "apemen" in peril. The models included:

- Apeman being eaten by tiger
- Apeboy being attacked by eagle
- Apeman being eaten by tiger
- Apeman falling into pit
- Apeman being eaten by tiger
- Ape family being attacked by eagle AND tiger simultaneously

Those weren't typos; there were actually four tiger vs. apeman scenarios.

After the museum I tried to find a bar where I could watch the Australia vs. Ghana game. I had to settle on a small TV at Wimpy. At this time I got a miraculous call; it turned out that John was also in Pretoria, with his car, and he was attempting to get a ticket for the game. With this is mind I headed to the stadium, again very early. How do you kill 3 hours before a game? Well, there was the second half of the Australia/Ghana game. After that, there was an entertainment booth with games and contests and prizes and such. I need to try to get to one of these next time. There was a soccer trivia contest in which I would have crushed the contestants. I did win a fan pack courtesy of a puerile question about MTN mobile phones. The fan pack contained some face paint, a tattoo, some wetnaps, and, thankfully, EARPLUGS. This was great as I had dropped my earplugs in a puddle of beer at the USA/Slovenia game.

Once the novelty of this wore off, I headed into the stadium, shoved my earplugs in, and read. Yes, I know, I'm lame. John was unable to get a ticket and was watching the game at the bar, despite the fact that the stadium wasn't close to sold out. Nice, FIFA. By an astonishing coincidence, I was sitting next to a chap named Kevin. Like me, Kevin was a North American (Canadian) supporting Denmark. Like me, Kevin was an English teacher in Korea. How about that?

Denmark started terribly, with a ridiculous pass out of the defense allowing Samuel Eto'o to give Cameroon the lead. A great cross from Dennis Rommedahl allowed Bendtner to equalize with a tap-in - the only kind of goal he's likely to score. After half time, Rommedahl cut in from the right and curled a shot past the Cameroonian keeper. After that the game was fairly open, with Tomasson spurning a great chance to tie the record as Denmark's all-time leading scorer. Sorensen had to make a couple of good saves. The atmosphere from the Danish fans was good, although it's virtually impossible to hear anything in these games.

After the victory, I stormed out of the stadium trying to find John. After some awful directions from police and a lot of running, I was finally able to meet up with him and get a ride back to Jo'burg. Sure beats the train.