The South African Sojourn - Day 2: The dream is realised - Vamos Argentina!

12th June. 2010. A big day. A date that I had looked forward to for five whole months since I was informed through an SMS of a foreign transaction on my credit card in February 2010. Argentina were playing Nigeria at Ellis Park Jo'Burg and I had two tickets for the game. My dream was about to be realised. The blue and white. Messi! Maradona!!

We had done our homework on how to get to the stadium before leaving for South Africa. The South African state was to make public transport specially available for people traveling to the stadium. There would be special Metro buses arranged from Sandton and other hubs to West Gate. From West Gate there would be another set of buses - the Rea Vaya which would take us to Ellis Park. The information in the web was pretty comprehensive and I was armed with a list of locations where the World cup buses would stop. The first task however was to get to Sandton and we decided to take one of the most popular modes of SA transport - the Mini Bus Taxi.

Mini bus taxis are effectively largish Maruti vans/ Omnis used by the regular to get around. The mini bus taxis work very much like the auto rickshaws of Calcutta. They ply along set routes, from CBD to CBD, (CBD = Central Business District) and pick up people on the way. The most curious thing is that the complex set of hand signals that are used by passengers to communicate with the drivers of the vans, (there are books available at most SA book stores to teach the system).The taxis seat 15 people plus driver and are compact without being uncomfortable.

We also got a taste of the continued SA hospitality pervasive throughout the World Cup when a Zimbabwean working in Jo'Burg took time out to walk with us to Nelson Mandela Square from the Sandton CBD, just to show us where we would be getting transport back to our hotel. We would have to take cabs back to the hotel as the Mini Taxis stop plying after 7 PM, he also gave us his business card assuring us that we were free to call him in case we needed any help.

We had lunch at the Nelson Mandela Square food court, at Fish Away restaurant. We ordered the prawn meal which consisted of skewers of barbecued prawns served on a bed of yellow rice. The prawns were tasty enough although slightly bland. Overall a very very decent South African lunch and recommended.

We finished the meal and were soon on our way to catch the bus to the ground. We had read that the bus services were to start four hours before the match started. The match was to start at 4.30PM and we were at our bus stop by 12.45 PM - nice and early. The problem was that there was no bus in sight. Not until 1.00 PM, not until 1.30 PM which is when we started to get really tense.

I was fretting about, asking every policeman and volunteer about the bus and received blank stares in return. The only other person who seemed to know about the bus was this English fan we bumped into, who had availed the bus on the way back from the opening game and who had an annoying tendency to think about the worst outcomes and articulate the same. He was saying that it took two hours to get to the stadium and joking that it would make sense to sell our tickets as there was not way we would be able to reach in time. I can tell you I hated him every time he uttered that statement.
We were so persuasive in our appeals to the police to help us that we also managed to force a policeman to hold up traffic and stop a regular Metro bus only to find out that the World Cup buses were different and this one could not take us to Ellis Park. The only positive out of this was that we ran into two Zambians who were also searching for the buses. One, a resident of Jo Burg and not going to the match, the other was his friend who had come all the way from Zambia to watch Argentina play. The Jo Burg resident was giving his friend a longer than expected ride to the Metro Bus. The love of football unites like no other and all of us entered the Zambians car. Two Indians, One Englishman and Two Zambians all searching for a bus to take us to the match- the truly unique World Cup experience.

We ended up driving for a good 5 minutes going from stop to stop when we finally saw a bus stop which said that it was a special World Cup stop and decided to wait, pray and hope.

We waited at the stop for a good twenty minutes, survived one false start (in the shape of a regular Non World Cup bus) and around twenty fatalistic English comments. Finally, the bus I have looked forward to most in my life, arrived at around 2.30 PM. We were the first passengers on the bus and I almost leaped for joy on finding out that the bus was the right one and we were finally on our way to watch the World Cup.
The journey was smooth after that and we made good time reaching Westgate by 3:00 PM. From there we boarded the Rea Vaya (the tickets were being sold in the bus itself) and found a large number of fans already on it - some had suitcases and had arrived straight from the airport. We could hear chants from Nigerians and Argentinians as we approached Ellis Park.

Once we reached Ellis Park, it was all a blur. The fans, the approach, the stadium, the atmosphere was overwhelming and we could barely stop and collect our thoughts before being overwhelmed again. The organisation at the stadium was excellent. The check in process was very smooth. After going through metal detectors one could enter the stadium premises the MICR code on ones ticket was confirmed.

Soon enough we found ourselves inside the stadium and blessed with 6th row tickets on the end of the pitch where the Argentines were about to embark on their pre match practice.

In all its glory, right in front of us was the chemistry and love between Diego Maradona and the Argentines. El Diego was like a lion who knew he was the star of the show and the main man. He was lapping up the pre match attention. All the tricks were being paraded. Clapping at the crowd. Parading in front of them. Pointing at them. Thumping the AFA crest and saluting them. Pointing to a baby in the crowd and blowing kisses. Here was God in front of his adoring subjects and loving every single moment of it. The stands were a sea of Blue and White - one flag will particularly stand out in memory - that of Mr Javier Catena's uniqe passion and indicating the years he had supported Argentina at world cups.

The match in itself was good without being great - the house came down when Heinze scored and the world was a beautiful place after that. Shortly after, beer was spilled on us when some Argentine fans started fighting with some locals over seats and sitting in the rightful place. The police intervened but not before there was a decent exchange of fisticuffs. It sort of made the football experience complete I guess, but that was an experience we could have done without - the picture on the right is of the hooligans although at the time it was taken - they were just slightly over excited Argentine fans.
On the way back we were again treated to first class SA hospitality with some locals offering to walk us to the Metro Bus stop after theRea Vaya dropped us off at the Westgate hub. We reached Sandton and took a paid Taxi to our hotel to complete travel on all varieties of Jo'Burg transport in a single day. Exhausted and overwhelmed, we returned to our hotel, laden with memories of a lifetime. Argentina 1, Nigeria 0. Fifa 2010. We were there. Vamos Albiceleste! Hasta la victoria, Siempre!