Stormers vs Crusaders

 After spending most of the day at the waterfront it was time for the rugby game. We had only found out about the tickets the day before, and everything was sort of last minute, but things just seemed to fall into place. Our plan (this is what Dirk told us was the best way to do this before he left for Swellendam) was to take the train from Cape Town to Nuweland. After the waterfront the bus dropped us off at the station. Charl, who was basically in charge with Dirk gone, got off the bus with us and took us aside. He basically told us "don't talk to anyone, don't make eye contact with anyone on the train." He then gave us his phone number and his dad's phone number (just in case, call if anything happens), and told us how to use the train. We had to get a metro rail plus (first class) ticket to Nuwelands. It cost R7 ($1) for the first class ticket. I can't imagine what coach was like. The first class car was pretty sketchy. There was graffiti all over the inside of it. We had to sit on little benches along the sides of the car, and these people kept walking up and down the car trying to sell stuff. One lady was selling snacks and drinks, one guy was selling leg warmers, and one guy was selling smarties (the candy) and superglue. I can't think of a situation when I would need any of those things on a train ride.

But we survived the train and made it to Nuwelands (Newlands in English. Everything is bilingual here). Newlands field is the home of the Western Province Stormers, who we were there to see play the Christchurch Crusaders in the Super 15 Rugby Semi-finals. We met the guy who we were buying the tickets from. He was a really nice guy, and he was definitely legitimate. He had bought the whole row to sell and sat just down from us and talked with us during the game. We had the supposed "cheap seats", but we were really close to the field, only about ten rows or so up. The view in the picture on the left is what I could see from my seat. The guy was selling the tickets for a profit, but he really only made about R50 from each one.

That's the Stormers team! That's who we were there to support. It was a good game, unfortunately the Stormers ultimately lost. I was pretty much able to figure out what was going on throughout the game, at least I got the gist of it. This game was a really big deal especially. Instead of it just being about two rival teams, South Africa and New Zealand put their internal rivalries aside and supported each team nationally. South Africa was for the most part supporting the Stormers (even though during the year the South African teams have rivalries with the Stormers), and New Zealand supported the Crusaders. There were a lot of South African and New Zealand flags, and lots of people at the game were actually wearing Springbok (South African national team that competes for the Rugby World Cup) and Allblack (New Zealand) gear to support their country.

There's me down there! We had two blocks of seats with one row in between. The three of us down there are together. Check out the Stormers jerseys!

 Here's the other guys two rows up!

 This guy a few rows in front of me was on the wrong side of the stadium! He was attracting way too much attention. People were booing and shouting at him in Afrikaans. When someone finally pulled the flag down everyone on this side of the stadium cheered.









Even though the Stormers lost it was a really good experience. I had a lot of fun. The cool thing about Rugby is that the clock keeps going for two 40 minute halves. It makes the game go really fast. It was cool to experience a real rugby game. One of the funniest things was the food that they were selling at the stadium. You couldn't get a pretzel or nachos or anything like that, instead there was a guy walking around with a big tray of doughnuts selling them! There was also a guy with this weird backpack on, which I later found out was full of hot chocolate which he dispensed into styrofoam cups through a tube!

After the game we left the stadium and had to walk down the street to the Southern Sun hotel where our ride was supposed to pick us up. We didn't take the train back to Stellenbosch. That would have been too dangerous, especially at night. Instead we used our tour guide, Johan. He had been working with Jan Willem, and had organized a lot of side trips for the people who wanted to go shark diving or skydiving. He had a bus come to pick us up and take us back to Stellenbosch. It was a good relief to know that we were getting back safely with someone we trusted. The game was only about two hours long, and we were back in Stellenbosch by about 8 in the evening. Even though it was so last minute things really worked out perfectly for us. We got back to Stellenbosch all together and alive, which was great. Getting to see this game was one of the most fun things I've done here yet! (and that's saying something!)


I saw this sign at Newland field and had to get a photo. No musical instruments allowed! No vuvuzelas, guitars, or drums!