Opa!

Friday was the penultimate day for the team at HQ Durban, so the obligatory last minute shopping and to do’s would commence. Mark and Janet ventured off to the shopping centre to fight the hoards of people, whilst Kim and I managed spend a few hours with our new mate Sifiso (Simon). Sifiso is from Johannesburg and travels to Durban regularly as his grandmother lives approximately 30 mins out of town. For the World Cup it was an opportunity to spend time in Durban and obtain regular work to increase his savings for his further education.

We were lucky enough to meet Simon a few days in to our trip at HQ, working on one of the outlets in food alley. His tom foolery attracted our attention and from that day forth a new friendship was fostered. We are not even sure of how old Sifiso is, but an educated guess would tell us he is in his early 20’s. After giving us an education in Zulu and South African, and also telling us the places to visit, we thought it best to repay his kindness with a quiet drink and a meal at one of the local establishments.

Now on our walk down to the beachside, it was then we discovered that whilst he knew where we should go, he had never once ever visited any of these establishments. As a result and with no hesitation, we thought it best that our new friend be treated to a morning at the Ushaka Marine World. The delight on his face whilst visiting the animal enclosures and water slide areas was truly priceless. Our warm hearted new friend was full of knowledge and wisdom, but on the inside he had always known that with money at a premium, he would never probably ever get to see the things he knew so much about.

From Ushaka we ventured down towards the live site where Sifiso was to work for a half days pay from 1pm to 9pm. On the walk down we presented him with a new Australian jersey as an appreciation of his kindness during our stay. It was at this point I think he had decided that he didn’t want to work any longer that day, but we encouraged him to do so and promised that we could meet him again the next day. So with a smile on his face, and a strut of excitement Sifiso trundled off yelling across the parade that he was now a very proud Australian.

This afternoon saw a procession of Portuguese and Brazilian fans flock through the city down to Moses Mobheda stadium. The tickets were at a premium for this game and the hottest of the World Cup to date. Unfortunately for the 4 of us we missed the opportunity to purchase 6 tickets for the match earlier on the tour. Fortunately though we didn’t have to pay the $100 dollars for each ticket to view what in the end turned out to be somewhat of a fizzer. Interestingly enough though, the price of tickets now via personal sales had started to become...well simply ridiculous. There were individual tickets for the game being held for AU$500, even though they were category 3 and as far away as you could possibly be from the playing surface without actually sitting in front of the tv. I have even seen a ticket for the England and Germany game advertised at AU$800.

After the match we headed up to one of the local upmarket areas of Florida rd. Florida rd boasts not only great shopping but a plethora of restaurants and food outlets. With the requirement to meet with 3 other friends, and the absolute necessity to view this evening’s match between Spain and Chile, we walked the hill to find an establishment with all of our requirements. And there it was, the final selection of a Greek restaurant that was all bar empty. Perfect....right in front of the tv and a premium service due to no customers.....incorrect assumption number 402.
Over the next half an hour, the steady flow of fellow hungry soccer starved fans increased to the point where there was simply no longer any space for people to fit. We would be fine though of course as the entrees had been ordered and not long served. The mood was also heightened by the fact that the drinks were cold and the group of 7 enormously impressed by the waiter’s ability to digest our mains order without the use of a paper or pen. That was until 1 hour later.

So the game now kicks off and the atmosphere within the confines of the walls was absolutely fantastic. In fact the whole surroundings resembled what could have been seen as some sort of joke...there were 20 Brazilians, 8 Australians, 10 Portuguese and 3 Argentineans all sitting in a restaurant......unfortunately though this was no joke. A part of the way through the first half of the match, the waiter returns to advise that he is sorry for the wait and that they were under staffed and will get the meals out as soon as they could.....that was until he then returned for a second time some 15 mins later and advised that the computer system had crashed and they were not 100 percent sure of the order of which we had placed. In all honesty, the delay was seen to be coming from miles away and the waiter in actually fact was killing it with regards to trying to make all members of the establishment content.

Eventually after 4 of us had completed our mains, the final 3 meals were presented and the hungry mob was now pleased...well at most. To declare the meals as authentic Greek may have been a little exaggeration of the truth, but all in all they were technically Greek and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time at Durban’s only Greek comedy restaurant!