On Saturday 5 March we took a train to Daegu where we climbed on the 10:00 bus bound for Gwangju. You may remember from a couple of posts ago that the bus ride is 3 hours. This was a 3 hours that was filled with Choc-Holic AND Blueberry Yogurt Ice Cream; A failed attempt to sleep which became a semi successful attempt at a nap, and of course Muse; Parlotones; One Sock Thief; Box Car Racer and Eagles of Death Metal. Before Ash and I knew it we had arrived@U Square – the location of the main bus terminal in Gwangju.
After a failed attempt to play a joke on Soekie, we hightailed it back to her place to drop off our stuff and then sped in the opposite direction to the Gwangju World Cup Stadium to try and catch the start of the game.
We actually found our seat about 7min in but it was all good. It was a dull 1st half, no goals. We were sitting in the West Stand by the Corner flag. Good viewing ground.
The ground was not as impressive as Soccer City but to be realistic – it would take a lot to beat a ground that seats 90 000 and hosted the 2010 World Cup Final. After more FAILS trying to find out where Soekie’s friends were sitting we closed that door and just decided to enjoy the game and see if they found us (Which in the end, they – Rachel, Krista, Jurgen and a new South African arrival to Gwangju: Amori... did).
Come the 2nd half the game livened up and Gwangju took the lead through some shocking defending, only for Daegu to equalise and then take the lead in the space of 10min Things were going great for Daegu until roughly the 80th minute where a goal against the run of play and then a penalty on 87 min lead to the game finishing 3-2 to Gwangju.
We actually found our seat about 7min in but it was all good. It was a dull 1st half, no goals. We were sitting in the West Stand by the Corner flag. Good viewing ground.
The ground was not as impressive as Soccer City but to be realistic – it would take a lot to beat a ground that seats 90 000 and hosted the 2010 World Cup Final. After more FAILS trying to find out where Soekie’s friends were sitting we closed that door and just decided to enjoy the game and see if they found us (Which in the end, they – Rachel, Krista, Jurgen and a new South African arrival to Gwangju: Amori... did).
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| Left to Right: Jurgen, Anne Marie, Ashli, Soekie, Rachel, Krista |
Come the 2nd half the game livened up and Gwangju took the lead through some shocking defending, only for Daegu to equalise and then take the lead in the space of 10min Things were going great for Daegu until roughly the 80th minute where a goal against the run of play and then a penalty on 87 min lead to the game finishing 3-2 to Gwangju.
After a significant amount of indecision and mulling around we eventually got on a city bus bound for Downtown Gwangju where we had (well... I had) a lot of baked chicken for supper. It was there that I got to chat to and get to know, Jurgen – originally from KZN but has lived all around the country, qualified in carpentry I believe. I think the last time I got to have a “male conversation” solely about sports was back in August last year with Ian from England. It was great we talked about Rugga but mainly (and for obvious reasons) cricket. We did so for about 2.5hours in total that night, interspersed with darts (which I was terrible at) at Soul Train (a bar). Following Soul Train we went to Ethnic Cafe where we chilled for the rest of our night out.
Put simply, that was my past weekend in Gwangju – short and concise for all you avid readers.
My next post will be a re-cap of Sandy’s Birthday weekend. Her birthday is today so I dedicate this post to her :)
Have a good one brave and fellow intrepid travellers!
Stay tuned to Geoff’s Asian Adventures for more wacky fun
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