A dream come true

Even though we are seasoned soccer travelers, this World Cup is a first for us.

By BRIAN LEVIN
brian levin world cup 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
brian levin world cup 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Ever since the European Championships in 2004, I have been planning for the Mundial 2010 in South Africa. As an ex South African this is my dream, a world cup back in the old country. We leave tomorrow morning and the three-week party begins.
Even though we are seasoned soccer travelers, this World Cup is a first for us.
Over a year ago, when the first tickets were made available to the public, we applied and were successful in getting tickets for three of the last 16 games in the Johannesburg area. We also have tickets for the semifinal in Durban.
Tickets for the final will be a little more difficult for us to get.
The atmosphere there will be awesome for us, as this is not only an amazing football experience: we are also travelling to the Kruger National Park, the Drakensberg mountains, Umhlanga sea resort and the Hlluwe game reserve.
To cap it off we are going to the Garden route where the youngsters are planning to bungy at Storms river, the highest natural bungy jump in the world.
My world cup travel advice is get in early and you can save yourselves a lot of money. We bought our El Al tickets last September and paid $935, whereas today the same tickets are over double that price.
Let me introduce you to our group. I, Brian Levin, am an accountant by profession, and the founder of the successful Efrat F.C.
Judy Levin, my wife, is a nursery school teacher. She’s coming along to have a great time.
Yoni levin, our 24-year-old son, is a property manager and electricalcontractor. Yoni has built us the best sports bar and deck in Israel.
David Epstein, our Australian friend, is an acoustic engineer. We are taking him to curb the sound of the vuvuzelas.
Yehuda Kleiman is our butcher friend. He is in charge ofthe braais (African barbecues). He has heard so muchabout South Africa, especially the biltong (curedmeat) and boerewors (sausage).
We will be sending you our reports and pictures, and hope you will sit back and enjoy.