Bought the Book

Well, we're getting a little closer to South Africa.

I went out and bought a f*cking Lonely Planet.

Australians love Lonely Planet. It was apparently founded thirty some-odd years ago by travel loving Brits that made Melbourne their home. Every upper middle-class home in Australia has a f*cking bookshelf full of their own Lonely Planet collection to show off to their visitors.

Wow, you went to Peru? I've always wanted to go there.

My home in Melbourne even has the USA and Texas editions of the Aussie travel bible - how's that for irony.

They love to tell you about how Australians are so cultured because they spend so much of their lives overseas - but it usually means a few trips to cheap Asia, the compulsory year in London, and a two week long trip to New York and LA.

I know that Americans suck at international travel, but good lord stop with the preaching about world travel already.

Anyway, I bought the Lonely Planet - South Africa edition the other day. Why is costs $45 AUD in its hometown but I can get get it on Amazon.com for $19.73 AUD is beyond me.

Then, like true American tourist dorks - Herrmann and I went to one of those hip Melbourne laneway bars last Friday afternoon to look through it and decide that we really need to get serious about the trip.

The strangest thing about the Lonely Planet is that it doesn't have a separate World Cup section, it just sorta talks about WC venues in respective cities. That and headlines like this:

"The 2010 World Cup will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but Southern Africa offers a plethora of memorable activities such as the following:"

Which then lists 10 random active sports activities such as paragliding, bungee jumping, and pony trekking - three things I can guarantee will not be part of our "once-in-a-lifetime experience."

So, I'll dive into the book and try to find out more, and I've been hunting around a few other travel Web sites such as the official South Africa travel site.

We're almost a month away from the official draw when we'll know where we'll need to be - now we just need to get there.