Photo used with permission under a Creative Commons license with Axel Bührmann.

Austin Danforth, reporter with The Alexandria Times, is in South Africa for the World Cup. This is Danforth’s first travel dispatch for DCist from his trip. Keep an eye out for more.

By the time I successfully navigated check-in and security at JFK in New York City on Friday morning, more than a year of planning, studying and financial wrangling actually meant something. It was 10 a.m. on June 11, 2010. I was on vacation (after a year and a half). And I had nowhere to go but to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The large flat-screen TV set up in the Emirates waiting area — enchanting no fewer than five dozen other fans of varying loyalties — projected the tournament’s first game between the hosts, Bafana Bafana, and Mexico. The pilgrimage to a month-long soccer heaven on earth was finally underway.

But exciting as it all was, it’s pretty tough to live up to the hype of “the trip of a lifetime.” And, as the distant weeks leading up to the trip turned into anxious days, that’s what nearly everyone told me that my soccer-filled three weeks in South Africa would be.

Recently, though, with time running out for trip preparations, and plenty of work to fill my days, there were more questions than excited answers. While some concerns still linger, that’s all in the past now. From the first moments in line at the airport, jerseys and patriotic gear were everywhere. It seemed like the uplifting promotional commercials from ESPN — the ones featuring U2 tunes, narrated by Bono and splicing the best footage from recent World Cups and African celebrations — were accurate.

Soccer was finally front and center.