Posted by Leander Schaerlaeckens

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- The World Cup is over here, bookended by last night's semifinal between the Netherlands and Uruguay.

You can feel it in everything. You can see it in everything.

Most glaringly, the fans are gone. The city was speckled with orange and baby blue yesterday, as droves of supporters flocked to the city's splendid Green Point Stadium. There, the city just turned plain orange.

A club below the hotel thumped until deep into the night, the voices of the drunk and delirious belting out songs louder than the sound system did. Anticipation had lingered in the air all day. At the stadium, and spilling into the streets thereafter, it had come to a frantic, frolicking climax.

Walking through the city this morning, there were no more fans once I got away from my hotel. The sound of vuvuzelas, once a constant drone humming in the background like traffic, was mostly gone. Every now and then a quick toot reminded of the stranglehold they'd once had on the city. The orange is gone. The baby blue is gone.

Street vendors try desperately to unload their now-obsolete World Cup gear at discounted prices. Their orange and baby blue sold out. Everything else is still available.

World Cup fever has broken, the gold rush abated. Here, the party is over.