Josie… in the house!! (that one’s for you, Alissa and Jamie 🙂 Pulled into Johannesburg just after noon (after yet another 6am bus journey, this one out of Gabarone, Botswana) to the biggest skyline we’ve seen since the last time I was in LA (Gabarone was… okay. Nothing really good, nothing really bad). Massive, 6-lane freeways, huge, towering skyscrapers, tens of millions of people all around… on top of Jo’burg being known as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, there was a huge, government worker strike going on that looked quite violent on the news. Needless to say we were a tad nervous about landing at the bus depot in the heart of downtown which supposedly is one of the worse places in the city, but upon arrival found that it isn’t all that bad and after a short wait got picked up by the hostel (the bus depot itself is actually quite nice). According to the Lonely Planet the “Diamond Diggers” Backpacker is the place to be, but we found it offered very little beyond a jacuzzi in the bar (I like it!!), and a bunch of really weird people running the joint that were better to avoid if possible.
Hit McDonalds for the first time since Cairo, six months prior (and the next day, too!) then walked over to the mall (Johannesburg is safe to walk around if in the suburbs)… seemed so strange being in a mall filled with white people!
Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but Afrikaaners are an interesting breed… every time we meet one I’m afraid of what’s going to come out of their mouth (Afrikaaners are the white South Africans that come from a Dutch background way back when… the Afrikaans language is similar to Dutch). Minibuses are referred to as “Black Taxis” (and we’ve been advised many times now to never go on one in SA, though I have doubts about how bad they actually are), there’s often ownership implied about the blacks (“Let me get my Black Man to help you with the garage door”), the Afrikanners are usually incredibly rude to the blacks (keep seeing white managers yelling at black workers)… it’s all so hard to watch, and like I said I’m always afraid of what I might see (they tend to be quite behind the times in appearance as well). Apartheid might be gone now but I truly think it will take the older generation dying off before the attitude goes. Amazingly most black people we’ve met so far are incredibly nice to us (they must realize we’re not from around here or something)… had a good laugh when one guy told us he wouldn’t go to Kenya because it was too dangerous.
Next day we got a lift out to the airport and picked up a rental car!!! They’re cheap in SA (around $20 a day) so we’re planning on keeping it for the next month or 2 while we drive through Namibia and South Africa. Not only is it nerve-wracking driving for the first time in 9 months, but the streets in Jo’burg are a twisted mess, there are millions of cars on the roads, traffic lights are often hard to spot and might not work, there’s a good chance of being hijacked if in the wrong part of town… all this, driving on the other side of the road. Yikes!!!
Day three we took a trip across town to the Apartheid Museum which oddly shares a parking lot with a casino and an amusement park (strange sensation reading about the atrocities of apartheid while listening to the screams of a rollercoaster). It was a very modern museum, incredibly well done, likely the most powerful museum I’ve ever been to in my life. Afterwards we managed to navigate ourselves across town to the northern suburb of Melville for dinner (had kind of a Commercial Drive feel, right near the Jo’burg University); followed by an attempt to return to our eastern suburb of Kensington, but just like in a movie ended up lost in the heart of Hillsbrow which is probably the worst neighbourhood in the city (even had people burning fires in barrels at the sides of the road). But alas we managed to find our way back eventually, unscathed, and with some added pride for the day’s accomplishments!
Began a new era of the trip the next morning, leaving when we wanted, not caring where the bus station was, when the bus left, or how long it takes for the bus to fill with people. Nice…
Blurry skyline
Apartheid museum sign
Apartheid museum sign
Skyline
Inside museum
Me!