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Published: August 5th 2007
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South African Airways
Did you know that all other airlines serve free boos? Everyone got pissed on the flight from Nairobi to Joberg! It was great fun! Hello everyone! I know I know and I am very very sorry!! It has been a long hot month in Asia and I have spent the last week and a half just resting and relaxing in Sydney and I havent told you guys anything when there is soooooo much to say and show you!
First off, I left my photos behind in Cape Town due to a little mistake I made in the am/pm departure time department which led to a very hungover.... well, drunk actually, rush to pack and make an early plane. And what can I say, a blog entry just isnt a blog entry without the photographs! These ones I have managed to get up arent the half of them and I will hopefully get an entry in the end with all my photos that you have all missed out on.
Sooooo.... Lets take you back in time a few months to about June 16th when I finally left Kenya to head down to South Africa!!! The country that started this massive trip in the first place....
When I first arrived I was lucky to get to stay with some old friends of my fathers...
and its great to hear about my long haired hippie father, as I retrace some of his steps, and his escapades with women and angry afrikaners, both chasing him, on separate occasions... I hope. Anyways I stayed with the Classen family which was very educational, full of fresh home made biltong (greatly appreciated as I had just finished reading both of lawrence van der posts books about the boy and the dog eating biltong, now i know what it is!) and tongue stew, (you know how I like my traditional foods!) as well as a great historical tour of Pretoria AND a trip to the Supreme courts where I got to sit in on some happenings as well as take a personal tour of Mandelas cell where you can find the freedom charter as well as lots of other messages, both inspiring and frightful, written on the walls. I sat in the chair where the judges sentenced Mandela and imagined myself back in time streaking through the halls in protest! (and you thought I was going to give you an intellectual moment there didnt ya!) But really, I had a very interesting experience... It is really something to sit down
your first night with a bunch of young white people, much like myself but with funny accents, having a brye (sp?) and relaxing with a couple drinks answering the usual question... so why did you want to visit South Africa? "Oh well you know I studied it a bit at Uni in my politics course, my senior exit class, and Ive always been interested" oh really, what class would that be? "Oh this class called After Evil." No, well I just have to say that didn't go down very well and after some rather shocked looks people didnt really speak to me that much anymore....
After that I was a little more careful... Oh wait, no, I wasnt.
But what can I say about South Africa... the Cape is so stunningly beautiful and full of life, in all degrees of poverty and colour, that I couldn't help but get caught up in the everyday and the sights and sounds the land has to offer. I had a pretty white-washed experience however, even though that does seem to contrast my last statement. But how can I express to you a colourful painting that has been whitewashed over but through
which I can still see colours? Through which the sun still burns bright yellow and the water reflects the blue sky, through which the plainest beige beach still appears as warm as ever and the mountains are giant crystals of blue brown green and gold. The whitewashing is just a plastic screen which I am priviledged enough to carry with me for my viewing pleasure on this trip. It lets me drive by young black men in the intersections selling joke cards for 5 rand, oranges and flowers, paintings and beaded bowls, elephants, butterflys, scenes of cape town with the windows rolled up all the way and the doors firmly locked. It lets me ignore the compliments and lines of coloured men getting out of the car and into the same club as I because, as I was told, "We don't associate with them." It lets me cruise from neighborhood to neighboorhood, higher up the mountain to look down at the townships stretching out below. My whitewashed plastic screen, for my viewing pleasure on my trip to Cape Town. But it feels rather heavy to lug from place to place. And when I drive on the highway, speeding past the
Joberg Hotel
This is one of the great things about couch surfing... My great friend Keith Magee (refer to Dublin blog) wrote me an email as he was going to be in Joberg on buisness and knowing that I would be in South Africa around the same time thought we could met up. He also thought that I could use a bed and kindly let me know that he was booking a double on the company bill and that I could stay whenever! Needless to say I did! townships, seeing only tin roof after tin roof and the electricity polls with wires spanning out like circus tents to tvs and radios below, (a sign of changing times, a sign of improvement?) I wonder if this whitewashed plastic screen, included bonus with the purchase of colonial gain for my viewing pleasure, is really my ball and chain.
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