Blogs from Free State, South Africa, Africa - page 4

Pretoria was an experience. Although we were unable to get to the Voortrekker monument, as it is very out of the way in a sense; I myself had a great time. Piet,Nathan and I took a minibus from Joburg to Pretoria. It was Nathans' first time in a minibus taxi, so that was interesting..haha. The driver was the best first experience for the poor guy. The taxi was rattling like it was about to fall apart the entire time, as the driver flew over every bump and hill. Nathan seemed to enjoy it though and he made some friends on the bus, taking photos like a true tourist. of course there was the standard "Howu!" reaction to three umlungus that pezulu and hamba kwakumbi.. so once we arrived to Pretoria, we walked around a bit, visiting ... read more

June 20, 21, 22 For the past two days it has been cold and both Chris and I were walking around with closed up noses and feeling a bit off, so we have spent our days tucked under the blankets with boozing medicine. On 21 June we decided to try out the Pizzaria that we heard about and took a drive to the Tower of Pizza. We had the most fantastic pizza that I tasted in a long time. All the pizza names have been named after the different peaks found in the mountain range. Very original. They had shovels made into chairs and though it wasn’t as comfortable as a normal chair it was unique and gave the place a great atmosphere. The restaurant was built in an old colonial style, surrounded by big trees. ... read more

June 18, 2009 The morning we sat in front of the laptops, checking emails, and Chris edited some pics. We are so glad that there are some 3G available here. It keeps us in touch with the rest of the world. Well today we had to run some errands. We had to go to town to get some more supplies and then get the car checked out. So we went into the small town of Bergville. It is a bit of a one horse town. We went to the SPAR for food, and then had to go to the KFC for some Yummy burgers. We bought some things a couple of days back from the little shop at the campsite, and about 5 items was just as expensive as buying a whole trolley worth of food. ... read more

June 16, 2009 We woke up to see what the damage was after a night of heavy winds. But we were lucky, no damage done. Almost everyone in the campsite is packing up and going home, I cant describe the feeling of knowing you still have a week when everyone else will go back to work. It is rather cold and miserable. The clouds are heavy and I excpct it will rain sometime today. Our energy levels were low and we had no plan to do any kind of hiking, so instead we sit and play on the net, yet again. At about 3pm we decide a hot bath would be good and then have a early dinner of Pork fillet wrapped in bacon, black mushrooms with garlic and cheese and pasta with a honey mustard ... read more

So prior to the wedding we just had to go back to the motherland - South Africa. So we made the arrangements and got on the plane for the long flight(s). For the first time I decided to go through Europe. We went to Minneapolis and then Amsterdam and then South Africa. So just a little advice. If you fly to South Africa from the US - go through Europe. It is a couple hours more flight time, but breaking up the flight and being able to just walk around between flights were incredible. We got to Amsterdam at 6 in the morning, watched the sunrise, had a Heineken, and were out cold on the plane to South Africa. Got there around 10 at night and was a whole ordeal with seeing the parents the first ... read more