Jammin' in Johannesburg


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Africa » South Africa » Gauteng » Johannesburg
July 14th 2010
Published: September 3rd 2010
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July 14th

With a full day in Johannesburg to enjoy, Nicio and I made plans to go head over to the Bruma Flea Market. We had a breakfast at the hostel and even made friends with an English chica named Gemma. She decided she wanted to get some shopping done as well so she joined us on our adventure to the Bruma Flea Market.

The three of us made the 30 minute walk down to the market and talked about our travels thus far, Gemma had only just begun her voyage and would be leaving South Africa in a few days, bound for the south Pacific, Australia and New Zealand to be precise.

We spent more than a few hours walking around the market, being hounded by vendors trying to sell us the remaining World Cup souvenirs that they had surplus of. The three of us got some good deals on jerseys and jackets, but I still couldn’t find any of the country flag badges I was looking for. We had lunch at the market after getting our shopping taken care of, the variety of foods available was great, everything from Indian to Chinese, Turkish and South African. I decided on the doner kebab because it had been ages (since Amsterdam to be exact) since I had one. Yuuuum!

After stuffing our faces and spending too much money at the market we headed back to the backpackers lodge to rest a bit and prepare for a night out in Johannesburg. Nicio and I’s good friend, Justin, from the African Trails trip, was having a goodbye party at a pretty posh bar and restaurant later that night.

So after taking naps and getting cleaned up the three of us took a taxi to an area of JB known as Sandton. We met up with Justin, who I hadn’t seen since saying goodbye in Botswana. The last time I saw him his knee was the size of a grapefruit due to an “earthquake” that Luke and I had given him in the Okavango Delta. We all caught up on our recent history in South Africa and Lesotho, drank beers and met some of Justin’s university friends. As the night whinded down Nicio, Gemma and I met more people and ended up going to their place after the bar had closed. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing FIFA on the playstation and talking about the World Cup, good times!

We didn’t get back to the hostel until the sun came up and had a tough time getting in at 5am, if I remember the time correctly. Nicio nearly scaled the wall outside Brown Sugar Backpackers before they finally opened the gate for us. We headed straight for our beds and fell asleep faster than Italy were knocked out of the World Cup.

July 15th

After sleeping off our hangovers and talking about the night we had before the three of us made plans to visit the Apartheid Museum that afternoon. We added another to the crew of hostelers, this time a Frenchman named Francois, if I remember correctly.

We allotted about 3 hours to enjoy the museum by to be honest 3 days would not have been enough. There was sooo much history and information to go through that it was just overwhelming. The museum was remarkable though, truly well organized and done in a very respectful manner that such a history and time in South Africa’s history it deserved. I was very pleased to visit the museum and try and take in all that had happened in the recent few decades. The amount of attention and detail that went into everything in the museum was something to be marveled, and just reading all the articles and bits of information would take you days, it’s that well done. However after three hours we had sped through the museum so we could get out by the five o’clock closing time.

The four of us then piled back into a taxi and headed for the hostel. I had suggested we do some cooking of our own at Brown Sugar, so on the way back we stopped at a supermarket and picked up some groceries. Chicken, veggies and wine being the purchases for dinner, as I already had enough pasta to make a salad that my mom would have been proud of.

That night we feasted like kings and drank like the Germans. Lots of wine and beer was flowing and we met more people that had been visiting the southern hemisphere of the African continent for the World Cup. It was a great night, many card games were played and stories were told amongst the French, American, Swedish, Norwegian, Canadian and Brazilians. It was another late night in the Sout African capitol but well worth it!

Hope you like the photos, until next time, Pura Vida!
-Brendan



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