Blogs from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, Africa - page 29

It has been awhile... times have been quite hectic lately- World Cup is basically here and it shows... people swamping into the hostel- of all cultures and types... miscommunication is rampant as no one here speaks Korean and I speak more Spanish than anyone- and that is basically nothing!! But things are good... watching some great games lately, meeting interesting people- and of course we get the ones that - well- are less desirable... I do not understand why some people travel, they just want to feel like they are still at home, why not just stay at home and give us less of a headache?? I will have photos soon of our trip to the Lion Park ( and feeding the giraffes)- plus last night we went to see Die Radio Kalahari Orkes, my favourite ... read more

Also, I forgot to pass on, Laura's travel blog is up and running! http://www.asirt.org/TravelBlog/tabid/285/EntryId/1/From-A-to-B-Safely-A-Transportation-Travel-Blog.aspx Pls take a look as I am really proud of her for doing this :-)... read more

At breakfast we again see Sudi and are almost running late to meet Roman to get on our way to the airport as we are talking again! Such a nice guy! EVENTUALLY WE WILL GET TO THE AIRPORT Roman is such a popular and well respected guy in the towns that when we drive through them, there are lots of stops for him to say hello and have a chat to so and so and this person and that person. Unfortunately for us, every time he steps out of the car we get swamped by every person in town who has something to sell, I even get another trade for a koala bear offer but this time decline. We check with the souvenir guys for my flag but they were only able to get a smaller ... read more

On any trip abroad that involves flying, the first contact with the new culture usually occurs at the airport, if not somewhere in the imagery of the mind. Ours was the last flight out of Munich airport. Once I came to the departure gate, I began to notice an undertone that would follow me throughout the next month in South Africa, the one of race. A predominantly senior crowd of Europeans gathered at the gate ready to board, greeted by an entirely African cabin crew. Once I was seated, the flight video portrayed a stout man with Teutonic spectacles boarding before a towering rotund black man, who clumsily placed his briefcase in the overhead compartment causing another one to fall out on the white man's head. Opening the in-flight magazine entitled Sawubona (a Nguni word ... read more

We struggled to wake up as early as we had to... 4 am. we didn't hit the bed until midnight, I was not very tired... maybe excitement, plus it had been a hectic day at the hostel... we got ready, grabbed our bags and lumbered, ungracefully into the reception... said good morning to Moe, he looked tired as well.. having worked the 3rd shift. The rest of the group going to Kruger with us came into the room, everyone looked half awake- understandably so. The driver was surprisingly awake, I guess driving all night and drinking coffee will do that for some... We passed familar places around Joburg, watching the minibuses speed by and catching glimpses of the Gautrain construction zones... the streets were chaos, people heading into offices... we inched down the road, until finally ... read more