27 May 2007

It can't be that dangerous, can it?

Even though most of us now have two stamps for arriving in South Africa, we have not left the airport until now. We were looking forward to starting Week 2 off on the right foot with a relaxing evening in Johannesburg, but ...

Is Johannesburg really as dangerous as they say? We wouldn't know, we really didn't want to find out either since the only reason we even spent a night in Joburg was because of our flight schedule. We stayed out by the airport, better safe than sorry. Here are a few observations:
  • Johannesburg feels like a European country, except more dangerous
  • Business style hotels are the same wherever you are in the world, they all have some sort of continental breakfast or breakfast buffet in the morning
  • I really really like hot showers but maybe not as much as Ryan
Even though we didn't make it into Johannesburg proper, maybe Joburg is as dangerous as they say, this is what we learned:
  • our hotel was more securely guarded than the U.S. embassy in Lilongwe
  • there are places where you can have your car equipped with flame-throwers to fend off would be carjackers
  • no one takes cabs, to go out to restaurants, the restaurant will send a car to your hotel to pick you up and then return you to your hotel after dinner
  • we went to the restaurant by the hotel and had to go through two doors, both manned by security
With all this in mind, we were stoked to be going out to dinner, looking forward to a nice meal:

a bottle of South African wine

and trying to get used to not having Lemon Squeezy and Cheese on Toast with us, it'll only be the three of us from here on out


For one extra photo go here: Johannesburg

Start of Week 2

How's everyone doing? If you've made it this far, thank you.

Our goal for Week 2 posts, less stories, more pictures, we promise.