Just as there are advantages and disadvantages to everything in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to being a Grahamstown local during Fest. There are things that I love and there are things that I hate, and it is hard to decide whether this time of year is one of my favourites or one of my worst.
What makes this time of year amazing is the atmosphere that fills the town. It feels like a two-week celebration. All of the things that I dislike about Grahamstown the rest of the year suddenly make their way here. There is food galore. There is entertainment in the form of music, plays, shows and fairgrounds. Town becomes electric and I love it!
What makes it terrible is that the thing that I do love about Grahamstown become ruined. The peaceful quiet of a small town gets lost in the manic hubbub of festival goers. Traffic lines the streets making it nearly impossible to find a parking anywhere and, living on the outskirts of town, this makes partaking in any festival activities pretty darn difficult! Peppergrove becomes nightmarish and I find myself wanting to curl up in bed and not leave because I don't want to face the horror of it all. And yet, you can't help but want to participate in the madness!
So this weekend, Grant, Jono and I decided to brave the Fest Grounds at the Village Green. Though this is not where the magic of the shows themselves happen, this is the centre of all things Fest and may be considered by some to be utter chaos and by others to be heavenly. I tend to gravitate towards the middle of these two opinions and see it as part good, part bad and mostly pretty average. The grounds are filled with tents, and the tents are filled with shops selling odds and ends - clothing, toys, novelties and food. But, of course you have to get into the grounds to experience these!
The first problem that we had was finding parking. The parking during Fest is awful. Absolutely terrible. Last year we managed to find a spot early on, but despite arriving at what I thought was a decent time, the paid parking lot was full, as was the area surrounding it, as was campus and we finally got lucky enough to find a parking on Somerset Street a short walk away. And when I say that we got lucky, it was literally the only parking I could spot in the vicinity and we almost missed it!
I must say that the food that comes to Grahamstown during Fest is probably my favourite part of the whole experience, and the Village Green is where you can find most of the good stuff. Chinese, Indian, Greek, you name it, they've got it! And this was the main purpose of our coming to the Green. Lunch! We wandered between the food stalls before deciding on a three-course menu. First up was Chinese as our main with smoothies to wash it down with.
I am a big fan of Chinese food! I am the advocate for Chinese food in Grahamstown, and I have never been more determined that Grahamstown should have a Chinese restaurant than I was after eating the Chinese at Fest. And that is not because it is amazing. Sadly, the food itself was pretty average - way too oily, way too generic. Not bad, but not very good either. And that was kind of the point. Even though it was just average Chinese, I was still wallowing in the joy of having it! Grahamstown needs a good Chinese place so that this is not the standard for the locals.
The smoothies, on the other hand, were pretty great. I love smoothies and I am determined that Grahamstown should also have a place that makes them. It shouldn't be too difficult to do! I know that Kauai is pretty much off the cards for a small student town, and the smoothies from Fest did not compare, but they were great and were perfect and I would have one on a daily basis if they were available to me! But they are not, sadly. And so I will make do with returning at some point during the Fest and having another.
With Chinese and smoothies in our bellies, we decided to walk around for a bit and see what else was on offer. There were books, but the book stall was not nearly as exciting as last year. I found a wonderful hat stall which sold incredible, steam-punky hats... for R1,800.00. They informed me that they would be bringing in more next week for around R400.00, but even that is beyond my price range! There were beautiful clocks and kaleidoscopes and so many wonderful things that made me ooh and aah!
And then there were the nuts. The greatest thing about Fest in my opinion. Of all the food, the nuts are the things that drive me mad! So, of course, these wonderful, caramelised, cinnamoned drops of goodness had to be mine. R30.00 bought me a small bag full of them, and though it is quite steep, it is also totally worth it! Another thing that I will definitely be returning for.
And finally, we ended off our trip to the Greens with a stop at Wicked Waffles. The smell was enough to bring us in, the idea of alcohol-infused cream was enough to keep us there. One bite was enough for us to know that it had probably been a bad idea and the price convinced us that it was a terrible one. The waffles themselves I found to be pretty average, nothing special. The cream was ridiculous! I am not all that good with my alcohol and find everything to be strong, but even Grant thought it was way too much, like taking a shot of Vodka with every bite. And at R35.00 each for a small waffle, it is not worth your while. I wouldn't recommend them.
And so our Village Green experience ended on a bit of a bad note. We finished our waffles and made our way back to the car, pretty keen to get out of the crowds. But I know that I will be back there next week again! As chaotic as it can be, I don't think that there is anything that can stop me. And that is the joy of Fest! It is a wonderous, terrifying time that we just cannot help but enjoy!
What do other locals think?
Showing posts with label Traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traffic. Show all posts
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Why Grahamstown?
After yesterday's rant about trying to find a job, it struck me (not for the first time) that I am not exactly in the ideal place for finding one. Grahamstown is a small town, mostly populated by students, and unless you want to get involved in the academic side of things by becoming a lecturer (not really something I am qualified to do), there are not too many job opportunities available. So today I thought I would write about why I wanted to come to Grahamstown. And no, this is not going to be a sappy love story because, though my boyfriend's living here was a big contributor towards my moving here, there are other reasons to live in Grahamstown.
Let's start with one of the biggies. When I went out with my friends in Cape Town, a lot of them were shocked that I had a midnight curfew when I was almost 23 years old. They were even more shocked when I told them that my 28 year old sister has the same curfew. A little understanding came in when I explained why. After a serious break-in two years ago, my parents are extremely worried about crime. They have put up laser beams and electric fences around the house, jacked up their alarm system and implimented a number of security measures within the house as well, including burgular bars over every door, mobile panic buttons and nails holding in the sliding door (where the burgulars came in the first time around). My parents will also wait up for us to come home to make sure that no one stole our remotes and we aren't being followed by some dodgy characters.
When I first heard that Grant doesn't set the alarm at night (I heard about this because he came home to find the alarm on and had no recollection of the code), I was absolutely horrified.
"I don't want to live in a house that can't be alarmed," I practically shouted down the phone.
And then I remembered. This isn't Cape Town. Though crimes certainly do happen here, they are rarely of the serious nature that crimes in the bigger cities tend to lend themselves to. There are muggings, there are smash and grabs (I had more than enough of those), there are break-ins, but these are usually crimes of opportunity - someone sees a laptop easily grabable and decides to snatch it. They are rarely premeditated.
A lack of serious crime is a big reason for wanting to move away from the big cities, especially after living in Korea for a year where I got used to not locking my door at night (it had an automatic lock, but I also never had any problems) and walking around on my own. But there is more to it than that. Another big part of wanting to come to Grahamstown, and a big reason why Grant has stayed here as long as he has, is because of all the friendly faces that we have come to know and love. I feel the need to burst into song here - Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came. This is definitely the case in Grahamstown. Though most of my friends from my university days have now moved on to better places (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Alfred), I am always pleasantly surprised when I walk down the street and hear my name being called or when I walk into a bar to a warm reception from the manager. I can walk into any bar in Grahamstown, any restaurant, any shop and can practically guarantee that there will be at least one familiar or friendly face.
Familiarity is another big reason for wanting to stay in Grahamstown, and here I don't mean the familiarity of people. It is nice to live in a town and know exactly where things are without having to look it up in a mapbook. It is nice to stay somewhere that you have spent some time getting to know. The fact that Grahamstown is small certainly contributes to this - I have lived in Cape Town for most of my life, and will still have to look up directions to places. It is great when you can talk about a place with someone and they know exactly where you mean. It is great to know the hidden treasures of a town, and yes - even a town as small as Grahamstown has hidden treasures. Ask anyone about Grey Dam and you will see what I mean.
More than just the familiarity of the town, I love the simplicity of small town living. I like being able to park my car and take a walk around the town. I like that there are only two areas to do shopping in, and everyone knows exactly where they are. I like being able to do everything in one go - go to the doctor, then walk next door to the pharmacy, then walk next door to do some grocery shopping and finish it all off by walking next door to do some clothing shopping (or window-shopping as the case is for me at the moment). Everything is so close and life here is so simple. There are few stresses (the lack of crime and the lack of traffic taking away some of the more serious worries of big-city living) and the few that they are are fairly easily solvable.
I mentioned this earlier, but I feel the need to mention it again - the fact that Grahamstown has no traffic is a HUGE plus. Not having to sit around in a car for half an hour to get to work and another half an hour to get home (and I am being incredibly lenient here) is an absolute pleasure. As I said before, a majority of the people residing in Grahamstown itself (and I am not talking about the outskirting townships here) are students, and a vast majority of these don't have cars. There is no need - in a city where you can walk everywhere you need to go, why do you need to have a car? This essentially means that the most traffic you will get is five minutes waiting at a four-way stop when people are confused as to where to go.
And, though there are a number of other reasons why living in Grahamstown is great, there is one more reason why I love living here in particular. As I drove into Grahamstown after my ten hour drive from Cape Town, it hit me just how beautiful this city is. As I drove past the dam by the Botanical Gardens and through the streets lined with Jacarandas, I remembered how much I love this city and what a pleasure it is to be back. It is everything that I missed in Korea - green, wide open spaces; elegant, historical buildings, towering cathedrals. As I said to Ashlea when she visited last week, everything in Grahamstown has a history, and it is oh so easy to read that history from the faces of the houses and buildings that you see all around you.
So basically, despite the soul-destroying job-hunt, it is wonderful to be back in Grahamstown! My question for today: What is one of the fondest memories of a place you used to call home?
Let's start with one of the biggies. When I went out with my friends in Cape Town, a lot of them were shocked that I had a midnight curfew when I was almost 23 years old. They were even more shocked when I told them that my 28 year old sister has the same curfew. A little understanding came in when I explained why. After a serious break-in two years ago, my parents are extremely worried about crime. They have put up laser beams and electric fences around the house, jacked up their alarm system and implimented a number of security measures within the house as well, including burgular bars over every door, mobile panic buttons and nails holding in the sliding door (where the burgulars came in the first time around). My parents will also wait up for us to come home to make sure that no one stole our remotes and we aren't being followed by some dodgy characters.
When I first heard that Grant doesn't set the alarm at night (I heard about this because he came home to find the alarm on and had no recollection of the code), I was absolutely horrified.
"I don't want to live in a house that can't be alarmed," I practically shouted down the phone.
And then I remembered. This isn't Cape Town. Though crimes certainly do happen here, they are rarely of the serious nature that crimes in the bigger cities tend to lend themselves to. There are muggings, there are smash and grabs (I had more than enough of those), there are break-ins, but these are usually crimes of opportunity - someone sees a laptop easily grabable and decides to snatch it. They are rarely premeditated.
A lack of serious crime is a big reason for wanting to move away from the big cities, especially after living in Korea for a year where I got used to not locking my door at night (it had an automatic lock, but I also never had any problems) and walking around on my own. But there is more to it than that. Another big part of wanting to come to Grahamstown, and a big reason why Grant has stayed here as long as he has, is because of all the friendly faces that we have come to know and love. I feel the need to burst into song here - Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came. This is definitely the case in Grahamstown. Though most of my friends from my university days have now moved on to better places (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Alfred), I am always pleasantly surprised when I walk down the street and hear my name being called or when I walk into a bar to a warm reception from the manager. I can walk into any bar in Grahamstown, any restaurant, any shop and can practically guarantee that there will be at least one familiar or friendly face.
Familiarity is another big reason for wanting to stay in Grahamstown, and here I don't mean the familiarity of people. It is nice to live in a town and know exactly where things are without having to look it up in a mapbook. It is nice to stay somewhere that you have spent some time getting to know. The fact that Grahamstown is small certainly contributes to this - I have lived in Cape Town for most of my life, and will still have to look up directions to places. It is great when you can talk about a place with someone and they know exactly where you mean. It is great to know the hidden treasures of a town, and yes - even a town as small as Grahamstown has hidden treasures. Ask anyone about Grey Dam and you will see what I mean.
More than just the familiarity of the town, I love the simplicity of small town living. I like being able to park my car and take a walk around the town. I like that there are only two areas to do shopping in, and everyone knows exactly where they are. I like being able to do everything in one go - go to the doctor, then walk next door to the pharmacy, then walk next door to do some grocery shopping and finish it all off by walking next door to do some clothing shopping (or window-shopping as the case is for me at the moment). Everything is so close and life here is so simple. There are few stresses (the lack of crime and the lack of traffic taking away some of the more serious worries of big-city living) and the few that they are are fairly easily solvable.
I mentioned this earlier, but I feel the need to mention it again - the fact that Grahamstown has no traffic is a HUGE plus. Not having to sit around in a car for half an hour to get to work and another half an hour to get home (and I am being incredibly lenient here) is an absolute pleasure. As I said before, a majority of the people residing in Grahamstown itself (and I am not talking about the outskirting townships here) are students, and a vast majority of these don't have cars. There is no need - in a city where you can walk everywhere you need to go, why do you need to have a car? This essentially means that the most traffic you will get is five minutes waiting at a four-way stop when people are confused as to where to go.
And, though there are a number of other reasons why living in Grahamstown is great, there is one more reason why I love living here in particular. As I drove into Grahamstown after my ten hour drive from Cape Town, it hit me just how beautiful this city is. As I drove past the dam by the Botanical Gardens and through the streets lined with Jacarandas, I remembered how much I love this city and what a pleasure it is to be back. It is everything that I missed in Korea - green, wide open spaces; elegant, historical buildings, towering cathedrals. As I said to Ashlea when she visited last week, everything in Grahamstown has a history, and it is oh so easy to read that history from the faces of the houses and buildings that you see all around you.
So basically, despite the soul-destroying job-hunt, it is wonderful to be back in Grahamstown! My question for today: What is one of the fondest memories of a place you used to call home?
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Johannesburg
I am terrible. I have lived in South Africa for 22 out of the 23 years of my life, and yet I have never travelled around the country. Sure, I have visited Plettenberg Bay pretty much every year of my life; sure I studied in Grahamstown which is ten hours away from my Cape Town home. But still, there are so many places that I haven't explored.
One of the places that I feel I haven't gotten to know nearly well enough is Johannesburg. When people think of South Africa, the first two cities that generally come to mind are Johannesburg and Cape Town, and yet I have only ever been to Joburg twice, and have never done any real exploring on either of those occasions. The first time was spent driving through the outskirts of the city to get to Sun City and the second time was mostly spent in Benoni and the towns that lie just outside of Johannesburg. This is why I was kind of looking forward to heading there last weekend.
It was Sam's twenty-first (Sam being Grant's sister) and Grant's dad had been kind enough to buy us each a ticket to come down for the occasion. The event itself was on a Friday, which meant that Grant had to work a half-day and we started on our way to the airport at 12:15. The check-in for our flight closed at 13:35. We could totally make it. We all climbed into the car and started on our way to the highway.
But wait.
We needed to fetch Grant's jacket from the drycleaner.
Slam on brakes.
Back track.
12:30 and we were back on the road again, speeding a little but not too badly. Just trying to catch up on some lost time. The tunes were pumping, we were all singing along. Everything was hunky dorey and we were making good time. And then...
Slam on brakes.
Procession of cars in front of us held up by two different trucks, both going ridiculously slowly.
This procession lasted for at least half an hour and when we finally managed to overtake, there was no doubt about it. We were going to be late.
Shaun (Grant's brother) tried to phone the airline and check-in over the phone, but alas, no such luck. 1Time does not allow for check-ins over the phone. We had no choice but to hightail it there and try not to get caught by any of the notorious Port Elizabeth speed cameras. Thankfully, we arrived at the airport with about five minutes to spare and Shaun ran to the queue to hold our places while I carried the luggage and Grant parked the car. With about a minute to spare, we checked into the flight and went straight through security and onto the plane.
Sighs of relief were breathed.
The flight to Johannesburg was quite an entertaining one in itself as Grant and I eavesdropped on the argument that Shaun started with the religious girl sitting next to him about how stupid and pointless and unreasonable religion was. Shaun is, of course, an atheist. We merely sat behind him shaking our heads and trying to pretend not to know him, giggling at the look on the flight attendant's face when she realised what they were talking about. Evidently, she agreed that this was not a conversation that should be had in the middle of a flight with no way to leave.
Once we had arrived in Joburg and were on solid ground once more, we made our way to the venue for the 21st and immediately started setting up - blowing up balloons and placing them at all of the tables; setting up the main meal, dessert and tea areas and getting the spit-braai started. A couple of hours later, we finally arrived at the house and had to start getting ready immediately for the party that was to come. Dressing up in the dress that I had worn for my own 21st (since the theme was the same), we quickly got ready and made our way back to the venue to carry on getting things ready. Once the guests started arriving, the birthday girl started calming down. The disaster of the chocolate fountain and the DJs who had neglected to bring her music and had replaced it with their own doof-doof alternatives were quickly forgotten and she slowly started having fun. The rest of the night went smoothly with dinner being served (a perfect spit), toasts being made and alcohol being drunk. Needless to say, Sam and her boyfriend both ended up getting completely sloshed, with the boyfriend taking the brunt of the beating at the hands of his father who wanted to "raise the boy's tolerance." He ended up spending the night hugging the toilet in Grant's spare bathroom and retching non-stop until about 9am.
Saturday morning greeted a number of hungover individuals (me not being one of them) and Grant and I sat around playing Boggle with Shaun and Rob (Grant's dad) until about 12:45, when we decided that we should probably start getting ready if we were going to meet my cousin for lunch at 1:30. We quickly got showered, dressed and freshened up and were on the road by 1. Unfortunately, we hadn't been on it long before we hit some major traffic. Traffic on a Saturday morning? That's Joburg for you apparently! We hadn't been in the traffic for long when Grant noticed the little orange light blinking out of the corner of his eye.
"Uh... we have no petrol."
Forty-five minutes later, we were still well stuck in the traffic with no sign of it relieving and the car was starting to feel like it would stall any minute. After an hour in traffic (and being half an hour late already) we finally found an exit and only just made it to the petrol station on time.
Phew. One less thing to worry about. Now we just had to get to the restaurant where Daniel would have already been waiting for half an hour.
After driving through the centre of Joburg only to turn onto a different highway and go in the opposite direction, we finally found ourselves nearing Waverley and quickly found the restaurant that Daniel was waiting at. After a quick introduction to his friend, Danielle, we went into the restaurant to get some food from the buffet only to find that (thanks to the late hour) there was hardly any of it left. Despite this, we paid R200 for a couple of small plates of food and then went on our way. Not wanting to go our separate ways quite yet, we decided to head to Zoo Lake where we had fun watching the geese (and the people attempting to feed them) and went on a boatride on the lake where Grant decided it would be HILARIOUS to row us into the fountain. None of us were particularly impressed, least of all Daniel who practically jumped out of the boat to stop himself getting wet. When we got off, we decided to go for a quick walk around the lake and then headed back to our cars.
On the drive back to Grant's house, we couldn't help but notice the number of Jews that we were passing, walking on their way to shul (synagogue).
"Wouldn't it be funny if Gina lived in this area?"
We were going to be seeing Gina later that night so that I could see where she lived, meet her fiance and get the material for my dress (me being a bridesmaid and all). We shrugged off the question, figuring that Joburg was a big place and she probably stayed in one of the other Jewish areas - there had to be quite a few, we were sure. When I phoned Gina after sundown and she told me that she lived in Oaklands, I figured it probably wasn't the place we had driven through earlier. I had seen numerous signs there telling me that we were in Glenhazel, not Oaklands. As we got into the car and the Garmin started pointing us in the same direction, we started getting suspicious. When we started seeing sites that we had passed hours earlier, we knew that our earlier suspicions weren't too far off. Oaklands was, in fact, pretty close to Glenhazel. It was too bad that we hadn't been able to contact Gina earlier and spend more time with her during the day.
After meeting with Gina at a petrol station (she didn't know her address, having recently moved), we travelled together to the apartment that her and her fiancee will be living in when they get married in two month's time. As she had only moved in days before, the apartment was in a bit of a state, but that was to be expected, and it didn't take away from the awesomeness of the place itself. Grant immediately fell in love with the giant TV that Joel had insisted they buy, and while he studied it carefully, Gina and I slipped into the bedroom where she showed me the material and design of my bridesmaid dress. I instantly fell in love with it and can't wait to have it made! After showing us around and changing out of her shul clothes, it was time for some food and we headed to Great Burgers - a Kosher burger place in Glenhazel itself. It was only the second time that Grant had had a Kosher meal, and despite his teasing on the way that he was just dying for a cheese burger (Jews cannot eat meat and milk together, so cheese burgers are a serious no-no), his Kosher burger did seem to exceed his expectations. After dinner, we had a quick tour of the neighbourhood, seeing where Gina's old apartment was, where she works, driving past the Yeshiva Academy that I heard so much about during my high school years and finally showing me where Joel works. Since Joel caters events like batmitzvahs and there was one happening that night, he was at work and I got a chance to go in and meet him even though he was ridiculously busy and not too up to chatting. In any case, it was nice to finally meet the guy that one of my best friends is going to marry, even if it was only for a minute or two and even if it did feel excessively awkward standing amongst people in their Saturday best with me in a pair of tracksuit pants and a t-shirt. As we drove Gina back to her apartment, her and I discussed some of the wedding plans. Since I have to make my way to Joburg for the event, I needed to know when to book my flights. Gina calmly informed me that her bachelorette is being planned for 8 days before the wedding, which set me into a bit of a tizzy since I will hopefully have found work by then and can't really take off that much time, nor fork out that much money for accommodation if I don't have a job. But despite this little hiccup, I am really looking forward to coming down to see my HSBFF (High School Best Friend Forever) get hitched. We arrived back at Grant's place without too much difficulty and before his parents did, as they had been at a Neil Diamond concert, and chatted abit with Shaun and Grant's dad and stepmom (when they arrived) before calling it a night and heading to bed. We had to be up early the next morning after all.
Sunday morning dawned and we all packed into the car with the bags that Grant and I had shared at the back and started making our way to the airport. After a quick breakfast at Mugg and Bean and a hurried goodbye, our trip to Joburg was drawn to a close. Even after spending a weekend properly travelling around it, I still feel like I hardly know the city, and I don't think I am the only one. I think you have to have lived in Joburg for a long time to consider yourself knowledgable enough to say that you know the city. But I can tell you what I do know - what with the traffic and the size of the city itself, I am rather glad that I don't live there.
One of the places that I feel I haven't gotten to know nearly well enough is Johannesburg. When people think of South Africa, the first two cities that generally come to mind are Johannesburg and Cape Town, and yet I have only ever been to Joburg twice, and have never done any real exploring on either of those occasions. The first time was spent driving through the outskirts of the city to get to Sun City and the second time was mostly spent in Benoni and the towns that lie just outside of Johannesburg. This is why I was kind of looking forward to heading there last weekend.
It was Sam's twenty-first (Sam being Grant's sister) and Grant's dad had been kind enough to buy us each a ticket to come down for the occasion. The event itself was on a Friday, which meant that Grant had to work a half-day and we started on our way to the airport at 12:15. The check-in for our flight closed at 13:35. We could totally make it. We all climbed into the car and started on our way to the highway.
But wait.
We needed to fetch Grant's jacket from the drycleaner.
Slam on brakes.
Back track.
12:30 and we were back on the road again, speeding a little but not too badly. Just trying to catch up on some lost time. The tunes were pumping, we were all singing along. Everything was hunky dorey and we were making good time. And then...
Slam on brakes.
Procession of cars in front of us held up by two different trucks, both going ridiculously slowly.
This procession lasted for at least half an hour and when we finally managed to overtake, there was no doubt about it. We were going to be late.
Shaun (Grant's brother) tried to phone the airline and check-in over the phone, but alas, no such luck. 1Time does not allow for check-ins over the phone. We had no choice but to hightail it there and try not to get caught by any of the notorious Port Elizabeth speed cameras. Thankfully, we arrived at the airport with about five minutes to spare and Shaun ran to the queue to hold our places while I carried the luggage and Grant parked the car. With about a minute to spare, we checked into the flight and went straight through security and onto the plane.
Sighs of relief were breathed.
The flight to Johannesburg was quite an entertaining one in itself as Grant and I eavesdropped on the argument that Shaun started with the religious girl sitting next to him about how stupid and pointless and unreasonable religion was. Shaun is, of course, an atheist. We merely sat behind him shaking our heads and trying to pretend not to know him, giggling at the look on the flight attendant's face when she realised what they were talking about. Evidently, she agreed that this was not a conversation that should be had in the middle of a flight with no way to leave.
Once we had arrived in Joburg and were on solid ground once more, we made our way to the venue for the 21st and immediately started setting up - blowing up balloons and placing them at all of the tables; setting up the main meal, dessert and tea areas and getting the spit-braai started. A couple of hours later, we finally arrived at the house and had to start getting ready immediately for the party that was to come. Dressing up in the dress that I had worn for my own 21st (since the theme was the same), we quickly got ready and made our way back to the venue to carry on getting things ready. Once the guests started arriving, the birthday girl started calming down. The disaster of the chocolate fountain and the DJs who had neglected to bring her music and had replaced it with their own doof-doof alternatives were quickly forgotten and she slowly started having fun. The rest of the night went smoothly with dinner being served (a perfect spit), toasts being made and alcohol being drunk. Needless to say, Sam and her boyfriend both ended up getting completely sloshed, with the boyfriend taking the brunt of the beating at the hands of his father who wanted to "raise the boy's tolerance." He ended up spending the night hugging the toilet in Grant's spare bathroom and retching non-stop until about 9am.
Saturday morning greeted a number of hungover individuals (me not being one of them) and Grant and I sat around playing Boggle with Shaun and Rob (Grant's dad) until about 12:45, when we decided that we should probably start getting ready if we were going to meet my cousin for lunch at 1:30. We quickly got showered, dressed and freshened up and were on the road by 1. Unfortunately, we hadn't been on it long before we hit some major traffic. Traffic on a Saturday morning? That's Joburg for you apparently! We hadn't been in the traffic for long when Grant noticed the little orange light blinking out of the corner of his eye.
"Uh... we have no petrol."
Forty-five minutes later, we were still well stuck in the traffic with no sign of it relieving and the car was starting to feel like it would stall any minute. After an hour in traffic (and being half an hour late already) we finally found an exit and only just made it to the petrol station on time.
Phew. One less thing to worry about. Now we just had to get to the restaurant where Daniel would have already been waiting for half an hour.
After driving through the centre of Joburg only to turn onto a different highway and go in the opposite direction, we finally found ourselves nearing Waverley and quickly found the restaurant that Daniel was waiting at. After a quick introduction to his friend, Danielle, we went into the restaurant to get some food from the buffet only to find that (thanks to the late hour) there was hardly any of it left. Despite this, we paid R200 for a couple of small plates of food and then went on our way. Not wanting to go our separate ways quite yet, we decided to head to Zoo Lake where we had fun watching the geese (and the people attempting to feed them) and went on a boatride on the lake where Grant decided it would be HILARIOUS to row us into the fountain. None of us were particularly impressed, least of all Daniel who practically jumped out of the boat to stop himself getting wet. When we got off, we decided to go for a quick walk around the lake and then headed back to our cars.
On the drive back to Grant's house, we couldn't help but notice the number of Jews that we were passing, walking on their way to shul (synagogue).
"Wouldn't it be funny if Gina lived in this area?"
We were going to be seeing Gina later that night so that I could see where she lived, meet her fiance and get the material for my dress (me being a bridesmaid and all). We shrugged off the question, figuring that Joburg was a big place and she probably stayed in one of the other Jewish areas - there had to be quite a few, we were sure. When I phoned Gina after sundown and she told me that she lived in Oaklands, I figured it probably wasn't the place we had driven through earlier. I had seen numerous signs there telling me that we were in Glenhazel, not Oaklands. As we got into the car and the Garmin started pointing us in the same direction, we started getting suspicious. When we started seeing sites that we had passed hours earlier, we knew that our earlier suspicions weren't too far off. Oaklands was, in fact, pretty close to Glenhazel. It was too bad that we hadn't been able to contact Gina earlier and spend more time with her during the day.
After meeting with Gina at a petrol station (she didn't know her address, having recently moved), we travelled together to the apartment that her and her fiancee will be living in when they get married in two month's time. As she had only moved in days before, the apartment was in a bit of a state, but that was to be expected, and it didn't take away from the awesomeness of the place itself. Grant immediately fell in love with the giant TV that Joel had insisted they buy, and while he studied it carefully, Gina and I slipped into the bedroom where she showed me the material and design of my bridesmaid dress. I instantly fell in love with it and can't wait to have it made! After showing us around and changing out of her shul clothes, it was time for some food and we headed to Great Burgers - a Kosher burger place in Glenhazel itself. It was only the second time that Grant had had a Kosher meal, and despite his teasing on the way that he was just dying for a cheese burger (Jews cannot eat meat and milk together, so cheese burgers are a serious no-no), his Kosher burger did seem to exceed his expectations. After dinner, we had a quick tour of the neighbourhood, seeing where Gina's old apartment was, where she works, driving past the Yeshiva Academy that I heard so much about during my high school years and finally showing me where Joel works. Since Joel caters events like batmitzvahs and there was one happening that night, he was at work and I got a chance to go in and meet him even though he was ridiculously busy and not too up to chatting. In any case, it was nice to finally meet the guy that one of my best friends is going to marry, even if it was only for a minute or two and even if it did feel excessively awkward standing amongst people in their Saturday best with me in a pair of tracksuit pants and a t-shirt. As we drove Gina back to her apartment, her and I discussed some of the wedding plans. Since I have to make my way to Joburg for the event, I needed to know when to book my flights. Gina calmly informed me that her bachelorette is being planned for 8 days before the wedding, which set me into a bit of a tizzy since I will hopefully have found work by then and can't really take off that much time, nor fork out that much money for accommodation if I don't have a job. But despite this little hiccup, I am really looking forward to coming down to see my HSBFF (High School Best Friend Forever) get hitched. We arrived back at Grant's place without too much difficulty and before his parents did, as they had been at a Neil Diamond concert, and chatted abit with Shaun and Grant's dad and stepmom (when they arrived) before calling it a night and heading to bed. We had to be up early the next morning after all.
Sunday morning dawned and we all packed into the car with the bags that Grant and I had shared at the back and started making our way to the airport. After a quick breakfast at Mugg and Bean and a hurried goodbye, our trip to Joburg was drawn to a close. Even after spending a weekend properly travelling around it, I still feel like I hardly know the city, and I don't think I am the only one. I think you have to have lived in Joburg for a long time to consider yourself knowledgable enough to say that you know the city. But I can tell you what I do know - what with the traffic and the size of the city itself, I am rather glad that I don't live there.
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