south africa: johannesburg

My first morning in Johannesburg I woke up early, just like I do most mornings. It still hadn't really sunk in that I was in South Africa. Yay! 

I finally got moving and out the door at 10am. 

Before coming to South Africa the one thing I'd heard from nearly everyone was to be careful. I still wanted to walk though, so I did. This first day I started by walking into the city center to see a few sights. 

On the way to my first sight I realized I was hungry, so I stopped at a fish and chips shop. But they were out of fish! So that didn't happen, at least not at that particular shop. (The name of the shop included fish and chips, how on earth did they run out of fish?!?) Thankfully, the next shop did have fish. It also had an item labeled 'fat, with extras.' I have no idea what that was supposed to mean, though it looked like a sandwich of sorts with a fried egg. 

I'd plotted out a walking map using a travel app, but the first sight wasn't open. I started to realize that churches in this country have security, just like other homes and buildings. In other countries churches are often open all the time, or at least during the day. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing this church (and others) are only open during services. Anywho. 

During my walk I passed a bus station of sorts. (Looking back, I think it was more of an informal taxi rank. Taxi in the sense of public transport, like a minibus; like a marshrutka in Ukraine. In front of this area was an informal market area. People selling anything from individual candies to fruit to socks, etc...

I walked through a mall called Carlton Place, I'm not sure why it is listed as a sight? It's just a mall. I liked the glass/transparent ceiling, as there was heaps of natural light.

My next sight was Gandhi Square. Before this trip I only associated Gandhi with India, but I've since learned a lot more about the man. His theory of non violent resistance began in South Africa. Gandhi Square isn't really a square, much to my disappointment. There is a statue of Gandhi on one side, but the rest of the area is filled with bus stops. On one side of the square is a Spar supermarket, I enjoyed wandering through. (I love grocery stores, something I'm sure I've mentioned previously.) 

On my way to another official site I passed a building with a beautiful mural on the side. There were several zebras painted on the wall, I loved it.

My next sight was the city hall building. I was surprised at how quiet the area in front of the building was, it's a nice building. As I was taking photos, someone came up to me and told me that wasn't allowed. He didn't say why, and when I looked around there were no signs telling me not to take photos.

This guy didn't make me delete the photos I already had, so I kept them, and moved on. I really wish I knew why this guy told me not to take photos. Oh well. I wouldn't mind not taking photos of things I shouldn't photograph if only there was a sign telling me not to do so.

Walking down the street after seeing the outside of City Hall, I was crossing a street but had to take a step back when a vehicle came through the intersection. I had a green light for crossing, the truck most definitely was going against a red light. Just after I made it to the other side of the street I heard a crash. It was the truck I'd narrowly avoided crashing into a car. Very scary stuff. I saw a front bumper on the street, totally off the car. As far as I could tell, no one had been injured, but neither vehicle was in good shape. 

In front of a municipal court I saw a giant statue of Mandela as a boxer. There was a quote underneath saying something like this: when you're in the ring nothing else matters. Not money, not skin colour, not class.

Clarendon House is across the street from this courthouse, but it wasn't open when I was there. Clarendon House is where Mandela and his law partner had the first black owned and run law office, at least during the days of apartheid. When this place is open you get to see some of the artifacts of the office, and learn the history of Mandela's law career, and how it fit into the timeline of his civil rights activism. 

Then I walked to Nelson Mandela bridge. It's not a big bridge, but it isn't typical either. The bridge takes you over a train yard, and shows a nice skyline of the city on one side of the bridge. On the other side of the bridge I could see a pavilion of sorts, I wish I knew what it was. There was only one side for pedestrians to cross the bridge, as one side was blocked off, I don't know why. 

I made it to Constitution Hill only to find that the ticket office and tour areas were closed, because it was Wednesday. I was frustrated because the signs listing the opening hours didn't mention being closed on Wednesday. Everything I looked at online also neglected to mention being closed on Wednesday. Argh. 

I was still able to go inside the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Not as fancy as I'd expected, but it was still neat to see. Eleven justices sit on the court at a time. 

Even though the fortress on the Hill wasn't open, I was still able to walk up the stairs and walk around the ramparts. Nice views over some of the city, even though I could tell this is not a wealthy part of Joburg. 

By the time I finished walking around the ramparts, the sun was beginning to go down. It was time to go 'home.' I followed the same street back as I'd walked earlier in the day. Louis Botha Avenue. It wasn't a short walk, but I made it home pretty quickly. 

I was glad the owner of my hotel owns the restaurant next door, it made it easy to figure out where to eat dinner. 

The next morning I got moving a lot later, for no good reason. 

This time I made sure to get to Constitution Hill first. It was easy to buy a ticket, and I was able to join a tour group straightaway. My tour guide spoke relatively quietly, it wasn't always easy to hear her. Come to think of it though, not yelling probably kept the tour group quiet. There wasn't the extra noise of people talking and ignoring the guide. 

The first part of the tour took us through part of the former prison on Constitution Hill. The guide told us about life in the prison, and it wasn't easy. In fact, it was awful. We learned that life in the prison depended a lot on your skin colour. There were three levels of treatment: white, coloured/Asian, and native/African. The worst treatment was for African prisoners. They had the most crowded cells, the worst supplies, the worst health car, the worst and least amount of food. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have survived the brutal life those prisoners suffered through.

After the prison our guide took us through Constitutional Court. She explained the different aspects of the design, what each thing means. I thought it was really cool to learn that anyone can come watch when cases are being argued. 

After the official tour was over, I wandered around the rest of the complex. By doing this I got to see the room where Mandela was imprisoned for a while. He was treated slightly better and kept separately from the others, because the administration was aware of how important Mandela was. Because of who he was, he was one of the most documented prisoners, ever. Anywhere. 

Also in this area were the isolation cells for white prisoners. While not fun, they were heaps better than those for any non-white prisoner. 

I wandered around the former womens' gaol, which is now filled with several exhibits. One of the exhibits is of some of the women who spent time here, another is an art exhibit. 

After I left Constitution Hill I went back to the fish and chips shop that had been missing fish yesterday. It turned out not to be nearly as good as I'd hoped. I picked the breaking off the fish, and just as I was finishing eating, a beggar came and asked for the breading. Of course I gave it to him. 

Next I tired to find a specific church, but it was located correctly on the map I was using. Argh. 

My next stop was a building called the top of Africa. I think it's the tallest in Johannesburg, and there is an observation level near the top. They really need to wash the windows, but it was neat to see the skyline of the city. It didn't seem to be a popular place, but maybe that's because it was all that easy to find the elevator bank I needed to get to the top. 

I stopped into a small cafe to grab snacks, and was harassed by a guy who wanted to chat with me. I said no, he got offended. I prefer to keep to myself much of the time, and forcing a conversation on me is never a way to get me to talk. 

I ended up walking home soon after that, and had dinner again at the next door restaurant. Yay for convenience! 

The next morning I packed up, said my goodbyes, and walked to park station, one of the gautrain stations.