Week 4: Johannesburg, South Africa

Tuesday October 23, 2012

We arrived safely in Johannesburg, South Africa on time at 8:20am. Customs was basically a joke because security waved us through after asking us minimal questions. Since Michelle is a South African citizen, she had to go through a different customs line then us causing us to split up. However, we waved her goodbye and told her that we would see her on the other side. Arriving in South Africa was an unusual experience since Michelle’s family was waiting with signs to welcome us to this foreign country. Seeing smiling faces waiting for us made us feel like celebrities. Michelle’s Grandma Sally took us to her house where we would be spending the next 7 days. Sally had prepared each bed with towels, a welcome note, and a chocolate. T.Y. and Kevin shared a room while the girls were spilt between the other two rooms; everyone had their own bed and was quite comfortable and happy with the accommodation situation. After the long flight we relaxed. Emily and Alex took a nap while the rest of us went swimming and laid out. Kevin pushed Kelly into the pool with her clothes on, and surprisingly she was a good sport about it. We didn’t lunch just had some snacks at the house and waited to eat an early dinner. That night we had an early braai with Michelle’s family, consisting of a local sausage called Boerewors.

 

Wednesday October 24, 2012

Today we woke up to amazing smell coming from the kitchen; we ate eggs and bacon for breakfast and sipped on tea and coffee. Jamie and Michelle proceeded to pack lunch for our picnic to see one of Johannesburg’s natural beauties called Emmarentia Dam and Johannesburg Botanical Gardens. The park is just 6 kilometers from the city center and is a popular place for the locals and visitors to recreate. Fortunately, for us we borrowed Michelle’s family’s car to drive around for the week. Once we had packed our picnic for the day we headed to the park to partake in its wonderful beauty. T.Y. volunteered to drive since he got an international license before we left America. However, he might have forgotten that in South Africa they drive on the other side of the rode, so Emily got a fright when all of a sudden we were going toward oncoming traffic. T.Y. eventually got us there in one piece. Taking a stroll around the park, we admired the flowers and magnificent trees. Alex was getting hungry, so we found a spot to eat our lunch next to the dam. After we finished eating, we rented to canoes to row and explore the dam. 120R per a person total: 840R 

 

For dinner we ate at a nice small restaurant called District Six Eatery. This is a local restaurant serves African food. Nobody knew what was on the menu, so we ordered family style. 

 

When the food came there was a range of food from curry to casseroles. We tried the aforementioned lamb curry, deliciously soft and served on the bone (a justifiable best-seller) as well as the bobotie and smoor snoek: a traditional mix of deboned snoek and potatoes served with tomato gravy. All the dishes were excellent and a special mention must go to the pineapple pickle, which was served alongside the mains and beat the pants off the standard mango variety. Dessert consisted of a huge slice of sweet milk tart, a Cape Malay version of a koeksister and a coconut pastry known as a "hertzoggie". Ending our meal with the famous dessert Milk Tart, a traditional dessert in South Africa was the best part of the meal. Our check came out to 1459R  for the whole dinner. 

 

 

After a long day of fun we headed back to Grandma Sally’s house. We drank tea and coffee and chatted until one by one we excused ourselves to go to bed.  

Thursday October 25, 2012

We woke up at 8am to get a head start on our day. We had toast for breakfast and got ready for the big day ahead of us. After everyone was ready, we went to Gold Reef City. Jamie handled buying the tickets for the group 160R per person and a total of 1120R. This ticket got us into the park and allowed to ride the rides unlimited number of times. Kevin was a little scared to ride the Anaconda, but we convinced him by letting him pick where we ate lunch.

 

He ended up picking Wimpy’s a restaurant joint that serves burgers. Everyone was happy with this choice because we had been craving burgers ever since we left America. We sat down and ate there the service was great until it came time for our check. Everyone was done eating and our plates had been cleared, but they didn’t bring the check. We were confused and getting kind of annoyed when Emily pointed out that all the other tables were asking for the check. When our server walked by, Emily asked for the check as well as if this is what we were supposed to do and the server said yes. 

 

After lunch, we continued to wander Gold Reef City and went on the rest of the rides. Kelly loved the Golden Loop and made us go on it 3 times before we finally told her that was enough. 

 

We stayed till dark in the park riding rides, and then we decided to hit the casino. Everyone got 200R to try the slots and poker tables. Michelle was not so good at gambling and lost her money. However Jamie won 500R from playing the slot machines. Drinking a few drinks at the bar, we waited for our table at the Ocean Basket a seafood restaurant. Again everyone wanted to try everything, so we ordered a couple platters to share. The Starboard Platter, Port Platter, and Da Full Deck were basically a mix of prawns, calms, muscles, calamari, and other seafood. Also, we tried the East Coast beer by Shongweni brewery. This is a lite beer with citrus lemon and light floral tones very tasty and greatly paired with the seafood. Our dinner tab came to a total of 1971R.

 

After dinner, we headed back to Sally’s

Friday October 26, 2012

After we ate our breakfast which consisted of porridge, we headed out to visit the Apartheid Museum. We got their safely in one piece thanks to T.Y., and Alex bought us our tickets which came to a total of 420R for everyone. At the museum we learned a lot about where South Africa came from and where they are going to. One of the aspects of South African history that really stuck out to Kelly was how similar America and South Africa both went through similar racism issues.  
 

We ate at Fish n’ chip co. for lunch which came to a total of 336R. Lunch satisfied our hunger, but the day was still young.

 
Getting back into the car, we traveled to the Faraday Muti Market. This market is filled with pretty much any herbs, animal skins, good luck charms and healing potions. Here one can come to consult a healer for their wisdom, and get advice on what concoction would best suit your condition. There are animal bones, skeletons, and some freshly killed waiting for someone to purchase them for healing.
 
 Kevin could not stand the smell of the market, so he made a quick loop. Then he waited for us back at the car while he sipped on ginger ale 7R.  Jamie wanted to buy some of the colorful powder, but Michelle told her that it probably was not a good idea because we didn’t know what kind of superstations came with it.

That night for dinner Grandma Sally had made shepherd’s pie for us, so we hurried home to partake in the delicious home cooked meal. After dinner we drank tea and coffee and ate lemon meringue pie.
 
Playing card games, we enjoyed one another’s company around the dinner table. Even though Alex is a little competitive and almost got into a fight with T.Y., we had fun.

Saturday October 27, 2012

On Saturday, we had a slow start to the morning ate a brunch at the house. Brunch consisted of really thin pancakes called crepes. We put different toppings on them such as cinnamon and sugar and nutella.

Then we packed up some beers and headed to the Coca-cola Park to watch the Lions rugby match.
 
This was a unique experience for us because are used to watching football. However rugby and football are very similar to one another except in rugby they don’t wear pads and the ball is a prolate spheroid with more rounded edges. We ate some meat pies from the conession stands for dinner.
 
The Lions played the Sharks and the lions won 38 to28.

To celebrate our victory, Emily wanted to go to a bar, so we decided on the Radium. This bar has a historic ambience that enticed to stay and listen to the live jazz music playing. We called it a night when Kelly wanted her 5^th round of beers.
 

Sunday October 28, 2012  

Waking up, we got ready and went to brunch at Nino’s Rosebank. Nino’s had a nice atmosphere leather chairs, polished brick, and green murals. Everyone was able to find something in the menu that suited their liking. Gathering the troops, we drove to the Cradle of Humankind to admire the limestone caves containing the fossilized remains of ancient forms of animals, plants and most importantly, hominids.
 
Jamie thought it was incredible to see the fossils of animals from that long ago, so she bought postcard to send to her mom back home.

For dinner, we went to @Monte Winebar and Restaurant. It had a nice Tuscan atmosphere and the interior designer paid great attention to detail because everything from the forks to the lighting went with the vibe of sophisticated but relaxed. We went through three bottles of wine and enjoyed our steaks. Our tab came out to 2483R.
 

Monday October 29, 2012

Today we had planned to go to the Bruma Lake Flea Market, so after breakfast we headed out. At the market we used our bargaining skills to all get our souvenirs to take home with us. Emily loved the bead work, so she bought a couple key chains to take back to her family.
 

While Alex liked the wooden salad spoons, so she got them for her Aunt.
 

After everyone got their trinkets, we headed to Azzurri Pizza for lunch. This pizza place was unlike any we had been to because they had a stone oven where they baked the pizza. It was absolutely delicious; we got 3 large pizzas to share. Total coming to 579R. T.Y. found out about the Grautrain, and made it a top priority to do after lunch.  We went for a spin around Johannesburg, but did not take the train all the way to Pretoria.

Later that evening, we ate dinner at the Curry Corner for dinner.  Kelly was upset because she is not a fan of spicy food, so the curry did not set well with her stomach. Total for dinner 1190R. However, we made it up to her by going to Lulu’s café for coffee and dessert. Total for coffee and dessert 432R.
 

Tuesday October 30, 2012

Having had a wonderful time in Johannesburg, we woke up bright and early to get to the airport early to catch our flight to Madagascar at 10am. We spent a total of 20,743R which converts to $2391.24USA.
 

WEEK THREE: BUENOS AIRES

TUESDAY OCTOBER 16th and WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17th

What a great week in Columbia! However, this flight was a LONG ONE! We left the Bogota airport at 9:36  pm on Tuesday and arrived at the GRU airport in Brazil at 5:31 am on Wednesday. The flight was not very smooth and we were all pretty tired by the time we got to GRU for the 2 hour 29 minute layover. We all ended up falling asleep in chairs in front of the gate for our flight to Buenos Aires. If Kevin wouldn't have snored himself awake, we would have missed the flight! We were the last people to board in our groggy haze and luckily were able to pass out again on the flight from GRU to AEP in Buenos Aires. We landed right around 10:50 am on Wednesday. Thankfully, the house we had rented has an amazing property manager: Ruben. We talked to Ruben before we left on our trip and had already set up his friend's car service to pick us up at the airport.

Jacob came and picked us up in his van. He was such a joy and it was comforting to have a smiling face as we drove to our rental home the Carlos Calvo Escape in the San Telmo barrio of Buenos Aires. Jacob also had a suprise for us: Ruben had told him all about us being college kids traveling around the world and he wanted to help us out. He wouldn't take our money even though we insisted! The cobblestone streets welcomed us as we pulled up to our home for the next week. Time had flown by over the ride after hearing Jacob's anecdotes of life in the capital city and suggestions for what to do. What a beauty of a home it was! 

The outside of our building

After exploring the house and it's great bedrooms and living spaces, we found the best room of all: a fully stocked gourmet kitchen! TY had already shown us his great cooking skills in Ecuador so we put him to the test again. His sandwiches hit the spot! Everyone was so tired from our 11 hours of traveling and the great sandwiches put us over the edge. We all fell asleep, AGAIN! Kevin and his snoring was once again our saving grace. We all pulled ourselves together and get ready to go out on the town around 7 pm. 

Being in San Telmo, there is so much culture to see. We got a late start and none of us were really hungry or felt like clubbing. We just looked at the interesting arctecture and art and roamed. 

After a few hours of strolling around, we all headed back to the house and called it a night. What a great first day! We didn't spend any money at all and really dipped our toes into Buenos Aires. 

THURSDAY OCTOBER 18th 

Something smelled sweet and inticed everyone down to the kitchen on Thursday morning. Alex had made muffins! This fully stocked gourmet kitchen was quickly becoming our best friend. Today, we decided to walk over to Puerto Madero, another barrio in Buenos Aires. It was a four block walk and quite beautiful weather in the 60s. Puerto Madero is along the waterfront and has many beautiful boats and boat museums as well as churches. We spent hours touring them all. 

We decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant we had heard about around town called "Happening". The food in this area was pretty pricey but very worth it. We stuffed our faces! We all had a great laugh when Emily got sauce on her face but no one told her. 

Our meals ranged up to $50 American dollars each with tip but we justified the splurge by how much we were saving on attractions. All together we spent $300 on this late lunch. We also stayed chatting for a long time and bonded as a group.

After this lunch we walked across the Puente de la Mujer bridge. This swing bridge gave us some great views of the city and we all enjoyed our walk even though Michelle was a little timid about being over the water! We took some great pictures and ended up staying to watch the sunset. 

Still being full from our lunch of decadence and trying to watch budget, we stopped at a market on the walk home and bought cheese, crackers and wine for $50. We went back to the house and enjoyed them in the living room. 

FRIDAY OCTOBER 19th

We have been doing alot of solo sight seeing but wanted to see more of the whole city and get to know an insiders perspective so we decided to book a bike tour of Buenos Aires. Luckily the bike tour departed from San Telmo so we walked over to meet our group. We started off at 10 am and the tour lasted 7 hours. Our tour guide knew English and was so help. Ron goes next to Jacob on the list of friendly faces we've encountered in Buenos Aires! Our all enclusive tour included snacks, water and lunch. We got to try traditional yerba mate tea. 

We also stopped for lunch at a place that Ron knew the owners and they treated us like royalty! We got to eat Bondiola sandwiches which are pork shoulder. 

We got to stop by the La Recoleta cemetery and pay our respect though our resident fraidy cat Michelle was scared! 

We saw the statue of General Jose de San Martin and saw how important he was to the Argentine people. Ron bowed his head and said a small prayer. 

Though Ron gave us alot of opportunities to walk around, our butts were pretty sore by the end of the day. Jaimie was pratically limping. Overall, we had a great day on our bikes! 

This full day bike tour cost us $90 American dollars per person so $630. 

Details of the tour can be found on http://www.bikingbuenosaires.com/index.html and we took the Ultimate City Tour. We found the tour via google. 

When we finally got back to our barrio of San Telmo we decided to get a few drinks to fend off our sore behinds. Ron suggested a small bar and told us that we HAD to get a Fernet and Coke because it was what all the locals drank. 

What Ron forgot to mention was that Fernet has a very bitter taste! Kevin practically spit his on to the floor and Kelly compared the taste to tar.We asked the bartender why anyone would put themselves through this kind of torture and he explained that Fernet was founded as a medicine in Italy and that the Argentines drink it because it does not give you any kind of hangover. We all ended up splitting a bottle of wine and some appetizers after struggling down the Fernet and Cokes. Our bar tab for the night was $60 American dollars and we walked back to our house (stumbled back in some people's case!). 

SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th 

After a few weeks of being on the road, we were all starting to feel a little homesick. Memories of NC State and Bruegger's bagels had us wanting a taste of home. Alex heard about a cool service called Quiero Bagel. Diego, the owner, toured around New York talking to bagel makers and perfecting his recipes. For just $14 American dollars, we had a dozen plain bagels delivered to our door! http://www.quierobagel.com

After carb loading on our delicious bagels we decided to hit San Telmo on foot again but this time in the hunt of antiques. At the first store we stopped at, the owner must have known right away that we were tourists. TY and Kelly struck up a conversation with him in spanish and found out that there was a huge market on Sundays in San Telmo and the street is blocked off. As to his suggestion, we held off on our antique shopping until then and made our way over to Palermo for boutique shopping. Palermo soho is the hip place to be in Buenos Aires and we soon saw that by the prices in the boutiques. There were many name brand shops and expensive stores. We stopped in a particularly cool one called 28 sport. 

28 sport makes all of their shoes by hand and ensure that every pair is unique. Only one color is made in each size ever. http://www.28sport.com

We also stopped in Calma Chica and Alex got a cowhide rug which is very popular in Argentina. It cost her $200 American dollars. What a score! http://www.calmachicha.com/

Michelle got a beautiful dress for $80 American dollars at a boutique who uses textile scraps. http://juanadearco.net/

TY got his girlfriend some good smelling soap from Sabater Hermanos, a homemade soap botique run by siblings.He got two bars for $12 American Dollars. http://www.shnos.com.ar/

We stopped for a late lunch in Palermo at a parrilla called La Cabrera. We had to wait in a long line to get a table but were served complimentary champagne. From getting know our waiter and looking around us, we saw that this place was very popular with tourists. http://www.parrillalacabrera.com.ar/

The wait was worth it! The serving sizes were huge and quite delicious. 

After stuffing ourselves full, we looked down at our watches and realized it was almost 9 oclock! The long line and full day of shopping had made us lose time! We decided to hit up the night life of Palermo and found a bar with drinks for only 5 pesos until midnight (only about 1 American dollar!). http://www.sugarbuenosaires.com/

We danced and drank. We even met some girls from North Carolina! They had both just graduated from UNC but that didn't stop Kevin from trying to get his flirt on! We left Palmero around midnight and went back to our house in San Telmo. 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 22nd

We decided to head out to the legendary market in San Telmo early Sunday morning. It is legendary for a reason! The streets were filled with people and vendors. We saw alot of people selling mate cups that are used to drink yerma mate tea like we had tried on our bike tour. Emily bought one for $3 American dollars. 

We found out that the market is officially called the "San Telmo Feria". We were amazed by the street preformers and musicians. A mime even pulled Kelly into his show! 

As we kept walking, the fair became a little overwhelming. The streets were narrow and the crowd kept growing. 

It was tough to kept the whole group of seven of us together but we ended up covering alot of ground in one afternoon. Other things sold at the fair were antiques, vintage jewelry and other knick knacks. The vendors loved our American dollars and cut us some good deals. 

Kevin bought a knit cap for $5 American dollars. 

Michelle bought a vintage Argentinean license plate for $7 American dollars to decorate her apartment. 

Around lunch time we found a temporary parrilla and got some choripan sandwiches. The smells of the vendors in the street were too enticing to resist! For all of us to eat it was $45 American dollars. 

The crowds were getting a little too large for comfort so we decided to walk back to the house, relax and stash our shopping goodies. On our way out we bought some Alfajore (caramel sandwich cookies) to snack on back at the house for $12 American dollars. 

After laying around for a few hours, we headed back out to the streets. After most of the vendors shut down, the town square becomes a dance party. Everyone in town comes out to tango! 

We danced into the night, only stopping to eat a quick dinner at a cafe for $65 American dollars. We finally stumbled home around 2 AM sad that we only had one full day left in Buenos Aires. 

MONDAY OCTOBER 23rd 

On our last full day in Buenos Aires, we took the subway over to The Buenos Aires zoo for one last day full of fun. The subway ride cost us $10 American dollars total. We purchased the deluxe zoo tickets for $34 American dollars each or $238 American dollars total so that we could see all of the attractions. 

There were all kind of different animals, a boat ride and an aquarium that we got to see with the deluxe ticket. The animals were not as far away as they are in American zoos so we got to get up close and personal with them. 

During our visit to the zoo, we grabbed lunch at one of the kiosks for $45 American dollars total. We took another subway ride home for another $10 American dollars total. 

After getting ready back at the house, we decided to get ready and go out for one last night on the town. We decided to go to Club Bahrein in Centro. It is set in a 100 year old bank and has three levels. One is a funky restaurant, one is a boho bar and one is a techo dance floor. We took a cab totaling $30 American dollars. We started with dinner and drinks totaling $120 American dollars in the yellow bar. 

Then, we made our way up to the funky room for dancing. This club in the city center had a much younger crowd than the other bars we had gone to. We got a real feel for the young, hip soho vibe of Buenos Aires and it was a great way to round out our trip. http://www.bahreinba.com/home.html

We took a $30 American dollars cab ride home. 

TUESDAY OCTOBER 24th

We were all dragging our feet Tuesday morning, not wanting to leave beautiful Buenos Aires. We packed up our bags and said goodbye to our beautiful rental house. We called up our wonderful driver Ron from the beginning of the week to get his suggestion for a good place to have brunch and to arrange a ride to the airport for later in the day. Ron kept with his trend of over serving and offered to come to brunch with us and show us one of his favorite places! He picked us up at the house and took us to Malvon: a confectionaria with delectable pastries, pancakes and other treats. 

Malvon was an old people's home in the 1930s and is still beautiful. http://www.malvonba.com.ar/

We ate for $12 American dollars each totaling $84 American dollars. Ron then took us to the airport to make sure we had plenty of time in customs and security before our 6:10 PM flight to South Africa. What a wonderful week in Buenos Aires!