Tja, wie das halt so ist … für diese Seite fehlte mir bisher die Zeit.
I’m sorry … but I just couldn’t find the time to finish this site. Coming soon …
Visit in Jo’burg
2008/06/19 - 2008/06/31
2008/06/19 - 2008/06/31
In the summer of 2008 I was thinking of going abroad for a while to South Africa. At my company there was the chance to transfer for a limited time period to our office in Johannisburg - or as the locals call it Jo’burg. To get an impression whether I am able to live there I was offered to visit for a week. In the end the job didn’t work out but I got a nice idea of the country.
The Sahara
The first impression on this trip, however, was something else: The Sahara - the biggest hot desert in the world. As I was flying during the day - most intercontinental flights I took happened at night - I had something like 3 hours time to watch the waste sandy area.
Staying in Santon
I arrived at the Jo’burg airport on Friday evening. I was picked up by the airport service of the Hilton hotel I was staying in. As I asked the person whether I can quickly use the ATM to get some cash he started to be nervous and this kept on until we were in the car and on the motorway to the hotel. Later I learned that using the ATM in a public area is something most South Africans avoid as it is quite dangerous to do.
Generally there are loads of actions and behaviour, which is considered in Jo’burg as not safe and better never do it: e.g. walking as a white coloured person alone on the road. Entering certain areas of the city, being on the road after sunset. So in general the hotel I was on, was in one of the more wealthy neighbourhoods, Santon. But there was no real chance to get out and see something of the city despite the guided
tours, the hotel management offered. So I took these ones during the weekends and well, during the work I was mainly in the office. In the hotel I got breakfast and diner which was really deluxe. I recognized that all the waiter were black people and some of them acted extremely truckled. Something I not really got used to.
In the evening, however, I tried to explore the area. When I was asking the hotel concierge whether there is a walkway down the road (about 200 m) to the nearby shopping centre ‘Santon City’, again I got frightened looks. Instead I was offered a taxi ‘for free’. It seemed to be unthinkable for them to walk on the road. Well I walked along but actually felt quite uncomfortable as the only non-black person there.
Lost in a shopping mall
As I reached Santon City the first time (after 15 minutes walk), I entered it without knowing what to expect. Well, I found the biggest shopping centre I’d ever entered. And as a result I got lost and it took me half an hour to get out again. At the time, I went out, it had become dark already and I still had no clue how to come back to the entrance I was coming from. So I went to the next taxi spot and just took that. I visited Santon City two more times in this week but only on the last day I managed to find the exit I entered before.
More interesting however was, what I could do on the weekend. Find this on the next pages: