Johannesburg can feel inaccessible and unlike Cape Town, which people fall in love with handily because of its natural beauty and laid back lifestyle, Jozi is a hardscrabble city that is always churning. If Cape Town is a watercolor, than Johannesburg is a high contrast photograph that requires an interpretive guide. Past Experiences founder, Jo Buitendach, is just such a guide and her Braamfontein Art Tour provides an interesting perspective of the city.
New York City is often anthropomorphized in fiction and film probably because what makes it one of the world’s greatest cities is precisely its flawed characteristics, its contrasts of grime and glamour, its pulsating 24-hour energy, its vices, and its cultural and financial significance. I never tire of visiting New York City and decided to spend two days there after a brief and emotionally tumultuous visit to Washington, DC. Two days with my family in New York was the perfect antidote to my disappointing DC visit.
This week marks my one year anniversary in Johannesburg and after one year, I haven’t sufficiently explored my adopted city. This post marks the first installment entitled exploring Jozi. I had a free Sunday afternoon and I returned to one of my favorite spots, Market on Main at Arts on Main in the up and coming Maboneng precinct.
Cape Town weather is capricious – at one moment achingly beautiful and the next rainy and dreary. On those stunningly beautiful days it’s near impossible to justify being indoors. So, a cloudy, winter weekend was the perfect excuse to indulge in activities that had been on my Cape Town to do list but that I hadn’t managed to get around to during previous visits.