October 14, 2008 - Impressions so far

My first impression is: South Africa is very far away........
The trip getting here was very long. We spent 8 hours from Atlanta to Senegal. At Senegal(Darkar) while the plane was refueling we all had to stay in our by our seats while the local security came through and checked in, under, around and through out seats to make sure there wasn't anything suspicious. They check all the carryon baggage as well. Anything that wasn't identified by a passenger was removed.

Ed and I created a little laughter for the crew and the few people around us because he was in the first row (seat 1B) and I was in the very last row in the back (46E). At one point after taking off from Senegal I sent a message via one of the crew that I still loved him. He came back and visited me after that! hahaha

My second impression: South Africa is very friendly........
Everyone has been all smiles and helpful (except the customs agent in Johannesburg (Jo-burg to the locals) . Durban is in the province of Kwa Zulu Natal and most of the locals are zulu. The front desk and concierge people are zulu and have taught me to say hello, how are you, and goodbye in zulu. They crack up when I say it so I must have a funny accent!!

My third impression: South Africa is dangerous.......
So many people are startled when I say that I am going to walk around. They tell me I shouldn't walk here or there, sometimes it is safe everywhere except a few blocks here or there that you have to walk all the way around rather than go that one block. So far I have not felt in danger anywhere I have gone. I stay to the busy streets. The Hilton Hotel where we are staying is not on the beach so I have yet to actually be on the beach but I can see it from our hotel room.
I am told that I cannot walk to the beach....I must take a taxi and then I can only go on part of the beach if I am alone.

Fourth impression: South Africa has great food........
We eat breakfast at our hotel. It is always a full buffet. I love the small grilled tomoatoes and the little grilled mushrooms. Ed introduced me to kippers for breakfast too! There is cereal; eggs anyway you like them; yogurt with all kinds of additions; fresh fruit - papaya, watermelon, cantalope, pineapple, honeydew, oranges; all kinds of breads, muffins, scones, crepes, waffles; bacon, vegetables; fresh squeezed juice ....the list goes on. We have been to several restaurants already and have found some great fish. I have eaten a fish called kingklip a couple of different ways, both of which made this nice white fish very good.

We ate in one retaurant that had a huge aquarium in it with sharks going along the bottom. There were many large beautiful blue fish at the top but the sharks don't eat them.....I guess living in a big glass box and being fed regularly takes the predator out of them.

Fifth impression: South Africa is not a place I want to drive in.......
Actually I am still getting used to the left hand travel thing. In fact, we had only been here two days and I almost got clipped by a car because I was looking the wrong way for the traffic and walked out in front of it. I was looking to my left, but the traffic was travelling from my right....I was very lucky that time. I won't make that mistake again!

In addition to the traffic driving on the left, the road signs are hilarious. There are signposts with 3 or 4 different names on it for the streets some of which have a red line through it. That means that it used to be called that street, and most people may know it by that name, but it was changed to be named for someone else now. "Now" could have been in the last 3 months and then again in another 6 months. It just depends. It makes it very difficult to create a reliable map when you do that too often!!!