By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
As I was once told about the city that births gold that no man ever goes there and comes back the same. I took the leap with myself to go and also leave some of me in the city of Johannesburg. Little did I know that the little pieces of me I left behind would call be back time and time again. As I entered this majestic city in the early hours of the morning, sky scraping lights still in big blue bloom and my eyes wide open. I knew then than I had made the perfect choice but still with that knowledge fear struck. I felt like a child again! The minute the plane landed all I wanted to do was run out and put my feel on the ground but everyone in the plane was on a go slow, nobody understood nor did anyone care that I had to pee (I used it as an excuse to push forward and be the first one out the plane) I found myself having to calm myself down waiting for all sorts of people to walk out before me. I don't even recall what half of them looked like, I boiled in my impatience. About an hour later I walked through the boarding gates of OR Tambo international and I forgot everything I knew before. I forgot where I came from and who I was, all I knew what that I felt home. Waiting outside the airport for my taxi to take me to my hotel in central Johannesburg to a place called braamfontien, I lit a cigarette and I felt like that was the first breath I ever took. The ride to the hotel took about 40 minutes because i ask the driver to drive on cruze control. All wide eyed through the ride, listening to the sound of cars and trucks driving by, my window was all the way down with what sounded like tribal music playing in the car. I smelled pain in the air. Once I got to the hotel before I even the stepped out of the car there was my first warning "becareful young lady, this city bites" from the driver but I didn't hear anything, excitement was all I felt. It was true about what they said about it that this city too doesn't sleep. As I got out of the car I could hear loud club music and people walking up and down, obviously intoxicated. I could not wait to check in, put my bags down and go join in the festivities. I did just that. There was about 4 clubs open, I became itchy because I didn't know which one to try first. In that moment of my wonder a local girl approached me and asked for a "smoke " I pulled my pack out and immediately she started conversing with me and asked me to join her and her friends at one of the oldest bars in Johannesburg called Kitcheneres. Before I even said yes she grabbed my hand and we where walking in. There was such a diversity of humans in there, the music hit me in my core and we drank. I met about 12 people in a space of an hour in that place all from different worlds and we drank till the morning came. The morning was different when I woke up, the lights where gone, the music was gone and the people where gone. I felt a sense of longing but i just figured it was the hangover. I took a tour bus still eager to see and experience everything. We drove around the city and I remembered what my taxi driver said to me every time that we entered certain parts of the city. I felt the city bitting me like I have never been bitten before. It hurt to see the pain and beauty of this jungle. How from one corner there are sky scraping gorgeous buildings and other corners was musk and what smelled like death. I felt a peice of me leave my body in that bus! I wanted the night to come again and hold me.