Joburg

Joburg is cool. I mean, if you are into going out on Thursday nights to a club where a top-notch DJ spins reggae and a rasta MC chants and sings and freestyles over top and the people dance all night and into the morning, then it's cool. Once again I have my trusty underground tour guide, Foster, to thank for knowing of and taking us to the spot. For lack of a better description, and because I could never do it justice, and with apologies to all who read this who have never lived in ATL, and with larger apologies to those that have lived in ATL and don't know, we had followed him this time to Joburg's version of MJQ. Set in an artsy neighborhood just off of downtown, with tall buildings towering overhead, seemingly abandoned buildings surrounding, and the ever-so-slight feeling that we were in a neighborhood that lonely planet would tell us was a little too lonely to visit in our first couple of days in town, this club blared dance music. It was off the hook.

In any event, the night was a great one. The rest of my time in Johannesburg has been great, as well. Jake, Alex, and I are starting to hit our groove in terms of hanging out. All of us are pretty laid-back, and Jake developed a full itinerary for us, so the other two of us have been going with the flow. The focus thus far in the trip has been amazing food, and the fish curry I described in my first post was just the beginning. Apart from eating and partying, we've also kept it pretty cultural. We spent time checking out the different neighborhoods and historical sights. Jake recently completed a clerkship for the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and he gave us the full tour of the new courthouse designed to accommodate that body. It is, by far, the best-designed courthouse I have ever seen. We've also toured a couple of museums, checked out an art gallery and an exhibit, took a quick look at the Mandela house in Soweto, talked quite a bit about the history of South Africa and of Johannesburg, etc.

My parting thoughts on Johannesburg are that it is gritty and fast-paced, and what it lacks in natural beauty it more than makes up for with a palpable sense that history is unfolding before your very eyes and a vibrance and vitality that is the match of any city. As always, I haven't had the time here to satisfy myself that I truly have a feel for the place, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

I fly south to Cape Town tomorrow.