Photos from Johannesburg, South Africa 2006

Johannesburg, South Africa 2006

Looking out over suburban Pretoria from the ITS head office. Beautiful trees and houses, clean air, a blue sky above. What more could you ask for?

This is the entrance of my guest house. Truly a beautiful old estate.

On day three I visited the mall for the first time with Christoph. It is just about the only place you will find people walking freely around. The mall itself was quite impressive. There we ate amazing Italian at a place called Cappuccinos.

Although I did not formally meet with the University of Pretoria, I did visit to check out the campus.

Sunset at the Emaldri Guest House. So lush and green.

Day 5 in Johannesburg. I found myself on the campus of the University of Johannesburg (UoJ) at 7am. Just enough time to grab a coffee and watch the sun take its place in the sky.

View of inner city Johannesburg from the UoJ. There were much better views but I could not get a decent photo.

Architecture at the UoJ. It is rumored that the architectural students actually designed most of the newer buildings.

A really pleasant campus overall. The people I met were really wonderful too, and helpful!

My impromptu city tour of Johannesburg. Apartment blocks like this one are everywhere. Most were posh residences before the masses left town. Now most are used as squatter pads.

Note the kids hanging off the third floor.

Johannesburg is also known to house magnificent buildings such as this one. A diamond in the rough.

Loved the copper window solarium on this building. I think it was actually copper, not impossible in the city of gold.

Shop till you drop at Rajah’s.

This street was actually found in Johannesburg. The trees that hang over the street are Jacaranda’s and I just missed their bloom which is expected in a few weeks.

Back in Pretoria central at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). The city scape is seen in the distance.

I noticed a trend at the two campuses as they focused on creating natural environments around the grounds.

Another impromptu tour of Pretoria central. My driver Kevin really provided a great service to me!

UNISA is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 200,000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the World’s mega universities.

Pretoria teachers college, now also part of the University of Pretoria.

Another shot of UNISA.

A splendid little gated community in Pretoria’s suburbs. These gated communities are very popular in an attempt to avoid criminals. Unfortunately for those that buy within the complex, the trend is for organized criminal groups to also buy a house inside the complex, rob each house in turn and move out one day with all of the community’s valuables. This might be an extreme case, yet it is a popular story among South Africans.

At MonteCasino, a casino slash mega complex which houses nearly 20 restaurants. You can walk for hours along the streets designed based on a famous Italian city that was destroyed during World War II. We ate Italian here again. It was really wonderful! p.s. No gambling.

After dinner we head into Sandton to check out some live music. Here I am at the Blues Room. It was so good to get back to a city where things to do are plentiful. There is only so much available in Windhoek! The club was really fantastic. The band played swing and jazz. You entered the building through a mall, where you went down to a lower level. Then you had to go another level down to get to the ‘Blues Room’. Real underground Jozi style.

My friend Cristoph and his friend Isabelle. We had a great night! Don’t they look scary? Like scary Johannesburg people! Watch out!

Christoph and I halfway down to the ‘Blues Room’.

Truly a fantastic trip. I was incredibly drained having run around all week with training and interviews. Still it was a great memory! Thanks to all my Jozi peeps. Ill be back.