June 7, 2007My flight from JFK to Johannesburg, South Africa, a seventeen-hour ordeal, was made better by the facts that each seat had an entertainment system chock full of TV shows, videogames/chess, and movies and that the plane was only a third full. Most people on the plane, myself included, had a whole row to themselves to lie down and fall asleep.
I arrived pretty refreshed at Joburg around 5 pm on Thursday and was picked up by my second cousin Linda, of whose existence I had not been aware just 2 days earlier! The night before departure, my dad put together that I’d have an overnight stay in Joburg from looking over my tickets; when I’d mentioned the words “youth hostel near the airport” as a solution, the parental alarms went off and calls were made… lo and behold, my already gargantuan family now officially exists on six continents as opposed to the five I’d always assumed.
I am really grateful to Linda, her husband Sabu, and their three children for all the hospitality they showed me last night at their new house, including a night tour of the Joberg utilizing the little time I had there. Their house was palatial, fitted with all of the sweetest electronics, gardens galore, two three-car garages, and… actually located directly on a game reserve to boot! (Large fences protected their kids from the animals- but the views from their balconies were spectacular.) Their kids, Joann, Shawn, and Mikhail, all between 6 and 11, were a lot of fun and had great accents. Funny that two Indian parents decided on a Russian name; reminds me of my parents came up with an Irish one for me! I wish I’d taken a couple of pics with them and of the house during the daylight hours. Anyway, the overnight worked out much better than the original hostel booking. (To my fellow Eurotrip-05-ers reading this: remember Hostel Vesta “far from the best-a” in Prague, located directly in the main train station? Since then, I been wary about hostels affiliated with transit.) Unfortunately, I only have one night here...
I arrived pretty refreshed at Joburg around 5 pm on Thursday and was picked up by my second cousin Linda, of whose existence I had not been aware just 2 days earlier! The night before departure, my dad put together that I’d have an overnight stay in Joburg from looking over my tickets; when I’d mentioned the words “youth hostel near the airport” as a solution, the parental alarms went off and calls were made… lo and behold, my already gargantuan family now officially exists on six continents as opposed to the five I’d always assumed.
I am really grateful to Linda, her husband Sabu, and their three children for all the hospitality they showed me last night at their new house, including a night tour of the Joberg utilizing the little time I had there. Their house was palatial, fitted with all of the sweetest electronics, gardens galore, two three-car garages, and… actually located directly on a game reserve to boot! (Large fences protected their kids from the animals- but the views from their balconies were spectacular.) Their kids, Joann, Shawn, and Mikhail, all between 6 and 11, were a lot of fun and had great accents. Funny that two Indian parents decided on a Russian name; reminds me of my parents came up with an Irish one for me! I wish I’d taken a couple of pics with them and of the house during the daylight hours. Anyway, the overnight worked out much better than the original hostel booking. (To my fellow Eurotrip-05-ers reading this: remember Hostel Vesta “far from the best-a” in Prague, located directly in the main train station? Since then, I been wary about hostels affiliated with transit.) Unfortunately, I only have one night here...
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