Really, Wikipedia?. I’ve never called a hill a kopje (literally a small cup) and I don’t know any Dutch person who does.

Anyway, now I know why the Melville Koppies are called Melville Koppies But wow, what a day. I hadn’t expected to spend such a long time there. People told me that it was worth seeing, and I decided to go and take a look, but what I didn’t expect was that it would be so beautiful. And peaceful. And so totally strange.

View from Melville Koppies

Saying that it’s a nature reserve in the middle of a city is true, but it doesn’t really cover it. This isn’t just a nature reserve. This is a bit (well actually quite a big bit) of raw Africa in the middle of a city.  In Holland nature reserves are different. It’s much more reserve and much less nature. In a Dutch nature reserve, nature has been tamed. You usually have a footpath, a bicycle path and a bridle path in Dutch nature reserves. Side by side. And totally straight.  In the koppies, the paths sort of follow the contours of the earth, flow around natural obstacles, they’re organic. Like they were made by animals. I suppose they were.

Another view from Melville Koppies

In Holland you’ll never get a piece of land this size that someone isn’t trying to develop. Especially in a city.  I wonder if people here realise what an enormous privilege this is, to just be able to walk into nature like this, into the peace and quiet. Somehow seeing that huge modern city makes the peace and quiet even more peaceful and quiet. It’s the contrast.

In the end I spent a much longer time in the koppies than I had intended. After all the hectic business of meeting deadlines and catching planes and organising things, it was nice to just sit there on a rock and look at the grass and the clouds and the flowers and the city. And to just walk around with no other purpose than to see something from a different angle. So by the time I decided to walk back it was quite a few hours later than I’d meant to.

7de Laan, where soaps are born

Talking about walking: In the koppies everyone walks, of course. But the moment they’re on the streets it seems unthinkable for South Africans to walk anywhere. Yesterday I walked to the restaurant, about 10 or 15 minutes from where I’m staying. People were shocked when they heard that, everyone was offering to drive me back after dinner. I was tired, and accepted. But this morning I walked to the koppies, and afterwards walked back, and everyone reacts as though I’d run a marathon. I did notice that I’m the only white person doing it. In South Africa it seems that white people drive and black people walk. I must remember to ask about that.

7de Laan, where 3rd world meets 1st world

This area is so strange and so interesting and so beautiful. OK more later, I have to hurry now if I want to upload this before 5:30 and watch 7deLaan.

First things first:

I decided to drastically reduce the size of my photos. Last night it took me almost an hour to upload my previous post with the amsterdam pics.
Had an uneventful flight, and watched Harry Potter 1 through 4 along the way. Arrived slightly ahead of schedule, and was met by a real cutie holding this sign:

South Africa welcomes amsterdambabe

LOL it was so amazing, when I came out of customs he was the first person I saw. I felt like a VIP!
I wanted to take the pic of him holding the sign the way I saw him when I came through the doors, but he’s camera-shy.

The airport was very different from what I’d expected of Africa. Very modern, very 1st-world.

Johannesburg International Airport terminal

See the football adverts? They’re everywhere!

It was weird…after getting up at 4 AM, flying all day, watching 4 movies, all the impressions etc, one would think I’d be tired, but I wasn’t. Or maybe I was, but it’s a different sort of tired, the sort where you’re wide awake. The first ting I did when I got my mobile internet connection sorted was to upload the post I’d written on the plane, which took an hour, but even then I was wide awake.  I finally managed to fall asleep at about 4 AM and was woken around noon by my mobile phone welcoming me to S.A.

I went outside to get my first daytime look at where I’m staying:

44 Stanley Avenue

The area is awesome. What was a once series of industrial buildings is now a whole plethora of trendy boutiques, restaurants and design studios. It’s like the P.C. Hooftstraat spread over an entire city block. Had  brunch at one of the restaurants, and was a bit disappointed…not at the quality, but at the fact that it’s not a whole lot cheaper than Amsterdam. Then again, it’s not the neighbourhood for bargains

Met our Creative Director at 2, and he took me on a whirlwind tour of the city in his fancy BMW. He talks as fast as he drives, he’s clever and funny and cute and sadly he has a girlfriend. I might just jump his bones anyway
He’s very passionate about South Afrrica, and he loves Johannesburg, which he calls Jozi. In fact he talks about Jozi like she’s a girl…at first I thought his girlfriend’s name was Jozi.

Multi-level highway, Johannesburg

Ever seen anything like this? I was amazed. There’s another highway on top!

Another view of Johannesburg

Weird. the palm trees and the hacienda look, are we in Mexico? No, there are skyscrapers in the background, this must be a shopping mall.
Impressions, impressions, impressions. They build up constantly, everything the same as Europe, in a way, but also just slightly different. Jozi is a bit of a slut, it seems, but with a lot of attitude.

Tower with football

And everywhere you look, the football madness. I’ve been here for less than a day, and already I feel like either giggling hysterically or screaming whenever I see a football…how must the people who live here feel? Or is it just me?

OK, I’ve been invited to a Portuguese restaurant in a street that’s apparantly famous because they film a TV soap there every day, just around the corner from here. Catch you later