Walk in Jo'burg

Today for the first time I was able to explore the city on foot. Patrick told us about an event being held in Newtown, Johannesburg's cultural center, where snow machines were going to be set up to create a "winter wonderland." (Don't forget that it is winter here in the southern hemisphere.) In addition to snow the city had plans for a skating rink and live music.

As it turned out the winter wonderland was on Sunday. But we still had a great time walking through the city. Check out the pics I took...

We started out in Fordseburg, an Indian, Pakistani neighborhood and they have a large out door market on weekends. Unfortunately it doesn't really get going until after one.

Just past the Market is the Oriental Mall. Most of the malls storfrontage faces a large open center courtyard where vendors have set up stands. Here too most of the shops are owned by people of indian decent. The air was heavy with the smell of indian spices; vendors sold colorful fabrics, toys, along with gold plated pots and urns.

Shot of the inside portion of the Mall


Gold plated stuff


and some toys

From there we headed to Newtown arriving "24hrs early" (astutely phrased by Doris) for the winter wonderland. We left Newtown for "the Top of Africa" at the Carlton Center. At fifty stories, the Carlton Center is the tallest building in Africa. I know it's kind of average by New York City standards but the fact that nothing else is as high means you have unobstructed views for as far as the eye can see.

To get there we had to walk through some downtown streets. This was a real treat. We really got a feel for the city.


ice cream!


steak and guns!!



An outdoor salon.



We past several storefronts that only sold steel wool. I had never seen so much in my life.

Finally we arrived at Carlton Center and took a high speed elevator to the top. From there we could see the entire space that we had just walked.




I spotted this house on top of a skyscrapper


and all these clothes drying. colorful.