#Culture

I spent three days in Berlin, which is not enough time to get to know a place and make dramatic pronouncements like, “Berlin is the Johannesburg of Europe.”

But I’m saying it anyway because that’s how I felt when I was there.

A few months ago I received an invitation to my friends’ wedding in Vienna. I’d never been to Vienna before so I decided to go.

While I’m at it, I thought, I should really go to Berlin. I’d never been there either and I had an open invitation from an old friend.

As I float down a canal in the Netherlands, I thought I’d write a quick post about the Newtown heads. If you live in Joburg you know the heads I’m talking about – the hundreds of wooden sculptures lining Mary Fitzgerald Square and several streets in the downtown neighborhood of Newtown.

About three years ago, I was roaming around downtown Joburg on a drizzly Sunday afternoon with some photographer friends. As we walked along Fox Street near the corner of Rissik Street, just behind Gandhi Square, we noticed an open doorway and walked inside. I didn’t know it then but this doorway led to Somerset House.