Hiking Joburg's Main Drag

23 February 2011

Joe and I took a walk through Joburg’s Central Business District – starting at the Carlton Centre and then east on Main Street to the Magistrates Court.

A view of downtown from Gandhi Square. The Carlton Centre is the building to the left of the Daily Sun sign. You wouldn’t know from this picture but it’s the tallest building in Africa at 223 meters.

There’s a rejuvenation story here although it’s not the same story as Arts on Main, which is a few blocks east. This section of Main Street houses banks, government agencies, and, above all else, international mining companies. It’s where Big Business lives.

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Sunday's Main Event

21 February 2011

Yesterday afternoon Joe and I drove to a gritty downtown neighborhood dotted with auto body shops and Chinese takeout joints. We followed the signs to “Arts on Main,” parked just off Main Street under a concrete overpass, and followed an old mining rail track into a warehouse.

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Pottery-Shopping With a Rooster

19 February 2011

Most of my Joburg-themed posts are about eating, hiking, and sight-seeing (with some news and sports mixed in). Those are the topics that fit within my comfort zone.

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Melville Pizza: Think Thin

17 February 2011

South Africa is not known for pizza, and you certainly won’t find authentic New York- or Chicago-style pies here. (I recently saw a Facebook photo of someone eating Ray’s Pizza in New York. It looked so delicious – I nearly wept.)

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101 Guest Houses

15 February 2011

First, I realize it’s pretty lame that this blog post is NOT about the U2 concert that happened here two days ago. Aside from last year’s World Cup, it seems that the U2 concert was this city’s event of the decade. Alas, Joe and I were not among the 98,000 people at the concert. We were at home, enjoying huge bowls of leftover chili. (It was even yummier the second time around!)

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Sweet Indian Valentines

12 February 2011

Five years ago I visited Chennai, India, and fell in love with Indian sweets. Indian sweets are difficult to describe – there are hundreds of different kinds and they vary by region. The ones I’ve had are colorful little balls or squares, made mainly of sugar and condensed milk and flavored with things like coconut, pistachio, and cashews. (Read about Indian sweets on Wikipedia.)

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