#South Africa

CORRECTION: Since publishing this post yesterday, I have been informed by many angry members of the Gatsby Society Facebook group that Gatsbys are NOT sandwiches and should never, ever, under any circumstances, be referred to as such, upon pain of death. I hereby submit my humble apology for this insult to the Gatsby Gods. (Wikipedia is my excuse – they’ve also got it wrong.) I have carefully scrubbed the word “sandwich” from the title and remainder of the post. Sorry, Gatsby fans!

My quest to visit all the places in the Hidden Johannesburg book – which began with my pilgrimage to the Lemon Squeezer Church and then a [visit to the Lions Shul](http://lions shul) – continues. I recently went to Glenshiel, a historic mansion designed by renowned architect Herbert Baker, on a tour with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation. This brings my total number of Hidden Joburg places to 17, with 11 left to go.

Last Saturday afternoon I stood on Mbolekwa Street in Dlamini, Soweto, with a couple of hundred other spectators, watching teenage boys spinning around on super-long, low-slung bicycles. Most of the bikes didn’t have brakes, or even seats in some cases. The bikes were almost double the length of normal bicycles and their back tires were wrapped in cut-up plastic bottles.

Last week Thorsten and I spent the night at the African Penthouses – a group of five luxury, rooftop apartments in the center of downtown Joburg.

The African Penthouses are at 87 Commissioner Street, right across from the Rand Club. I know this part of Joburg well and I was already an African Penthouses fangirl before the visit – I’ve been following them on Instagram for years and knew this is the coolest, most photogenic place to stay in Joburg. But I still wasn’t prepared for the real thing. These apartments are so chic and full of character, and the view from our penthouse was mind-boggling. It feels like an African Manhattan.

Several months ago, Thorsten and I took a walk through the old Johannesburg Gas Works. Our visit happened spontaneously and we definitely shouldn’t have done it. Most of the Gas Works has been abandoned since gas production terminated 30 years ago, and the buildings aren’t safe. I felt guilty afterward and I don’t want to encourage anyone else to do this, which is why I didn’t blog about it for so long.

During my Rosebank jacaranda tour last October, I held a contest: The first participant to spot the lone white jacaranda tree on our route could choose a new place in Joburg for me to visit and blog about.