First Days in Town: The Bramley Bummer

I landed here on May 13 and spent the first few days in an affordable lodge in a part of town called Bramley. It's in the northern part of Johannesburg, what they call the northern suburbs, and it's definitely got a suburban feel. Huge houses on huge lots on huge blocks. So, basically, it's a terrible place to be a pedestrian. And being brand new in the city, not knowing what the transportation scene was like, I had intended to be a pedestrian as much as possible. Staying two nights in Bramley convinced me that I need a car.

The place stayed was nice, and being in a boring part of town actually worked well with my jetlag, so I basically wore myself out walking around and then crashed in my room. There was a shopping mall about 3 or 4 km from the lodge, where I went to get my cell phone and internet squared away, so that was my exciting adventure in Bramley. I tried to walk over to Melrose Arch, which is apparently a sight to see in the area. A half-hour walk revealed that Melrose Arch is just another shopping mall. Shopping malls are the cool thing here, I guess. They suck as much here as they do in the U.S. But that's what the locals like, I suppose. I'm guessing it has to do with security. Being a dangerous and crime-ridden town, it's much safer feeling to drive into a parking structure and walk into an indoor shopping mall to get what you need.

Bramley was kind of a lame way to start out my trip to South Africa. I definitely got the impression that Johannesburg was going to be a crappy place to spend my time. But luckily the place I went next was way better.