Feet Touch Down – Africa

I have a smile reaching from ear to ear, I’m actually, really here in Africa!

I’m sitting on a plane at Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia waiting to take off for Johannesburg and already I’m having little waves of thrill roll through me.  I’m having one of those I need to pinch myself to make sure its real type of moments.

I’ve had just over an hour in this airport and its very evident that I am somewhere completely different.  The colour of the people, the beautiful, brightly dressed ladies and all the languages none of which I recognise. A very voluptuous, chatty South African lady, with bright red coloured braids is sitting next to me.  Here eyes light up when I told her I was in Africa for the first time and she assured me I was going to love it!

And so far I am.  Due to the fear installed in me before I came due to research and feedback I ended up booking a taxi to pick me up at the airport and take me to my hostel.  The driver was a lovely male named Themba – “hope” in his native tongue. He was from Durban originally and told me it took him years to get used to the high and dry altitude up here in Johannesburg.  I must admit after a few hours walking around my nasal passages feel like they’ve become a desert.

I washed 24 hours of transit off me and headed out onto Fox street, deep in the inner city on the eastern edge of the business district.  The location is called Maboneng and its part of an urban regeneration project. Once a “no-go” zone it was a great choice for me to feel a lot less afraid and be in a place with a great vibe.

I didn’t take long to stumble upon a great little coffee and souvlaki shop built on a street corner. I climbed up some metal stairs and then sat out in the open watching from above the locals going about their business. I got chatting to the business owner who is happy to share some tourist advice on his city and also advice on where I should head next as I am still deliberating on just where that should be.  He showed me photos of Namibia which he’d visited a year ago and the photos looked amazing.  We shared the usual rival rugby banter and although I was too late to get something to eat he offered some suggestions for in the area and told me there was no need to pay for my coffee. Such a sweet way to welcome someone to your town – I’ll definitely be back there for a lamb souvlaki.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find where he’d suggested but I asked some guys busy taking photos where it was and although they were from out of town they googled it for me and as they were heading that way said tag along with them.  When asked what I said doing I said I was traveling the continent using Jo’burg as the landing point.  Together we had no luck even after asking some locals, but I said I’d keep wandering around to see if I could find it.  I hadn’t gotten far and one of the guys ran back up to me and said here take this.  He’d handed me a pepper spray and said not to worry I probably wouldn’t need it, but just in case and that it probably wasn’t the safest for a woman on her own after dark.  Wow, these South Africans are really making a great first impression!

I ended up eating at Little Addis, an Ethiopian restaurant. The girl made a suggestion for me it being my first time eating Ethiopian food, I guess the one I’d chosen was too hot? Anyway, apart from the novelty of eating with my hands the food was really tasty.  I used the very white and thin kind of pancake torn into pieces to scoop up the stew type varieties of meat and vegetable portions.