8,108 miles later...

After a week of couchsurfing with family through Longport, Philly, and NY, I finally jumped on the plane at JFK Monday morning. After 15 hours in the air, I landed in the OR Tambo International airport, Johannesburg. It's been 36 hours and jet lag is waning. Since I was only going to be in town 2 nights, I stayed at an AirBNB in Sandton - a  suburb north of the downtown & a 12 minute Gautrain ride from the airport. Prior to this trip, most of what I heard about Joberg was negative - I was intrigued yet on my guard. Thus far I can say feelings are mixed and views are probably skewed. Yesterday I met a cool cat named Leo, had a very quick ride on the extremely fast, clean and reliable Gautrain, and saw my first HarDeeDar Ibis in the backyard of the BnB. Not too shabby. Today, after a failed attempt to take the train to Parktown and sight see, I trekked back and spent the afternoon in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton City - a very posh area filled with shops that include more brand names than I've seen in a while. Interested in people watching, I grabbed a cafe table on the square and enjoyed a local brew. The square reminded me a lot of the DC suburbs (Crystal City came to mind), and the Gucci, Prada, Bellagio & Ferrari stores were definitely not my scene. Cue the obnoxious group of self-absorbed business (?) folks at the table next to us, and I was soon paying my tab and flagging a tuk tuk (that part was awesome). This experience was the polar opposite of the impoverished, dangerous place that was described to me, and this is probably just the beginning of the income inequality that I read so much about.  But although the GINI coeffiicient might be high here, I'm pretty motivated and excited to move on & see a bit more of this country. Durban & Sodwana Bay - here I come!

Baltimore coordinates: latitude: 39° 17' North longitude: 76° 37' West
Johannesburg coordinates: latitude: 26° 08' South longitude: 27° 54' East

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