The Harts Honeymoon in South Africa: Johannesburg
To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. -Nelson Mandela
It had been a long journey, but we had arrived. It was a cool, sunny Sunday morning in Jo’burg when our plane landed in what was, for us, both a new country and a new continent. Despite the exhaustion, I was full of anticipation as we made our way through customs. I had prearranged transportation and our driver cheerfully greeted us with a hug and was thankfully willing to do most of the talking as she drove us to our hotel. Not only did this relieve the burden of making conversation, it also gave me a chance to look out the window as we drove.
We drove past nice neighborhoods with two story houses in neat rows and we drove by areas where there were literally signs saying that it was dangerous to be there, listing the phone numbers for emergency services and the police. Regardless of the neighborhood, there were bars on the windows and barbed wire on the top of the fences. The air was smoggy from the power plants producing energy from coal. It was a city, yes, familiar in the way of all cities, but this was unlike any place I had been before. The marks of poverty and desperation were so very apparent, the wealth of the few proudly on display. In a country where the minimum wage is approximately equivalent to $250 per month, the vast disparity between rich and poor was unavoidably and uncomfortably obvious. And yet somehow a sense of hope that things could and would be better prevailed. All this and we had not even arrived at the hotel.
For our one night in Jo’burg, we stayed at the African Pride Melrose Arch. Melrose Arch is located in a suburb of Jo’burg proper. The brick, pedestrian friendly streets are packed with upscale and boutique shops, restaurants, hotels, and even residences. The relatively small, quiet development was exactly what we needed for our one day in Jo’burg. Recovering from jet lag, I think we both wanted a space where we could relax and where we felt comfortable walking around outside. There are many places in the city where walking even a few blocks, especially at night, is cautioned against. In Melrose Arch, we felt safe walking to restaurants and meandering through the shopping areas.
If you have more time in Jo’burg or are looking to stay in a different area, other areas to consider are Maboneng, Melville, Rosebank, Norwood, and Sandton, each with their own slew of boutique hotels, fancy accommodations, quaint guesthouses, and welcoming hostels.
Now let me tell you a little about where we stayed for our single night in Jo’burg. For reasons I will go into later (I will be doing a whole post with the details of our honeymoon budget) I narrowed down the hotels for the trip to Marriott hotels. Thankfully, Africa is a great place for this. Marriott partners with Protea and African Pride hotels, which provides the opportunity to earn (or use!) points for stays if that is your thing and ensures that there are many available hotel options in a variety of locations throughout South Africa. Given that this was our honeymoon, I had narrowed it down to only the most luxurious of accommodations (due to the exchange rate, this is a great place to splurge a little without going broke) and with Brandon’s input we settled on the African Pride Melrose Arch.
From the moment we arrived, everything was just lovely. Despite arriving at 9 am and hours before the check-in time, the front desk staff were so pleasant as they checked us in, led us to the Library Bar adjacent to the lobby, and asked the bartender to make us some much needed cappuccinos.
While we crashed on the cozy leathers sofas next to the even cozier fireplace, the hotel was quickly working to accommodate our early arrival.
We were soon escorted to our room, which had been decorated for a honeymoon welcome, complete with some sweet treats.
The exposed brick and quirky paintings made the room cool. The warm wood and stylish carpet made it luxurious. Every detail was considered and, most importantly, the bed was really, really comfortable.
Other spaces around the hotel were equally cool and luxurious. Even the pool had a unique style, although the late winter temps meant it was too cool to use.
And then there was the breakfast. The next morning, we checked out the impressive breakfast buffet at the onsite March Restaurant, before being picked up to go on our safari. At 255.00 ZAR (about $15 per person), breakfast featured a truly decadent spread of every breakfast food and topping I’ve ever imagined. There were hot items including delicious boerewors (South African sausages), numerous fresh pastries, cured meats and fish, cheeses, salads, and trays of fruit. There was also the best yogurt I’ve had in my life. My breakfast loving husband was in his happy place.
In addition to the over the top breakfast, we had time to check out two Melrose Arch restaurants during our brief time in Jo’burg. Picked due to convenience and curb appeal, I make no claims that these are “the best in Jo’burg” or where one should eat. They’re simply the (probably overpriced) places we ended up. They were also both quite good.
For lunch, I desperately wanted anything with fresh vegetables. Feeling like I had developed a nutritional deficit during our days of airport and airplane food, nothing sounded better than a big giant bowl of veggies. It was just warm enough to sit outside in the sunshine and fresh air on the patio at JB’s Corner.
I happily dove into a halloumi salad. Halloumi would be a surprisingly common ingredient on menus throughout our trip. I didn’t hate it. The slightly sweet white dressing to be found on seemingly all restaurant tables in South Africa was the perfect accompaniment to my salad of fried halloumi, carrots, mixed nuts, toasted sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, bell peppers, crispy brinjal (eggplant), tomatoes, corn, cucumber, and mixed greens.
I paired it all with a strawberry mojito. Because vacation.
The other restaurant we tried was Moyo, a showcase of African cuisine. Incidentally, moyo is Swahili for heart.
We did get a few strange looks when we arrived for dinner at 4:30. The early dinner time could have had something to do with my insistence that we had to stay awake all day and couldn’t go to sleep until after dinner. So 4:30 it was. Not being an expert in African cuisine, I don’t know exactly how authentic the menu was, but one of the appetizers was actual worms, so... I was not brave enough to try the fried mopane worms, but I was totally into the samosas. These were the first of many samosas we enjoyed on our trip. You may wonder what samosas have to do with African cuisine. Well. You’ll just have to keep reading - more on that in a future post. For his main, Brandon chose the ostrich, which was probably his favorite exotic meat of the entire trip - he would order it any time he found it on a menu. Lean and flavorful, it’s reminiscent of a really good steak. I settled on the peri peri chicken. Peri peri sauce is a wonderfully spicy sauce made from the African Bird’s Eye pepper. Our dinner was a delicious introduction to African cuisine. Just reading the menu was an interesting reminder that we were a long way from home.
We wanted some time to recover before leaving for a safari the following morning, and the location and the hotel and the food certainly helped us do that. But we only had one day in Jo’burg and we did not want to waste it. We, and by “we” I mean “I”, decided that the one thing we had to do with our day was go the the Apartheid Museum.
Probably not an obvious choice for the first day of a honeymoon, but it felt important to better (although I acknowledge not even close to completely) understand the history of the place where we would be spending the next couple of weeks. We bought tickets for 95.00 ZAR each upon arriving at the museum. The tickets were stamped with Blankes (Afrikaans for White) or Nie-Blankes (Non-White). Upon apartheid becoming law in 1948, the country was forcibly and strictly divided along racial lines - people who were White (mostly those descended from the Dutch or English that settled in and colonized SA) and everyone else. Like in the United States’ own ugly history of slavery and legalized racism, any indication that one had in one’s past anything but White ancestors put one in the latter category. To enter the museum, we were asked to enter through the gate that corresponded with what was stamped on our tickets.
After all, Whites and Non-Whites could not legally occupy the same spaces during apartheid. Choosing to follow the directions (because, well, that’s what I do), Brandon and I entered through separate entrances. The few minutes we were apart until we could rejoin one another were disconcerting. It was a stark reminder that for years, in my lifetime, there were places where someone could not be simply because of the color of their skin and that the distinction, at its very core, is meaningless, nonsensical; as meaningless a distinction as words stamped on a museum ticket. By the time I left the first exhibit, I was angry at the injustice of it all. By the time I left the museum (much of which could not be photographed), I was heartbroken.
I was also convicted.
The policies of apartheid had been years in the making as a small, powerful minority spouted the doctrines of white supremacy and began passing laws that took away the rights, including land ownership, from those who looked or spoke different than them. If you had asked the average South African in 1948 whether or not he or she supported apartheid, wanted apartheid, he or she would have said no. And yet apartheid prevailed. And then I look at my own country, a place where freedom is a strongly held ideal, a country that is supposed to offer justice and opportunity and equality to all. What I see is a place where a small, powerful minority is spouting the doctrines, sometimes in subtle ways, of white supremacy and has begun implementing policies, sometimes informally, that take away rights from those who look or speak different than them. In my heart I believe that if you asked the average American if he or she supports this, the answer would be no.
It is terrifying and it is convicting.
Apartheid ended in 1994, in no small part due to the tireless passionate kindness of Nelson Mandela. Since then, South Africa has worked to rebuild a brave new, and hopefully better, world. In some ways, this ancient place is a young country where anything feels possible. If there is one thing to take away from the Apartheid Museum, which, if I have not been clear, is excellent and worth your time, it is this: there is ugliness in the history of the world, but if we are unwilling to face the darkness and own our place in it, we will not be able to move forward into a brighter future. The South Africans we spoke to seemed to feel something similar to this, regretful of the past and optimistic about creating a better world, mindful of racism and its continued impact on disparity within the country and yet taking the steps to move into a different future. Likewise, I want to learn from the past, not repeat it. I want to do my part to face and fight the racism and bigotry of all kinds happening in my piece of the world, to speak for those who have yet to be given a voice. This is not a South African issue, this is a humanity issue.
The short story is: go to the Apartheid Museum. It is thoughtfully designed, thoroughly interesting, and, most of all, shares a vitally important message for our time. I know I have grossly simplified an issue that is anything but simple, but if you are in Jo’burg, I hope you choose to spend some pondering your own thoughts as you spend time in the museum. If you have more than one day in Jo’burg, there is certainly plenty to do. I would have liked to have taken a tour of Soweto, the southwest township, where both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived, to have checked out Maboneng’s Sunday Arts on Main market or the African Craft Market in Rosebank, and to have visited Constitution Hill. There’s also the Wits Art Museum, Liliesleaf Farm, and the Cradle of Humankind to name just a few more spots.
Even being in Johannesburg for only a single day, I feel like we made the most of it in a way that met our need for rest before the next adventure. And the next adventure was a big one, because the next day we were off on a safari…