I only had a day in Johannesburg after the trip back from Pilannesberg. The driver told me he had a friend who does day tours and I jumped at the chance to make the most of my short stay.
My driver, shepherd, made sure to point out at the beginning that he had driven for Peter king, the writer for sports illustrated, for the world cup last year. I made one of my lame twitter attempts to contact Peter king and he sent me a personal message telling me to say hello to Shepherd. To be honest, that's pretty fucking cool. Peter King is bigtime.
Shepherd took me to Soweto, where the opposition to Apartheid first began. While Soweto was not quite what I expected, parts of it are very developed, the respect and utter absolute devotion to Nelson Mandela is palpable. When you start hearing the stories from almost every person you meet about how he brought power and running water to their village it overwhelms you. When you realize this was less than 20 years ago, well it's humbling to say the least.
I went to the Apartheid museum afterwards and began to understand the struggle and sacrifice this man endured. It's stunning. I feel shamed by my ignorance.
Shepherd dropped me off at my hotel, the Michelangelo, a top 20 hotel in the world and home of all VIPs including Seth Blatter, president of FIFA, last year. It is way top notch. I felt embarrassed to stay there and true to my thoughts on luxury hotels, it seemed like a waste to just sleep there.
But, I was off to Victoria falls first thing in the morning and enjoyed the good night's sleep.
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