Charles Apple

This morning, I had intended to show you lots and lots of pictures of the Apartheid Museum, here in Johannesburg. Not only is the museum outstanding for its innovative and moving exhibits, I’m told, but also the architecture of the place is astounding in itself.

But I failed to make it to the museum on Sunday. And perhaps there’s a lesson in that, as well.

The bottom line is this: The museum isn’t where I thought it would be.

Most map references I’ve found show the museum as being very close to Constitution Hill, not far from my hotel. In fact, Google will find you links to the museum web site and locate the thing for you, as well as offer you driving directions:

So I drove through there. Three times, in fact. There’s most definitely no museum there.

In fact, that area is so wracked with an odd combination of blight and new construction that it’s very, very difficult to drive through. Especially for someone a) Unaccustomed to driving on the left side of the street, and b) Wondering where the hell he is.

So when I got back to my room Sunday afternoon, I tried researching it again — from scratch, this time. And I found I was maybe five miles off:

View The Apartheid museum in a larger map

The red pin in the middle is my hotel. The purple pin is where I thought the museum was located. The blue is the actual location.

To get there, I’ll have to take the M1 motorway south through downtown. Perhaps in another five days or so, I’ll feel confident enough to give that a try.

I’m actually doing quite well in the rental Mercedes. It really didn’t take long at all to get the hang of driving on the left side of the road. And while, no, the car does not have a GPS device installed, it finds ways to nag you all the same:

What happens if I rear-end a truck while reading this warning?

While I was out running around, I decided I’d succumb to the temptation of trying McDonald’s for lunch. I spotted this sign yesterday, at the corner of Kingsway [which is under contruction] and Main [which is also under construction -- do you see a pattern here?].

High atop what I’ll call Micky D’s hill was the closest I’ve found to a nice skyline view of Johannesburg:

I’ll have to ask one of the locals where I can take a really good picture of the city’s skyline. I’ve been here four days but I’ve not found the right scenic photo spot.

The restaurant itself — well, just from the parking lot, I was stunned. By far, this was the nicest McDonald’s I had ever seen:

So I walked in with my camera, and lined up a shot of the inside — which was even nicer, if that’s even possible, and…

And nearly got thrown out of the place. The manager there did not like American tourists shooting pictures of their restaurant. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to stay and eat.

They backed off and allowed me to order. I’m pleased to report that Quarter Pounders and McDonald’s fries are indeed the same here as they are in the U.S.

If you come here and try them, though, don’t bring your camera. They’re apparently not lovin’ it that much.

My craving for American-style grease sated, I left McDonald’s and visited the shopping center across the way. Only to be surprised when the place began closing down around 1 p.m.

So I climbed back into the Mercedes and drove back to the large mall I had visited on Saturday. A lot of the stores there stay open quite a bit later, I’m certain, but many began shutting down at 3 p.m.

I did manage to buy a book that, I hope, will help me put into perspective my experiences here in Johannesburg:

I’m hoping, in particular, there will be a chapter about how to keep from getting thrown out of a South African McDonald’s.

Defeated and a bit bored, I headed back to my hotel where I figured I wouldn’t get thrown out. Just yet, anyway. I have a lot of paperwork to get caught up on. I owe some folks a report that is about two weeks late.

Plus, I need to get caught up on my advance blogging. A little-known fact about all those birthday posts you see here: I normally work about a month out on those. Sunday’s six-person extravaganza, I put together yesterday morning. It’d be a huge convenience to me here if I could knock out all the birthday posts through the first of December.

You may recall I reported feeling really awful Saturday morning. I got a very good night’s sleep Saturday night and felt much better Sunday. Not perfect. But better.

I’m attributing about 80 percent of my run-down feeling to simple dehydration and 20 percent to allergies. I notice I plug up right away whenever I return to my room. I wonder how much trouble it’d be to have them move me to a non-smoking room. Hmm.

Anyway, despite a stuffy nose, a persistent headache and only about 80 of my usual energy, I’m doing pretty well:

If I play my cards right, no one at work today will notice I’m not at my peak. Except for those who read my blog.

So, my goals for the first part of the week…

1. Support and supplement the recommendations I made earlier to the editor.
2. Drink more fluids. That means more Coke Light, but specifically, more water.
3. Try to sleep better.
4. Take and post some photos of the newspaper building. You guys won’t believe that place. It’s gorgeous.
5. Don’t get thrown out.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 1:12 am and is filed under Charles Apple, Travelogue, Trip to South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.