airport | existabovethenoise

I had the craziest weekend in South Africa, so I figured I’d take crappy phone pics and try to retell the happenings…

Friday afternoon I arrive at my hotel in Jo’burg and they’re shooting a movie next door. You can’t see it but the set is staged to look like a street scene in China.

Each floor in the hotel imparts some wisdom about a famous South African cultural icon. This floor? Writer, Lionel Abrahams.

Ground floor? The novelist, Phaswane Mpe, who died at the tender age of 34.

I try to check out an artsy bookstore near my hotel. It says it is open til 4pm. I get there are 3:15. No, it is (not). But it looks cool from the outside.

I settle in for a bunnychow at R. Janas. Good decision: http://www.braamfontein.org.za/directory/view/r-janas

I think maybe I should just stay in and sleep early. I turn on the TV and the artist formerly known as Prince beckons me out.

FB soon reveals to my surprise that my girl Emme from NYC is in Jozi. We link for drinks, but it quickly turns into a 5am night between the Bannister & the Kitchener in Braamfontein.

We gnom McDonalds and have the night guard get us wine. I crash at 6am…. trying to act my age, not my shoe size is starting to hurt.

I wake up… over hung… at 8am for a 9am seminar.

I invest in a big ass cup of coffee from Motherland Coffee.

This campus has thought of everything. I feel like I benefited from the caution of drivers… b/c I couldn’t see anything straight. Hangovers hurt.

As the day progresses, I sober up. My hair stops smelling like an ash tray and I get to enjoy JG Strijdom Tower from afar.

The seminar ends and I go design store shopping.

I take in the town before night falls.

I end up in Melville’s hotspot Lucky Bean for an extended dinner with Jozi based friends and Emme.

Sunday morning I decide to try to catch the Gautrain to the airport, so I can spare myself the cab fare. But the connections are too far apart and I end up in a cab anyway in a mad dash to NOT miss my flight.

I manage to make it to O.R. Tambo airport exactly one hour before my flight only to find that it has been delayed by 30 minutes. I have breakfast at an airport pub and it feels good.