Pretoria, Sandton and Nelson Mandela Square

This morning, Cyril picked us up and we went on an adventure to Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa!! It was very nice, we drove there and stopped in at the Sheraton Hotel for lunch, which was toasted sandwiches (SO GOOD) and SA-style "chips" aka "proper french fries" (SO GOOD), maaan it was fun.

Then off to the Union Buildings, which are somewhat like the Ottawa Parliament buildings, but just the offices for the administration of the government. Nelson Mandela had his office in there!!!! So cool. The parks and flowers around there were cool, and we saw an Ibis flying!!

Then back to Sandton which is near where Cyril lives. We looked in the shopping center and the hotel where he sends some of his business clients to. Then a photo with the big brass Nelson Mandela statue in the Nelson Mandela Square, followed by a Grenadilla (Passionfruit) Milkshake!! It was so good.

Tonight we stayed here at Jimmy and Mookie's house, and I spent some time getting the computer in a better state. Now for some photos.


Turn off to Pretoria


University in Pretoria


McDonald's even has a gate here


Nice tree pathway


Art at the hotel


Cool tea cups and sugar on a stick


African art in the bathroom


Cool head bust


Chillin' at the Sheraton after lunch


Me and Norm outside the Sheraton


View of Pretoria


Awesome trees


WW I and WW II monument


"Birds of Paradise" and other flowers


Then we saw this Ibis flying by!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Outside the parliament buildings


SA Flag and the Union Buildings


Cyril near the monument


View of the whole main part of the Union Buildings


Haha this word is SO long


Johannesburg Stock Exchange buiding


Apparently for 30 Rand (i.e like $3.75) you can get your car washed by someone while you shop


Weird McDonald's menu


Cows for some promotion


Nice view in the hotel


Nice hotel


At the hotel


Me, Norm, and the Nelson Mandela statue


Good cat we saw at the cafe


Haha this cat is awesome


The cat and Nelson Mandela


Floor 6.5?!?!?!!


Crazy, lots of people being transported home in a big truck


Beautiful sunset on the way home

Power outages and Puma shoes

Wednesday was freakin' awesome. We started off the morning by picking up Granny and she was SO happy to see us. We went to the mall and as we got there we realized that BOTH the lights and the power were totally off in the mall... and we were hungry for breakfast.

We sat down at Wimpy anyway, and the waiter told us they could pretty much still make all the breakfasts, just the eggs would be "a little soft"?! This is totally South African style, the power is off everywhere... but still people go one with their business as usual. The food rocked and I got the meal with the Beurowors, and it was soooooooo good.

Then off to get Granny a duvet cover, some new steak knives and another knife to cut fruit with, and a few other things she needed. Then James and I took off together for a while and did some "man shopping" - i.e. looking at Playstation Games and iPods, etc. I got a new Billabong wallet which rocks. Then we went to the shoe store and James convinced me to try on the shoes I really wanted to get, since they were on sale. Turns out they were the last pair left (and they are awesome).

In the evening, Affie came over for dinner and was hilarious as usual. Then we got Skype going and everyone chatted with my Mom, Dad and Uncle LuLu in Hamilton for quite a while. It was great. After everyone left, Norm and I went our for coffee with Mooks and Jimmy and I got this fancy thing called a "Red Cappucino" - a cappucino made with Rooibos tea instead of Coffee?!! Good times.


The lights out in the mall


Breakfast time


Tanzanite rings that Norm is looking at


Mookie worried about the water coolant that just sprayed from the "bonnet" of the car


Haha


These shoes are SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been looking
at these for ages, this rocks.


Me and Uncle Affie


Me and Uncle Affie pushing out our stomachs


Norm and Granny


Norm and Uncle Affie


Out for coffee


Hilarious and weird drink, it rocked

South African junk food, and the AWESOME Goldrings

Today was like the freakin' greatest day EVER. It was so insanely/ridiculously awesome that I hardly know where to start.

We started off the morning at the mall, and got to hang out a whole bunch with our cousin James, which totally roooocccked. We spent a good 7 HOURS at the mall. :) It was totally glorious - we got almost everything we needed for Granny (based on our visit to her a couple of days ago and our scouting out of what she needed). We found lots of good stuff that she's gonna love and will also be super useful.

I got an awesome hoodie at a place called Marshall and some nice jeans from a place called "Mr Price Clothes", haha how random.

We schlepped around the mall like crazy for quite some time, went to lots of cool stores and bought tons of Appletiser and Grapetiser, cookies to take home, etc. We eventually got tired and got a super nice burger at Steers, a hamburger place.

We finished up the rest of the shopping and then went to a great Biltong store and then to Wimpy Burger to get a coffee. Also awesome. We headed back eventually and I finally got Skype working on James's computer.

This evening, my Mom's cousin Marcus picked us up, it was the first time we'd ever met each other. He is SO nice. We went to his house, and met a whole bunch of amazing/awesome people, wow it was just unbelievable. We met Marcus and his wife Ilana, who's house we were visiting. Marcus's mother Thora was there, and her late husband Roswell did the baruchas at my PARENT'S WEDDING. Amazing. Marcus's children Ryan and Candice are just too awesome, and I can't believe I have such great cousins who I'd never met. Crazy. Then we met Zelda, who is Marcus's sister (and daughter of Thora), and her husband and son were there too. She told us some funny stories about how she wore some bright short shorts to my parent's wedding and her mother always will remember my parent's wedding because of this, haha!! These stories were so interesting and just unbelievable... amazing!!

Everyone was just so different and unique and so much different than us, but at the same time we shared such an unspoken common bond - it was like we could speak instantly as if we'd all know each other for ages. It's almost 2am and I had to stay up to blog this, I'm just way too excited. We actually have family from my Mom's side in South Africa!!

AMAZING!!! Anyhow, now onto the photos. :)


This store looked a lot like Old Navy


Huge amount of languages on the ATM


James and Norm, and the escalators are on the opposite side here


Steers, a tasty burger place where we went for lunch


Lunch time!!


An insaaaane amount of Appletiser


Choc-kits and Romany Creams, we loved the cookies ages ago


Mmm... Liqui Fruit


Haha!! The diapers (or "nappies") have funny cartoon African animals


Funny breakfast menu, you can get Beurowors for breakfast!!


Me, James, and some big "Cuppas" of Milk Coffee at Wimpy


Awesome Biltong shop


Water boiler/instant flask and a down duvet we got for Granny


New garbage bins for Granny


New multiplug and dustbuster for Granny


Sweet new jeans I got, they were 100 Rand... like $12?!!!


Funny/weird chocolate bar


Siiiiick new hoodie I got


All the junk food we bought to take home


Candi and the Goldring's cat


The other cat going crazy for catnip


Haha


Zelda, Norma and Marcus


Thora, Keiran, Ryan


Thora, Kieran's girlfriend, Kieran, Ryan


Candi and the others trying to fix the computer


"now we've figured it out!" :)


The funny Moose ("Meese") cork we brought from Canada :)