First impressions

After a journey affected by very long waiting periods and invigorated by solid "English Breakfast" Jan and I finally arrived in South Africa. From that moment on we sucked up every impression that hit our eyes. Here are our top 10.

Number ONE, when a very neat, young man dressed in organge receives you at the terminal exit and is very kind and wants to help you, do not believe that he does that because he's just a nice person, he actually works on a mutual basis. In the case Jan Ekkert it was 20€ for leading him to the baggage room. It was a special price for a friend, but rather the extrem.

Number TWO, if you look closer at the landscape you'd think it could be anywhere, in Europe or the United States. Which mainly happens to be so because of the rainy season that you have here over the summer. The grass, flowers, leaves and buds sprout, thrive, grow and bloom. They even grow large fields of needle beams here which lets it almost look like the Black Forest in Germany.

Number THREE, the weather is very warm (100m behind our house is a swimming pool :). The sun shines every day with an average temperature of 77°F, +/- 10°F. From time to time we have thunderstorms coming up quickly. Most of the times they start at about 5 in the afternoon or at 2 in the moring. Because of lightning strokes all electronic devices must be taken of the power. Warm kindly nights are included and sometimes there are even fog banks.

Number FOUR, summerlike temperatures are even over the winter a normal thing. The average temperature is 70°C as long as the sun shines. At night it can get very cold. The green of the leaves fades and everything adopts a more red brown ish color.

Number FIVE, you can feel the different influences of the Netherlands, England and of the U.S. in many ways here. Whether you look at the language, writing system, infrastructure, scenic or cultural characteristics.

Number SIX, the road network looks very familliar to the U.S. standard, even though it has it's own little differences. Here you drive on the left side of the road, the speed is measured in Km/h and the traffic signs do look more like European ones but still have their own unique touch. You have intersections with 3 or 4 way stop signs, which makes the rule left goes before right or as it is usually said in Europe because you drive there on the right side right goes before left.

Number SEVEN, for security reasons we have a barbed wire fence surrounding the property, a big gate and motion detectors at the fence, outside and inside the houses. If you arm the alarm you can hear a loud "peeeep" and when you disarm it it goes "peeeep peeeep" just like the sound of a car security system, but much louder.


Number EIGHT, if you are ever going to meet Thomas from Cape Town, be prepared he will pull your leg right from the beginning. But more of that later.

Number NINE, everything that was not imported is normally much cheaper than in Germany and most likly in the United States as well. Yesterday we ate out and I paid 100 Rand for two big delicious LM chicken with honey mustard sauce, potatoes, divers vegetables and a Coke (R13 ≈ $1.3) . And that was actually already a little bit more expensive than normal.

Number TEN, punctuality as you are used to, like arriving in time, is here much more complicated for several reasons. Some people do not own a private car and even the caps are to expensive to drive more often, because of the long distances. A lot of people actually go by foot. Even on the highways. And that is why most of the times you say "oh its African time" to another person when somebody does not arrive in time at the arranged meeting place.