Coordinated Arrival

The time had finally come for me to show off South Africa to my family and Courtney. My first challenge as travel planner was our coordinated arrival. We were to arrive in Johannesburg in pairs on three planes from three countries within thirty minutes of each other. Exactly as planned, Courtney and I arrived from New York, Brad and Pepere from Frankfurt, and Mom and Dad landed from Zurich on time; this was a good omen for our holiday to come.

We immediately went to the hotel to check-in, relax, and shower up after everyone’s long night (and in Pepere’s case, two nights) of travel. I found a great rate at the Balalaika Hotel, which is centrally located to my apartment, office, and Sandton City center. Courtney and I ducked away and headed to my office to drop off the many widgets I’m always asked to bring back from the States.

Once tidied up, everyone was eager for their first look at Jo’burg and hungry for food. We headed to Parkhurst to take a look at my old house and eat at my favorite restaurant, Espresso. We ate outside and ordered too much food (which turned into a running theme throughout the trip). The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the streets of Parkhurst, driving by my workplace and showing everyone my current apartment before running out of energy.

When travelling with the Favreaus there is no rest for the weary and after another quick rest at the hotel we were on our way to my good friends’ house for drinks. I was eager for everyone to meet Sarah and Ryan Kobus as they have been very welcoming to me during my time in Joburg and Ryan is my official drinking buddy (I mean… we work at a brewery, it’s official business). It was also an opportunity for everyone to see the life and home of a Joburg resident. Our big group anticipated dropping in for a quick drink and so as to not impose, but in my experience that doesn’t ever seem to work at the Kobus residence. A couple hours and many bottles of wine later we were playing puzzles with Ryan and Sarah’s kids, dad was talking botany of South Africa with Ryan’s dad, Brad was scheming business ventures in Joburg with Ryan, mom was discussing the education system with Sarah, Courtney was explaining how she wants to take home a petite lap giraffe while getting hazed for not finishing her wine fast enough, and I was reveling at the sight of my two worlds colliding.


A great first day; it was awesome to see everyone as excited about exploring as I was to show them. Tomorrow we get out of the city and head for the bush...