There's Newtown on my stoep!

I'll be running a weekly segment on my blog called "there's a...... on my stoep". The title is from one of South Africa's famous comedy movies called there's Zulu on my stoep. Stoep in Afrikaans means doorstep or veranda! I will use this to rave about all the beauty in Johannesburg and South Africa at large. Before I focus on the rest of the world, which by all means fascinates me I've decided - I should highlight a few things just outside my stoep (doorstep)...

First up is Newtown...

Public art around Newtown

Newtown is known as THE cultural hub of Jo'burg. There are dance studios, art galleries, museums, music venues, theaters, restaurants etc to satisfy any appetite.. And best of all IT IS SAFE!!! Yes, extremely safe.

A bit of trivia: The name Newtown was adopted in 1904 after the city's first forced removal of the residents in the then multiracial slums.

I'll be honest, until the idea of me starting and maintaining this blog came up I had very little interest in exploring the Jo'burg inner city. It was not that I was concerned about safety, or maybe thought there would be nothing to see or anything like that. It's just that it's very hard to appreciate your own town. I think its the familiarity of everything that just drains the curiosity out of you. But then when I decided to share a little about my travel experiences it just occurred to me, maybe I should take a moment and shine the spotlight on this beautiful country... So the journey has begun, me being a tourist in my own town... Ok back to Newtown.

When you come to Newtown from the northern suburbs, chances are the first thing you will admire up close is the Nelson Mandela bridge... I am yet to park my car and take a descent picture of the bridge but something I find amazing about the engineering process is that: the bridge is built over 42 railway lines and during construction the railway traffic was not disrupted??? Talk about good engineering meeting great planning!!!

Anyway once you are over the bridge you leave Braamfontein behind you and welcome Newtown. As a newbie into the area I decided to park at the public parking area and forget civilisation in favour of walking around and that way I got to see and experience so much in one afternoon.

As I left the parking lot, there it was.... the market theater

Literally the first pic I took

Founded in the 70s with a significant part in the history of South Africa (story for another day) theater lovers can still come to this day and watch beautiful productions here. Those in the know call it SA theater of struggle. I should treat myself to a show one of these days.

Around the corner on the same building is museum Africa. I'm not a museum person so I went in briefly just see what they had to show. I enjoyed the exhibition they had showing Jo'burg from stone age people, to the life of the miners in the Soweo hostels to shack or as we know it "mkhukhu - m_coo_coo" living. It felt so real. I had an emotional moment realising that millions of my people still live under such conditions.

Walking across Mary Fitzgerald square, I was on my way to the SAB world of beer. I had dragged a friend of mine along for this trip and had promised him that we can go to the world of beer where he pays the entrance fee and gets free beer. He was sold... I digress. On the way there, you pass Bassline - one of the country's prominent live music venues. Outside the venue is a life size sculpture of one South Africa's greatest musicians, the late Brenda Fassie. I grew up listening to her music, I was dancing to "weekend special" before I even knew what it really meant.

This is a beautiful piece of work and the detail on it is amazing. Angus Taylor (whomever her is) did a great job in giving us a true image of Ma-Brrrrrr. And what I found more interesting was the writing all across the sculpture, quotes by the songstress.

Across a small public park I bumped into this piece of art. It's amazing really. It took a lot of convincing from my side get my friend to see that this is the South African flag jumbled up. Colorful, a true rainbow nation.

Banner of Hope

And we were finally here, the part that my friend was mainly looking forward to... The SAB world of beer - voted the number 1 tourist attraction in all of South Africa.

I'm not an alcohol drinker so I was less enthusiastic walking into this place. But I must say I enjoyed the experience thoroughly. They give you a complete history in beer brewing from Egyptian days to what we know today. The presentation is also very interesting, when you are in the Egyptian era - or Germany or South Africa you can feel the difference in the deco. You go through an English style pub and see the SA version, what we know as the tavern. Very interesting place to visit even for non-drinkers. After the 90 minute presentation you end up in a pub where you can claim your complimentary drinks (they have soft drinks on offer too) and you can have a pub lunch there too. We opted to go have a snack somewhere else.

We went to the Sophiatown Lounge, a nice chill out spot with an afro feel and good food.

There is so much to see in Newtown and one afternoon does not do it justice. Go out there experience it for yourself and fall in love with Jo'burg

More trivia: All the streets in Newtown are named after South African artists. eg. Mirriam Makeba