. OnHiatus.com > Journal 1 > Day Index > Journal Entry: April 7, 1999

Wednesday, April 7, 1999
Pretoria, South Africa
South Africa's Flag

Map
Pretoria, South Africa:
Latitude: 25° 45' 29" South
Longitude: 28° 12' 39" East
Altitude: 4657 feet
From Seattle: 11654 miles
Lodging: Hostel - Word of Mouth

Map
Today's Travel:
Country: South Africa
Region: Gauteng
Weather: Sunny

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Map
Trip Stats to Date:
Day: 727
Linear Dist: 140966
Countries Visited: 52
Regions Visited: 202
More stats...
Hotels: 203
Friends / Family: 160
Camping: 104
Hostels: 198
Transit: 55
Other Lodging: 6
Beers: 2802
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Journal Entry:
Spent the morning packing and taking advantage of the email at the hostel. Both Dean and I had a large amount of film to send home (mine runs back to sailing in Denmark last July). Went by TNT and spent US$85 (!!!) to send fifteen rolls (just over a third of a pound) - expensive but worth the peace of mind, I wasn't comfortable with sending it through the South African postage system.

Brett and Darrelle are in desperate need of Vegimite so it was off to the Australian embassy to ask where it could be found. Dean, Brett, and Darrelle were scandalized when the embassy workers had no idea what Vegimite was - although they did admit that this is the third time this week that someone has asked... the problems with local help...

Next stop was the Swaziland embassy to make sure that we don't need visas. Unfortunately it's moved - so we'll find out at the border. Joy is out of passport pages so we then went by the American embassy - only to find out that they closed at noon! Not a very successful day embassies wise.

Between the late hour and Joy still needing to go to the embassy we decided to spend another night in Pretoria (and the fact that the hostel owner had offered us free accommodation for the night didn't hurt either).

A large group of us went to a club called Bourbon Street. Before ten it was all you could drink. So by about 10:30 no one even cared at the extreme sleaze level. It was an eighties nightmare - but provided excellent people watching opportunities... though tomorrows early start might be unlikely.


Related Sites:
CNN: Current Weather in Pretoria
US State Department Consular Information Sheets: South Africa
CIA World Fact Book: South Africa

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