Few weeks ago we've traveled 8500 km of South Africa
getting to know the country and ourselves. We have been back in Poland for
quite some time now but adapting oneself to everyday Polish reality after almost
one month of sunny and adventurous South Africa is painful. That is why it took
us so long to report from our adventure. But now we want to share our South
Africa with you. Each and every one of us wrote his or her own report so you have
the chance to compare our notes and impressions. I found it very interesting to
read my friend's notes as sometimes it seems we have been to different places. We
all have different styles and observations and I think it makes our Chasing the
Horizon Tour's report even more exciting. So enjoy.
The route we took:
AGATA LEŚNOWOLSKA:
The trip is still very fresh in my mind. It was full
of strong feelings and I don’t have the benefit of hindsight to help me see
things more objectively and emotionlessly. Please beware, it’s life uncensored.
My South Africa for you.
There were two crucial aspects of Chasing the Horizon
Tour making it the most incredible and memorable experience. The first one was
also the most obvious one, that is, simply South Africa. Having studied our
major for quite some time, having learnt this and that about the country,
having heard this viewpoint and that viewpoint about its issues I finally got to
compare the notes. Was South Africa what I expected? Was my theoretical
knowledge accurate and sufficient to deal with everyday South African reality?
To all these questions I now have the answer.
The second aspect was actually more important and less
expected. What impressed me the most was the way in which the trip was
meticulously planned by prof. Olivier with an aim to make us happy. How it
offered an incredible variety of experiences designed especially for the poor
bunch of students for whom the sole opportunity of setting foot in a country
like South Africa was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, needless to say a
schedule tailored especially to our needs to make it even more memorable in
every aspect. For me, that is what makes this trip so extraordinary, the
awareness of all the trouble, time, knowledge, experience and effort he must
have put in it to make it as special as it was. I treat it as a sign of his
professionalism and kindness but also as a vote of confidence in the group of
people that we happen to be. And it simply means a world.
ZUZANNA WALISZEWSKA:
If someone had told me that in my early twenties I’d
travel through South Africa, I would have laughed at it. “Yeah, sure”. But it
turns out that if you work hard you can do whatever you want. Of course,
probably not all of us will receive Oscar or walk on the moon, but if you can
dream, why not to dream big? It wasn’t until I had seen the night lights of
Johannesburg through the airplane window, that I realised “I’m in South Africa.
THIS is happening NOW”.
DAY ONE - from Poznań to Johannesburg
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
ILONA KARNIŁO:
At last! We landed in Johannesburg. The flight wasn’t
as tiring as I expected and the KLM airlines were very decent. We were offered
Amarula onboard, our first South African drink of the tour, and the tastiest
one. As we collected our luggage, the feeling of excitement got dimmed by
anxiety. It was late and the night was black in every sense of the word. We’ve
headed to the currency exchange bureau, where there was almost no counter
opened. Unfortunately, we did not succeed to get any rands, so we went on to
find our white minibus, which, with a little help of our professor, has taken
us to a nearby hotel. To my surprise, the 7 of us had 3 separate rooms, each
with its own bathroom.
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
AGATA LEŚNOWOLSKA:
The peak of our excitement was in Warsaw, in the train
and while getting to the airport. With the flying comes the revelation
that lots of people travel by plane with small, small children. Now, one has to
admire that. Eleven hours, dry air, turbulences, no place for anything and a
baby. And what surprises you even more is that it’s quiet, peaceful and
problemless. Our happy bunch probably made more noise than the kids. Then, KLM is an aircraft with good food.
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MICHAŁ MARCINIAK:
It has started. We are sitting in the train to Warsaw.
The rest of the passangers probably do not really share our excitement. Some of
them look askance at us but we do not really care about it. I wonder if I
packed everything. It seems to me that the rest
also has similar thoughts. Ilona takes our t-shirts out and now we are even
more excited. The journey takes only around two hours.We are at the train
station in Warsaw. We decided to take a selfie using my selfie stick to post it
on our Facebook page but we encounter our first problem. To be precise, I
encounter a problem. I cannot open my luggage because I must have changed the
code by mistake. I try to open it for a while but the results are not
satisfactory. Finally we decide to take a picture without the help of 'magic
stick'. I opened the lock with a knife when we get to the apartament where we
stayed the night before the flight.
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
It is three in the morning. It is not so easy to get
up. Agata and Zuza want to kill me because of my enthusiastic greeting. We are
all on our way to the airport. After check-in it is time for breakfast and
boarding. This is the moment. We are on board. The flight passed quickly. After
less than two hours of waiting the boarding starts. I take my seat by the
window and I am a bit curious who will be sitting next to me. After some time
it turns out that the seats next to me are free. The
door closes and half of the seats on the plane is still empty. It just could
not be better. At this point I notice one of the passangers changing his seat.
Why did he have to choose a seat in my row?! However, I still have a lot of
space for myself. I guess I still cannot believe it. A ten-hour flight has just
begun. Finally, I am on my way to South Africa. How am I supposed to survive
such a long flight? Fortunately during the flight I could see some latest
movies, listen to music, eat surprisingly tasty food and above all...sleep so I
managed to survive. We are here, we landed in Johannesburg. We quickly go
through passport control and we are heading to our rented van. But it is not
that easy because we cannot find it for a while. After we found out our
vehicle and we packed all our luggages into the trailer, we set off to our
first destination – Airport Lodge Guest House. We are all tired so we quickly
go to bed to rest before our first 'day' in South Africa.
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| KLM, from Amsterdam to Johannesburg |
ADRIAN PTASZYŃSKI:
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
A little bit of anxiety that accompanied me since the
initial ticket booking reaches its heights in the early morning – after all, it
is utterly stupid of me to fly over Northern Africa in this political
climate. However, after boarding the main plane to Johannesburg and
soaring over Sahara, anxiety gives place to full-on amazement – it's richness
lies in its emptiness. I muse about being down there as a hermit, a spiritually
heightened philosopher. All the peace and serenity captivates me and my urge to
descend into the sands almost brings the whole plane down. After landing in
Joburg and stepping outside the terminal, an expected and yet utterly
unexpected wave of heat hits me in the face, bringing strange pleasure. I have
a lovely first smoke with a local police officer under the 'No Smoking' sign –
it confirms my hopeful expectations that people here will not have a habit of
mindlessly obeying all the idiotic laws and regulations that the European Union
loves so much. In the evening, I cherish and rejoice in the undescribable
feeling of meeting Africa personally and setting my foot on her – I am
convinced at once how beautiful this relationship will be.
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
ZUZANNA WALISZEWSKA:
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
Our big journey started on Wednesday at 18.40. I could
say that actually this journey has started almost three years ago, when I
decided to study South African culture and language, but let’s skip those years
and get straight to the point. After two hours of sitting in a train we arrived
to Warsaw and after the next hour we were all in our apartments ready to fall
asleep just for a few hours to catch a plane afterwards. Waking up at 3
am after two hours of sleep is not fun at all. Especially, when you feel like
killing anyone who will even look at you. However, you can feel way better if
you realise that in less than 24 hours you will be in South Africa.
Our first flight- to Amsterdam- was only two- hour-
long. It’s nothing when compared to the flight to Johannesburg that was ten-
hour- long. Nevertheless, I remember that some of us were quite anxious while
eating our breakfast at the airport. People were looking at the screen saying
“There’s boarding already. Come on! Let’s eat faster!”. At that time I thought
“Oh my God, it’s going to be like this for the next 25 days…”. Luckily, I was
wrong.
As we arrived to Amsterdam we walked through the gates
to get on a plane to South Africa. During ten hours of flight we were chatting,
eating, sleeping, taking photos and again- eating. Thanks to KLM airlines some
catchphrases like “Would you like a hot towel, sir?” became the mottos of our
tour.
After ten hours we arrived to South Africa. I still
can remember Agata’s and mine excitement when we saw the night lights of
Johannesburg. Probably we were too tired to express our happiness. We spent
over an hour at the airport searching for a parking lot and when we arrived
there we saw THAT. Waentjie. At that time I didn’t know that waentjie will play
such a major role in our lives.
Our first time in Johannesburg was nothing but
unpacking and going to bed. I can remember, that Michał was quite shocked when
he realised that South African sockets are quite different than Polish ones.
The perspective of uncharged phone was probably the biggest nightmare that
could ever happen to some of us.
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| from Amsterdam to Johannesburg views |
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