Cheers to a new adventure! Alicia (my travel companion) and I are embarking on a new and exciting adventure to South Africa. The trip will be over a month-long and we will be visiting many of the best Hostelling International hostels across South Africa for you to discover with us! Enjoy!

What a busy day – we left for the Toronto airport at 3:15 am on September 4th, made a layover in New York (JFK) and landed in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 5th at around 9:00 am SA time – 3:00 am Toronto time.

Having never experienced jet lag before, this has been quite an exhausting day for both of us. It looks like we are staying in a tropical paradise with bamboo walls, a Bob Marley presence everywhere and colorful birds all over.

What to expect when exploring the township of Soweto, Johannesburg

Once settled in, we went out on the town with Simon (a Hostelling International Guru) and two local guides who were able to take us through the town of Soweto and see it from a more local standpoint rather than a tourist attraction.

The tour was a 4-hour Soweto bike tour [learning to ride a bike again… CHECK!] I absolutely loved being one with their community – taking part in their drinking festivities, the song and dance and their incredible food.

At the first restaurant stop we made (that was made up of aluminum siding and wooden benches on the bright orange African sand) we sat down to drink their famous beer – Black Label and tried pap for the first time (which is a corn meal dish that looks similar to rice but you roll it up in a ball and eat it with your hands) and cow cheek (that of which I did not try).

We were also provided traditional South African head gear while we tried a Johannesburg beer and danced to songs the locals were singing. Another few stops along the way included lunch (delicious ginger root beer, and a huge and unique sandwich of some sort with salad, vegetables, egg, French fries and dressing all in a hollowed out loaf of bread – “the heart attack sandwich” called Kota. It is a completely different experience rather than just busing through the areas and staring at people in the streets. I felt welcomed and safe being with our local guides. It was a long eventful day – it is 5:55pm here and 11:55am back in Toronto and I am SO READY for bed! PS. I know this first blog post isn’t much fun but TRUST me… Once I have this jet lag figured out, we’re getting real serious with some crazy blog/video posts along the way!!

For some more recent adventures and tips, be sure to check out my on-going Bucket List

Want to see more of my South African adventure? Here’s is a wrap up of all the wonderful places I stayed with Hostelling International: A Huge Thanks