So what's it like to travel for 25 hours?

To begin my South African adventure, I had first had to get here.  This involved 25 hours of travel time.  I left my apartment at 1:30pm on Friday and I arrived in South Africa at 9:30 on Saturday night.

First stop at the airport was to pick up some light reading.  I already had 3 books and 1 other magazine in my bag but I always have to have options.  Sadly, I have subscriptions to Vogue, InStyle and Vanity Fair but because I forwarded my mail to my office, there appears to be about a 2-3 week gap before you start receiving mail at your new location.  I received my first piece of mail this week and I put in the forward notice on August 21.  Luckily I was able to put my magazines on hold until the first of the year.  A few stragglers will come in over the next month or so.  I will owe our department admin a nice gift for dealing with all my mail for the next 4 months.

Second stop was Shake Shack.  I was busy running errands before the flight (nothing like waiting until the last minute!) so I needed sustenance.  I will assure you that I was nervous, scared, excited, insert any other adjective that gives you butterflies in your stomach so I seriously considered the bottle of wine.  I won't tease you with the photo of my meal but will tell you it was absolutely delicious!

Normally you don't need a visa to visit South Africa but since I will be working there, I had to go to the SA Consulate to apply for one.  After a little back and forth due to some paper work issues, I was finally able to pick it up on Thursday.  And they are already tracking me!  My boarding pass indicates I need a visa to visit.

The first leg of my flight was JFK to Amsterdam.  I settled into my seat, grabbed a mimosa and checked out the Business Class swag.  This comfort kit is to help make your flight less painful.  It comes with an eye mask and ear plugs, toothbrush, lotion, etc.  The hoarder in me gets excited because this is something else to store stuff in.  You can use these to pack things inside your suitcase or backpack like electrical cords, jewelry, pill bottles, etc.

 (included a 15% off 1 full price Tumi item)

The 7.5 hour flight to Amsterdam was pretty uneventful.  The most exciting thing was watching Wizard of Lies.  This is the HBO movie about Bernie Madoff staring Robert Dinero.  One day last July, a ran out for afternoon coffee and they were putting up a Christmas tree in our office lobby.  I thought it was a bit early but didn't think much else about it until leaving work that day when we were funneled out through the loading dock because the movie was being filmed in our lobby.  It was maybe 5 seconds in the movie.  Crazy!

 Landed in Amsterdam at 6am.  I walked around and killed time until my 10:30 flight.  I put about 5000 steps on my FitBit.  Took the typical selfie in front of the Amsterdam sign.

The flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg was almost 11 hours.
Here's the KLM swag bag.  They have peach colored for women and dark green for men.  I swapped with the guy next to me so he could give his as a gift.  I wanted to call him a cheapskate but I wanted the green bag more so I kept my mouth shut.

I drank a lot of water to stay hydrated.  I read a couple of my magazines.  I watched the movie "Baywatch".  I felt like a dirty old lady admiring the amazing physique of Zac Effron because all I could think about was High School Musical. But, I googled it and he's 30 so its all good.
"Snatched" with Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer was cute and heartwarming.  The only problem is the premise.  They travel to Ecuador and Amy meets a cute guy at a bar at their resort and he ends up being part of a plot to kidnap them.  Where am I going in February?  Ecuador.  Guess I won't talk to any cute boys at the bar!

At the end of the flight KLM presented each of us with a blue and white Delfts house with Dutch Genever.  According to the website there are 96 different houses.  I tried to pick one that reminded me of my trip to Amsterdam - the typical dutch house.  Here you can read all about the tradition.
https://www.klmhouses.com/houses-history.html

Finally I arrived in Johannesburg around 10pm.  I was picked up by Dave.  Everyone at CP loves Dave.  He has ferried me around Johannesburg on each of my 4 trips.  It is very comforting seeing that familiar face waiting for you when you come out of customs.  Sorry, no picture of Dave -remember, its been over 24 hours since I have showered.  He talked to me about driving in SA, pointed out where the office is related to my hotel / apartment and delivered me safely to Capitol 20 West.

That is the not-so-exciting story of my trip over to South Africa.  I hope everyone had an amazing weekend.  Until my next dispatch from Jo'burg, totsiens & mooi loop!