Day 45

Day forty five 
Sunday - 1st March 2020

Current position
1322 Backpackers International 
1322 Arcadia Sreet 
Hatfield
Pretoria
0028
South Africa
S 25°44.80884'
E 28°14.74806'

This hostel is the closest we've come to a Backpacker place during our stay in South Africa but it was a shame that none of the other guests were very chatty during breakfast this morning. 

The weather has turned cooler again and the sun barely made an appearance in fact around lunchtime we had the sprinklings of rain. 

Firstly we caught an Uber to the Union Building which is the second Parliament Building in South Africa. Like the EU Parliament alternates between the two buildings every six months. Unfortunately unlike Cape Town's Parliament Building tourists are not allowed to visit even around the outside so we had to make do with seeing the building from afar. 

In front of the Union Building there is a large green park with another huge statue of Nelson Mandela. In the park there were lots of people carrying buckets and bottles of water. I asked one lad what was going on. He told me that there was a burst water main so everyone was taking water to use at home. He said that the last time there was a burst a year ago the water was off for over a week. What with problems with the electricity supply and now water I don't know how everyone remains so calm. I know that if it was like this at home everyone would be up in arms. 

Our next stop was Church Square which is apparently the main square in Pretoria with old Iconic buildings. It was not what we were expecting at all as the buildings which must have been grand in their day were a shadow of their former selves as they were now in various stages of disrepair. At the centre of the square was a caged (to stop vandals) statue of Paul Kruger an old South African Politician known as Old Lion who was something to do with the Boer War. 

We found it difficult to find a café in the square and ended up in a grubby Mugg and Bean coffee house where we started to plan what to see during the next two days over a cup of coffee. It slowly became obvious that we need to hire a car to see the sights as there is no other practical way of getting around as the distances are too great for Ubers. I tried to book a car online without success so we decided to book tomorrow in person. By now the rain had set in so we decided to visit the modern Brooklyn Shopping Mall for a look round.

I bought another flowery shirt for my collection then we had a cup of tea and carrot cake before making our way back to the hostel. We rested for a couple of hours before going out to the Ocean Basket Restaurant for our evening meal.