We had no intention of going to Johannesburg. On top of being “just another big city,” we both independently felt like it was one of the more dangerous places we considered going. South Africa in general, to put it lightly, has some issues with crime.

“Oh, it’d be the greatest country in the world if it weren’t for all the crime,” a South African we met in Istanbul airport, months later, said to us. He may not be a wrong but, whew, it’s a big “if”.

Anyway, a big part of the reason we didn’t want to go is because years ago, Brennan–our friend who toured Namibia with us–was in Johannesburg and was robbed at knife-point by a group of men in broad daylight. So we asked him his thoughts on whether we should go or not.

“Look, here’s what you do: stay for two nights, take the touristy sightseeing bus around town, and get off and tour the Apartheid museum,” he suggested.

This sounded reasonable. So, suddenly, we were going to Johannesburg.

Rosebank

We found a cheap hotel in the well-to-do suburb of Rosebank as our base of operations. From our place, it was a short walk to the Rosebank mall, and the starting point of the hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus, so it was a perfect base.

Riding into town from the airport, Johannesburg is staggeringly large. It’s weird, too, because it’s just kind of in the middle of nowhere, geographically. It’s not built on the sea, it’s not built on a river, it’s a weird place for some 7 million people to live.

What it did–and does–have, is mining. A gold rush brought the city there, and there it remains, still providing gold and other mining, though industry has diversified since then.

We got settled in, and headed over to the mall to find a grocery store, to get supplies and dinner. As we walked through the mall looking for the store, a group of men outside a barber shop started yelling and cheering, and I assumed it must be for the World Cup game. We passed through, didn’t find the store, and came back into the mall just as the group started yelling again. Before we could make our way over to them, they started yelling again. What the hell was going on?

Kylian Mbappé, that’s what was going on! He’d just scored twice in four minutes–just a few minutes after France tied the game against Argentina–to put the game away. Allez les bleus!

Sightseeing Bus

We got up early by our standards and walked over to the mall to catch the first hop-on-hop-off bus of the day. We wanted to make sure we had enough time to do both bus loops, and have plenty of time at the Apartheid museum.

The first hop-on-hop-off loop is through the greener suburbs north of the city, including our neighborhood of Rosebank. This loop intersects with the other loop at Constitution Hill, site of a former prison that featured prominently in Apartheid history.

The neighborhood around here… doesn’t seem great. In fact, a lot of the bus route went through areas that unfortunately only solidified our impression of Johannesburg as being quite rough.

The second loop of the bus takes you through downtown Johannesburg, and eventually loops around south to where the Apartheid museum is. Before that, the bus stops at the ridiculous Gold Reef City Casino, some sort of resort. It’s weird riding across the street from what feels like an amusement park, to the site of an actual amusement park, and the Apartheid museum. It’s a weird place for such a heavy, important museum!

Apartheid Museum

The Apartheid museum is incredibly well done, it’s an affecting experience, and, honestly, it’s worth going to Johannesburg to see. The exhibits are informative and well done, and it manages to make the whole story feel emotionally crushing and yet, ultimately, hopeful about the future.

The story it tells is detailed, and it is easy to spend many hours in there reading and experiencing everything. It absolutely makes a perfect day-trip through Johannesburg, so if you’re in South Africa to visit Cape Town, or maybe to take a safari, we highly recommend stopping by Johannesburg for the same itinerary we did.

SAB World of Beer

We made one more stop on the bus route, just because we could: the SAB World of Beer. SAB, which started quaintly back in the late 1800s as Castle Brewery, grew into one of the biggest breweries in the world, going so far as to buy Miller Brewing. Then, a few years ago, InBev/Anheuser Busch swooped in and bought the whole shebang.

The World of Beer has a fairly expensive tour, which seemed undesirable to us, or for much cheaper you can go up to the bar and have two drinks. We did that, and were the only ones there as it was getting near closing time for the place. We watched replays of world cup games on the TV, and had a few of the Castle beers, so as to try something we can’t easily get back at home.

I wouldn’t call them bad… but I wouldn’t call them good, either.

What’s Next?

We got through our short stay without incident, hurray! The next morning, it was back to the airport, to head on to Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare. See you then!