Where in the World is Pretoria?
March 31, 2008 by Mrs. Mecomber
Filed under Where In The World Series, travel
This is another one of my new “series” in this blog– a post about some other place in the world that interests me or a place I’d heard of and makes me curious to know more. You, dear reader, get to experience the information I discover! What a deal!
I have come across a few bloggers from South Africa recently. There aren’t too many, which is not surprising. When I think of Africa, I think of wild scrubby savannas full of ranging animals, of tribal leaders in bright red togas running around with spears. Obviously, I have been very influenced by television. :-p
In high school, we had a foreign exchange student in our school for a year. His name was Mauritz, and he was from Pretoria, if I remember correctly. He was Dutch and spoke Afrikaans and English. He was very fair but ruddy. And he wore khaki shirts all the time! It was my first experience with a South African native.
Pretoria is a city in the province of Gauteng. It is one of Gauteng’s three capital cities (their executive, legislative, and judicial capitals are separate). Pretoria is quite a booming city. It has manufacturing businesses, and is a leading academic city. It is a very modern city. People from all over the world take flights to South Africa (people but not me, *sigh*) to see the amazing fossil collection at the Transvaal Museum. I was surprised to read that Pretoria has a zoo. I just figured perhaps you stepped outside and saw all the elephants and tigers… but Pretoria has a beautiful zoo, known as the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa. Now, I’d sure love to see the gardens! Who knew South Africa could be so cosmopolitan and so intriguing. I really need to get out more, lol…
Bonnie Story on Tue, 1st Apr 2008 10:39 am
Hello, this is a very interesting region and I’m glad you mentioned it. South Africans are very passionate about GOLF. There are fantastic pro golfers from there, among the best in the world. Nick Price, Ernie Els and many others. The terrain is absolutely gorgeous. I really like seeing the broadcasts from there (RSA, Royal South Africa) on TV.
frostygirl on Tue, 1st Apr 2008 4:10 pm
Hi
What a surprise it was to see your post on Pretoria, I clicked your entrecard link thinking that I will get some stories on NY and then I read about my home country. We do have a lot of bloggers in SA, you must just look under the rocks and behind the trees for us. No we are not hiding from the Lions and Elephants, we are just resting. Ha, Ha!
We were just discussing the fact that so many people from USA still think that we have wild animals roaming around outside our houses in our gardens and now you confirm it again. Never mind we are not unhappy about it.
An interesting stat you might like to hear is that South Africa has the most cellphone users in the world (percentage wise)but unfortunately we also rank high up there when it comes to HIV/AIDS. Visit my blog and read the story about the horses meeting the lions, I am sure it will make you laugh. Enjoy your day
Mrs. Mecomber on Tue, 1st Apr 2008 4:17 pm
Bonnie, I did not know that about golf. LOL! Learn something new every day!
Hello, frosty girl! You made my day with your comment. I love, love learning about other places. Thank you for taking to time to write so much about your country! I’m off to go check out your blog. Thanks for visiting! And, I really DO blog about New York– most of the time!
A. on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 10:59 am
Our French neighbours are in South Africa at this very time! One of them was born there.
Myself I was brought up in Malawi and it is not nearly so well off as South Africa. In fact Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, but a lovely place. I’d dearly love to go back some day.
Mrs. Mecomber on Mon, 7th Apr 2008 9:36 am
Wow! I’d love to see Africa. Someday… maybe…