Embarking on an Epic Journey to South Africa

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5:00AM. My alarm is going wild. It’s the morning of my flight from Boston to Washington, DC. I’m taking the early flight out of Boston today just to be 100% sure I don’t miss my 5:40PM flight from DC to Johannesburg, South Africa. Call me crazy but I’d rather sit at the airport for 8 hours than have there be any chance that I miss this trip of a lifetime.

I arrive at Logan Airport at around 6:30AM for my 8:10AM flight. Check in is a breeze and I anxiously chow down on a banana SOYJOY while waiting in line for security. What seems like a little more than a coincidence now is that I’m always chosen to go through the full body scanner. No matter if I’m in a line that is four rows down from the nearest scanner, I’m always chosen! I pass through and before I know it, I’m at my gate awaiting my flight to DC.

The Waiting Game…

The flight is a breeze at less than 2.5 hours. At 10AM I’m off my flight with my luggage in hand. The real waiting game starts now as I have to stick around at Washington Dulles International Airport until the South African Airways booth opens at 1pm. Slight boredom sets in so I start to snap photos and upload them to my instagram account. Problem solved!

Once the booth finally opens I’m first in line to check my luggage.

I make my way down to gate B39 where I’ll meet up with the three bloggers who will be accompanying me on this trip to South Africa.

Once we board our flight, the antics begin! We’re all so excited that we end up talking for the first half of the flight from D.C. to Dakar, Senegal. I can officially say I’ve at least landed in West Africa! Some passengers get off in Dakar, as we wait on the plane for the passengers who are boarding for our next and final leg of the journey. Johannesburg, South Africa!

Once we hit the air again, I was out cold. I had been so over tired that it finally caught up to me and hit me hard. Sleeping on a plane is normally pretty tough to do, but not this time. I was out cold for 4 or 5 hours before waking to yet another on board meal. Looking back on it, I wish I didn’t eat the airplane food. Nothing against South African Airways, it’s just that airplane food doesn’t appeal to me in any way. Truth be told, I ate three in flight meals through out the 16 hour journey.

Welcome to Johannesburg, South Africa!

As soon as we landed in Johannesburg, my buddy Nate was about to jump out of his skin. We we’re all so excited to finally be there. If there was anytime that this trip felt real, it was now.

We don’t have to pinch ourselves anymore, we’re in South Africa!

 

David, our tour leader, meets us at the airport with sign in hand welcoming us to South Africa. As soon as we load our luggage in the van, our eyes are locked on to our iPods, iPhones, and iPads while tearing up our social media accounts. We should be sponsored by Apple! Speaking of that, if anybody at Apple wants to send me over an iPad2, please contact me.

Our tour leader lets us know that the portable router is on and we can tweet, Facebook, instagram, and blog as much as we want to while we’re cruising through Johannesburg towards our home for the next few days. We arrive at the Intercontinental Hotel Johannesburg Sandton Towers, a five star accommodation located in one of the best areas in Jo’Burg.

I’m not going to show you any photos of the hotel just yet because I plan on doing a whole photo article just on the Intercontinental hotel itself (Photos: Intercontinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers). In the meantime, check out the view looking down on the lobby from just out front of my room. Enough said…

Don’t forget to follow along with myself, Nate, Teri, and Rob…

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