I live in… South Africa {part 2}

A couple of days ago, I did a post about all the interesting facts about South Africa and clarifying some funny things people thought South Africa was like. (you could check out part 1 here). This post will feature my favourite things about South Africa. and maybe some things I don’t like…

I was born in Pretoria (where I live today) and lived here up to the age of 3 when we moved to Groblersdal, a small town in Limpopo Province, I lived in Groblersdal throughout my school years and after school I even spend a year working at our local newspaper as an advertising designer. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the town is small, it won't take you longer than 5 minutes to drive from the one side of the town to the other. If your not careful and blink before you’ve reached your destination you might miss it. Although it’s such a small town it’s absolutely beautiful, the only place you can find canals flowing through your high school, rivers, nature reserves and lodges within 5 to 10 minutes drive from each other. 
photo I took of the largest river running through our town the Olifants river, translated in english as the Elephant river.
There’s no shortage of farms and trees in the area, we have loads of grape farms, citrus farms, tabaco and corn fields. The happiest days of my life was when my friends and I cut school and sneaked off to the abandoned cricket field (about a kilometre away from school and right next to our local and small airfield).  Where we spend the entire day in the sun drinking wine and soaking up every second of the fresh air and wonderful nature around us. Till this day, the abandoned cricket field will always be my favourite place in town! 

 photos from 2008 at the abandoned cricket field with friends after record examinations, drinking wine out of the bottles.
 photos I took on the abandoned cricket field when my sister Stephanie and Wayne visited Groblersdal from London, England.
Everything is super green in the summer with, unfortunately, extremely hot temperatures as well. It is so hot that all you want to do is spend the entire day in the water and never ever get out – this  resulted in me looking like a tomato (blood red from sunburn). 
 photo I took at my uncles farm in Groblersdal it’s HUGE! and filled with wild animals like, zebra’s, rhino’s, giraffes and much more…
One of the worst and best things about Groblersdal is that everybody knows everybody.  The good thing about this is, that since you knew everybody, you get to hang out with them all on nights out.  The bad thing is that if you made a fool of yourself everyone in town will know about it the next day. I will always miss and love that small little town for the best days of my teenage years were spend there. I still visit my parents often (they still live in Groblersdal) and I love the relaxed and nostalgic feeling from the town but I don’t think I would move back any time soon, maybe one day I’ll retire there. ;) Some of my friends still live in that small little town of ours, so visiting from time to time is still amazing and we still get to do the silly little things we usually did when I lived there, like have a bbq next to the river and going down the river with tubes and beach balls (quite uncomfortable, if I might add) and spending a day in a blow-up swimming pool on the abandoned cricket field.
photo from early this year on the abandoned cricket field in a blow-up swimming pool with friends
some quick photos from weekends at Groblersdal with friends
I moved to Pretoria 2 years ago, I love the big city and to be honest, since I'm a small town girl, it wasn’t that difficult to adapt. In comparison to Groblersdal, living in the city sometimes feel a bit rushed and like there’s less time in a day. Living in Pretoria I've creating wonderful memories too, but hopefully in my future I’ll be travelling to far away countries & experience different cultures.

Pretoria is a gorgeous green city with wonderful historical places and there’s still a lot more for me to explore in this big old city. But so far, I think that Sammy Marks museum might be my favourite:
some of my favourite photos I took at the Sammy Mark Museum in January this year. Hope to visit there again soon! It was absolutely gorgeous.

My absolute favourite vacation spot in South Africa is definitely Cape Town, there’s no words to describe how beautiful it is, and if any of you ever consider visiting South Africa please visit Cape Town! Below some photo’s I took on my vacation:
Strawberry farm
Backsberg Wine Farm 
I tried to take as many photos of the sunset as possible!
Bloubergstrand my lovely sister Stephanie and I with table mountain in the background
definitely my favourite wine farm of all ---> Groot Constantia
wine farm ---> Boschendal
photos I took at the beach in Hermanus
I can’t wait to return to this amazing city & I think it is one of the most beautiful places in South Africa.

I hope I triggered some sort of interest in someone out there, that you can't wait to visit our gorgeous country South Africa, we will welcome you with open arms :) and friendly faces… Hope to see you all soon. I’m proud to be a South African.