{"id":17267,"date":"2023-10-09T13:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/joburg-north\/?p=17267"},"modified":"2023-10-09T12:26:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T10:26:45","slug":"hitting-the-town-with-heather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/joburg-north\/blog\/2023\/10\/09\/hitting-the-town-with-heather\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting the town with Heather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever tried being a tourist in your own town? Heather Mason, the curious mind behind 2Summers \u2013 a blog that unearths Joburg\u2019s best kept secrets \u2013 did. And she found so much to love about this city.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We have to get one thing straight. Heather isn\u2019t a born and bred Joburger. But then, as she points out, how many of us are? That\u2019s actually one of the things she loves about this city … almost everyone who has made a home here hails from somewhere else, and because of that, they all have a story that gets woven in with the tales of others to create a truly unique social fabric.<\/p>\n

Heather\u2019s \u2018somewhere else\u2019 is the States, where she admits that, far from the adventure seeker intent on finding, say, the best boxing gym in Hillbrow or trying out koeksusters made by a Fietas tannie, she was content in her Washington D.C life. So, what changed? \u201cThe NGO I worked for at the time sent me on an assignment to Tanzania, where I met a South African photographer \u2013 and, after that, everything changed. I went back to Washington D.C, sold my house and everything else I owned, and moved to Joburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Joburg Heather read about online wasn\u2019t too enticing, she admits. Apart from a few warnings about how scary the streets can be, there was very little about what to do and where to go. \u201cI reasoned that I couldn\u2019t be the only expat wanting to know more about this city,\u201d she says. And that\u2019s how 2Summers was born.<\/p>\n

Heather says that her intention was to record her outings rather than publicise them, and was surprised when she started gaining readers outside of her immediate circle. It probably helped that many of the places she found herself visiting were those well beyond the usual malls and strips. She found herself accompanying her photographer boyfriend to places in the CBD or other areas most Jo\u2019burgers would consider, well, edgy \u2013 but which filled her with excitement. \u201cThat was back in the 2010s, when places like Maboneng was just starting up, so it was all very dynamic,\u201d she says. A bug had bitten. Curious to learn even more about her new city, she seized on names she hadn\u2019t heard before \u2013 Hillbrow is a case in point \u2013 signing up for events like photo walks to get a different view.<\/p>\n

After a year-and-a-half in Joburg, her circumstances had changed. Sadly, the boyfriend who had been a big reason for her move to South Africa, passed away. But moving back to America was not an option. \u201cBy now, I had grown this circle of fellow bloggers, expats and photographers.\u201d She had become a photographer, too, and a lover of all things creative, essentially gaining a new lease on life thanks to how Joburg captured her imagination in a way the States didn\u2019t. \u201cI think that when you grow up somewhere, you tend to live in a bubble. Because I came here with fresh eyes, I was free of those constraints. I could see the openness and creativity of the area. I think that because democracy is still new here, and many people are still living with the trauma of Apartheid, South Africans have developed a very different sense of humour, and I love that. And, because I\u2019m not from here, people love sharing their stories\u00a0\u00a0 with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen years on, Heather remains in love with her adopted city. \u201cPeople come here to make a life for themselves. There is a hugely diverse population \u2013 Ethiopians, Jews, Portuguese and everything in between \u2013 and I love exploring these cultures.\u201d That said, Heather admits that she is not as readily impressed as when she first settled back in Joburg, when the discovery of something like a Jungle Energy Bar was enough to thrill her. Now, she explores the city \u201cin a more nuanced way\u201d \u2013 but she still makes plenty of exciting finds. Her latest favourite discoveries include the Vredefort Dome (\u201cI can\u2019t believe I haven\u2019t been here before; it\u2019s beautiful\u201d) and a bakery in the new Chinatown (really a hodgepodge of everything Asian, including Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese) that has sprouted in Rivonia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if she plans her outings, though \u2013 she\u2019s actually more of a homebody (or as she calls it, lazy), than people realise. \u201cThe list of things I want to see grows kind of organically. There\u2019s always something around the edges of my awareness, and I just look around to see what inspires me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her favourite places in the city? If we\u2019re talking food, Breezeblock in her home suburb of Brixton is her old faithful … it\u2019s a real intersection of classes, races, age groups and nationalities \u2013 a kind of microcosm of the suburb itself. She\u2019s also a fan of Mayfair and Fordsburg, because these areas are always evolving … the earliest Indian and Pakistani immigrants have been joined by a wave of people from Syria, Turkey, and Somalia, so it\u2019s always interesting. And then there\u2019s the giant city within a city that is Soweto, where there is always something to explore. The Rand Club gets a mention, too … from a formerly \u2018whites only\u2019 institution (and white men at that), it is now a bastion of the multi-everything that makes Johannesburg what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still can\u2019t believe that I didn\u2019t have the same curiosity about my hometown. I feel like when I moved here, this tourist persona was handed to me, and I took it and I loved it,\u201d Heather concludes.<\/p>\n

Details: www.2summers.net<\/a>, follow <\/em>@2summers on Instagram.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Heather\u2019s tips for becoming a tourist in your own town<\/strong><\/p>\n