Goodbye car, my old friend

Another big decision that we've had to make with the big move is whether or not to buy cars.

Now, as most of you know, South African culture is big on cars. We'll get into our cars to drive to a park to go walking. Or get into our cars to drive 200m to our local shopping centre. Hell, sometimes we just get into our cars and sit there without going anywhere because we love them so much.

It's very scary, but the only time you'll see white, middle-class South Africans walking anywhere without wondering if they've been hijacked is if they have their dogs with them as props to indicate that they do indeed have cars, they're just not using them right then. I've even seen people walking their dogs while they're driving and the dogs are running behind their cars. Seriously.





So, considering forgoing a car is a big deal for a South African. I mean, what's a boot for if not to fill up with Woolies' meals and wine? If I don't have a car, I won't have a boot and thus I'll have to carry all my Woolies' meals and wine? Gasp!

But that's exactly what we've decided to do. Forgo the cars.

What's the point of going on an adventure and wanting to experience all new things if you're going to cling to the old ways of doing things?

So no cars will mean that we'll have to use public transport. Now the last time I used public transport in South Africa, was 18 years ago when I was at varsity and I had to catch the bus to RAU every day. Not at all a fun commute when you suffer from car sickness, and the bus driver seems hell bent on seeing how much he can make the bus rock and sway without actually tipping it over. The fact that I was generally hung over during these trips didn't help. Early morning lectures would find me pale and sickly in the bathrooms which would explain my awful varsity marks. (Thanks again Delia for taking all those notes for me! I wouldn't have gotten my degree without you!).

Luckily Toronto has a decent Transit system, although if you ask any of them, they'll say it's kak. Okay, they won't say "kak" because they don't know "kak" but they'll say the Canadian equivalent. But to a South African, a city that has buses, trams, subways and trains is really jacked.





And huge bonus? They allow dogs on public transport! This is gonna get interesting ;-)





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