2Summer
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My name is Heather Mason and I'm an American Photographer based in Johannesburg. I write a blog called 2Summers. I've developed a passion for Johannesburg that I've never felt for any other place. I tell stories about life in Joburg and my travels around South Africa and the rest of the world.
2Summer
3d ago
I’m struggling with this post. I keep writing stuff and then deleting it because I don’t know what to say about Hillbrow that I haven’t said before. I’ve been blogging about Hillbrow since 2011 (that first post was embarrassing though), and I’ve used up all the Hillbrow clichés. I’ve even created some clichés of my ..read more
2Summer
1w ago
The Johannesburg City Library, a beautiful, historic, and essential building in downtown Joburg, has been mysteriously closed for the past three years. I don’t want to go into the whole story of why the library, which underwent a glorious renovation just a little over a decade ago, has been closed for such an inordinately long ..read more
2Summer
2w ago
Thorsten and I recently spent three days in Munich, Germany, at the beginning of our whirlwind European trip. We went to Munich because it was a logical place to meet up with Thorsten’s kids, who live across the border in Austria, and because we wanted to visit Thorsten’s friend Susi, who was his schoolmate many ..read more
2Summer
3w ago
Every time I think I’ve visited all the historic churches in downtown Joburg, another one pops out of the woodwork. My latest “discovery” is the spectacular Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin, or St. Mary’s Cathedral, on Wanderers Street in the Joburg CBD. I put the word “discovered” in quotes because I really mean “discovered ..read more
2Summer
1M ago
When my friend Michelle, with whom I traveled around Spain during my recent European trip, first suggested we should check out the Picos de Europa, I had the same response that you might be having: the Who de What? Despite the self-aggrandizing and slightly scary name, which translates to “Spikes of Europe”, I had never ..read more
2Summer
1M ago
Earlier this week I returned from a crazy trip to Europe: 26 days of travel from Joburg to Munich, to Madrid, all over northern Spain, to Lisbon, and back to Joburg. I’ve traveled a lot in my life. But with the exception of trips back to the United States — where I do a lot ..read more
2Summer
2M ago
I recently learned a bonkers statistic: Around 40% of all of the hominid fossils ever discovered were unearthed in the Cradle of Humankind. In other words, close to half of all the known fossils from our human ancestors — in the entire world — came out of the ground right here in Gauteng Province. This ..read more
2Summer
2M ago
This jumpsuit love story began eight months ago, when I booked a Caraci experience on Airbnb to celebrate my birthday. Thorsten and I spent a glorious day in the Joburg CBD, shopping for African print fabric, learning how to sew, hanging out in the city, and having fabulous jackets made to our exact measurements. That ..read more
2Summer
3M ago
The Drakensberg Mountains fly under the radar in South Africa’s tourism scene. Everyone goes to Cape Town and the Kruger and the Garden Route, but the Drakensberg doesn’t often make it onto that “must-see” tourist itinerary. Even I’m guilty of neglecting the Drakensberg; I’d dipped in once or twice over the years but had never ..read more
2Summer
3M ago
I’ve developed a great interest in clothes, as most of you know, especially locally designed and thrifted clothes. And clothes-swapping — the act of exchanging clothing items with others, rather than buying new or second-hand clothes — is like thrifting on steroids. We’ve all got clothes that we don’t want or simply don’t wear anymore…Why ..read more