After posting yesterday, I went off to locate the tourism office so that I could get a better (and preferably free) map of Grahamstown. The majority of the old Victorian houses and buildings are in good repair, but unfortunately the roads and sidewalks are so untidily surfaced that it gives one a rather dingy impression on the whole. The road markings could also definitely be clearer, especially seeing as there are many double lane stop streets.
There are so many incredible churches that one can immediately understand why it's often called the city of saints. Like I mentioned before, the Victorian buildings are well looked after and retain most of their historical grace. Effort is made not too use too intrusive modern signage which is sometimes amusing. There is just something weird about a Victorian shop front that has a CNA sign on it! Finding your favorite chain supermarket also becomes incredibly difficult when its sign is a quarter of its usual size and it's painted a completely different colour than you're use to.
After I picked up the map, along with various other interesting pamphlets, I wandered over to the Cory Library of Historical Research. Spent a quiet hour or two with some secondary sources and then joined James for lunch. After lunch he went to the second session of talks and I started digging into Grocott's Mail and Grahamstown Journal editions from 1890. With some help from the staff I managed to set my camera up so that I could simply record entire newspapers that I can work more intensively with later. At 17:00 the library closed and I went and waited for James and the others at the Rat & Parrot.
James and some of the Tuks and Rhodes students joined me there shortly thereafter and we settled in for a while. Later on the students relocated to the backpackers at the old goal where they were staying and so we joined them there at the in house bar. Probably stayed way too late, but great fun all in all!
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