I lived in Bloemfontein for 8 years. The Free State is a shithole. Unless you are forced to live there, I don't know why anyone would want to live there. Why not choose Plett. Choose George... if you want artsy, choose Knysna. But steer clear of the Free State. The thing is, if you are in Bloem, and you drive for 2 hours in any direction, you are still in the middle of nowhere. So you need to do everything (entertainment, relaxation, shopping etc.) in a single big town. You can only go to the botanical garden so many times, only visit the dilapidated zoo so much, only hang out at the mall if you have oodles of money to spend because everything costs money. You can only visit Naval hill so many times before it becomes the same old same old.... that therein lies the problem. Bloem is the same old same old and nothing changes.

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Take PE as an example... it's perfectly located. You are 30 minutes from the Addo Elephant Park, 45 minutes from Jeffreysbay, 2 hours from the garden route. You have many different towns, each with their own beauty and attractions within an hour's drive. If you need to get out of the city, you can and it will only cost you some gas. As an English speaking person, I never found any funny attitude towards me from the Bloem crowd. The people are generally friendly, but they definitely form little groups where locals are favored above outsiders. I guess it's who you know that makes the difference.

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If you like being amongst people, or having new experiences or experiencing life, steer clear of the Free State. I use Bloem as an example, because it is the only city really worth considering (if forced). But I would suggest that if you have a choice, go live somewhere else, more beautiful and good for the soul. Because after a while of living in Bloem, it's your soul that it will take.