Cape Town!

Day One:
I left the ship with Liz, Veronica, and Kevin with no real destination in mind. We were all fairly hungry, so we happened upon this really cool grocery store and got way too excited about it. It was a lot like a whole foods, so I got a bunch of different types of food and took it out with me. None of it was all that good, but I did enjoy trying all sorts of things. After that, we walked around some more and happened across a bar that Veronica had read about, so we stopped and each got a drink. I had a wine cooler called “Brutal Fruit” which made it sound 1000 times more badass than it actually was. After that, we walked around more and stopped in this small outdoor market, and Kevin and I bought these really cool giraffe statues. We then went to a coffee shop and hung around there for a bit. After that, we headed back towards the ship but we stopped at the mall. Kevin and Liz went back to the ship, and Veronica and I walked around the mall trying to find her shoes and headbands. We went back to the ship around 3, because I wanted sufficient time to get ready for my FDP that night and we were planning on going to a wine tasting at the mall. I got ready and we all met up around 4:45. Instead of wine, we decided to go to dinner at a restaurant called Karibou which Kevin had heard good things about. We all looked really fancy and the restaurant was fancy as well, so it was a really nice meal. Kevin got ostrich which I tried and instantly fell in love with. Kevin and I had to speed eat because we were both going to see Fiddler on the Roof at Artscape, which is where my teacher works. We got back to the ship and loaded on the bus to head there, and Michael told us some stories and gave us a small tour of the city. When we got there, we walked around backstage and saw the dressing rooms and the stages and the genie and all of these amazing things. It was a beautiful setup, the theater had two separate stages. We were served appetizers and wine before the show, which was nice. Fiddler was amazing! I had never seen it before and I wasn’t sure of the story of the show, so I really enjoyed it. After, we headed back to the ship and met us with Liz and Veronica again, then Liz’s friend Lilly and we all went out to drink. There was some communication errors, so we all got kind of split up and I wound up going out with Alden, Lilly, and Veronica. We walked around Long Street and found a bar called “Boo Radleys”, so we went in. Then we got kicked out for being white. Really. Even though the apartheid is technically over, there are still strong racial feelings throughout the city, and it was crazy to witness it first hand. We wound up at this really random bar and had a few drinks with Lou and Roy, who were really strange but kind of awesome. We then headed back to the ship and I hung out with kevin for a bit before going to bed.

Day Two:
Game plan was to go shark diving. I WAS PUMPED. And then it got cancelled because the waters were too rough. So I went out and got lunch with Farrah and Jimmy. We all got ostrich burgers which were amazing. We went back to the mall to walk around, and I was completely exhausted so I went back to the ship and took a nap. Kevin met up with me around 4:30 and we went out to dinner at this pizza place that we had noticed before. I got a bacon and banana pizza which was INCREDIBLE. We didn’t realize the pizzas were going to be as big as they were, so we got two and wound up with leftovers which we gave away. We headed to a bar called Mr. Pickwicks, which was where I was meeting Talia, this girl I’ve been talking to on couchsurfing. We stopped in a few really cool stores on the walk but didn’t buy anything. We got to the bar about an hour earlier than we were meant to meet, but we sat and enjoyed ourselves. We talked to the bartender Greg a bit, and he made me my first White Russian, which was his choice for me to drink. It was pretty good, but not something I think I would order again. We got a few more drinks and hung out until Talia got there. When she got there we hung out there for a little while more and made plans with greg to meet up tomorrow. We then went to another bar and got some more drinks and food, and then we went to this dance club, but Kevin and I decided against dancing and headed back to the ship. We got slightly distracted at Mitchells... and by that I mean we stayed drinking for a few more hours with birthday boy Mark, Whit, Cassie, and some German army guys. We headed back to the ship and watched a few episodes of The Office and then passed out.

Day Three:
Kevin had scheduled a shark dive at the aquarium for 11 AM, so we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed there. I took a bunch of pictures of him in the tank which was super awesome. I was pretty jealous that I’m not a certified diver. Liz met up with us there, and we headed back to the ship to get ready to go to Stellenbosch. We went to Mr. Pickwicks to wait for Greg, and wound up having a conversation with this cool British guy named Nick who was in Cape Town on business. Greg never showed up, so we invited Nick to come with us to Stellenbosch and he was super down for it. We got into a cab and headed to Stellenbosch, which was only about a 45 minute drive away. We got slightly lost getting to Spier, but when we finally did get there we promptly went to a wine tasting. I watched everyone enjoying their wine, because I very much do not like wine so I didn’t really see the point in paying to do it. After the tasting, we headed over to the cheetah sanctuary portion to see the cheetahs and to pet them. I got a little worried because the handlers said that we may not get the chance to pet them because it was the end of the day and they were getting fussy. LUCKILY I was in the second to last group to go in a pet it. It was pretty cool. Cheetahs are soft and kind of awesome. Afterwards we spent some time talking to the handlers about their jobs and how they got them. It was interesting because one of the handlers is doing SAS next semester, so we were telling her all sorts of things we’ve learned so far. Next we headed back to the ship and said goodbye to Nick. We got ready for dinner and walked around trying to find something to eat. We went to a German restaurant but it took way too long to get service and the lady was kind of a bitch (sound familiar, Ana?) so we just decided to go to the food court in the mall. I got a burger, fries, and a milkshake... because I’m in America, right? It was a carmel banana milkshake which was spectacular. After that Kevin and I decided to check out the grocer store and bought an absurd amount of ramen, as we tend to do. We then headed back to the ship, and I grabbed my laptop and headed back to the mall to use their wifi. I was able to skype steve&josh, my dad, and my sister which was awesome because I was feeling a bit homesick. After that I went back to the ship and tried to find stuff to do. I got ready to head to Mitchells, because I knew SAS kids would be there and I would be entertained. On the way, I ran into Nate and we decided that it would be 1000 times better if we had a slumber party in his nook and watched “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, so that’s what we did! It was lovely.

Day Four:
I woke up and got ready for the day, which I was pretty pumped about because I was heading to Simon Town with Nate, Natasa, Luke, and Sonya. We caught a taxi to the train station and got on the train, which was really similar to a T. I fell asleep for a bit on the ride, and when I woke up I felt like I was driving along the California coast. It was absolutely beautiful. We got to Simon town and walked around a bit. It reminded me a lot of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, just a small seaside town. A local told us about a really good restaurant nearby and headed over to it. It was beautiful! It overlooked the ocean and mountains and there were a few penguins in the water nearby. We all ate and it was delicious. I got another burger. I really like burgers. After an incredibly disappointing lack of cheesecake, we headed over to the penguins! We ran into some SAS people, and they informed us that paying 40 rand to get “closer” to the penguins was definitely not worth it, and to just walk along the path, so that’s what we did. It was AWESOME. It took us about 10 seconds to find a bunch of penguins. We saw well over 100 penguins by the end of the walk. We started heading back to the train station, and I stopped and bought a really cool painted ostrich egg with an old school world map on it. We swiftly walked back to the station to catch our train, and we got there just in time to get the train back to cape town. When we got there, Natasa, Luke and I took a Rikki back to the waterfront, which is sort of a version of public transportation. I had been telling a few people to meet me at 7 in Timitz Square so we could go to a bar, and I got there early so I grabbed dinner and ran into Ali and a few other people. We ate and swapped stories of the day, and I went and got ready to go out. I met up with Evan, Liz, and Kevin and we headed out to Mr. Pickwicks yet again, this time to participate in trivia night! We got there and verbally abused Greg for ditched us the day before and we got a few drinks. We went upstairs to trivia night, where we failed pretty miserably. We hung out there for a while longer, and then headed out to another bar. It didn’t take long for us to realize that Mr. Pickwicks was better, so we went back. We got a few more shooters and then decided to leave and head to another bar. We got slightly distracted by McDonalds, and while we were eating we decided that we didn’t really want to be out anymore, so we headed back to the ship. Kevin and I hung out a bit longer and then I went to bed around 3:30.

Day Five:
I missed the shark dive I was hoping to sneak onto, so I was trying to figure out my plans for the day. I went over to Ali’s room and talked to Ionna, and she was getting ready to go get breakfast and use wifi for a bit before heading over to Boulder beach and Cape Point. I got a delicious panini and the most amazing hot chocolate ever, and we went back to the ship at noon to head out. We met up with Waldine, a super awesome cab driver, and he drove us to Cape Point. It was men, Ali, Ionna, Lauren, and Sara. Along the way we stopped at a gas station where I got the best ice cream bar ever. We also were able to stop for pictures whenever we wanted, including when we saw A BREACHING WHALE. I LOVE WHALES. Anyway, we got to cape point, which is where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. We got lunch and hiked up to the top of cape point. It was absolutely stunning. We were there for a little while, and then realized it was starting to get late and we still wanted to go to Boulder beach (which is where the penguins are) so we headed back down. We ran into a bunch of SAS people along the way. We spent a short amount of time at Boulder beach, and then headed back to the ship. The cab ride was awesome, Waldine played some Katy Perry and Bruno Mars and we had SO much fun singing. Also “Jenny from the block”, the classic. We realized that our original plan to get food once we got back wasn’t a good idea, because none of us were hungry. We decided to meet up at 9:30 to go to Mitchells, so I hung out with Nate for a little while and then headed over there. We got burgers and drinks while we were there, and we met up with a bunch of different people. There was karaoke, which I was at first pretty stoked to do, and then it got to the point where there was a wait list of about 20 and I wasn’t really down for that. Alcohol wasn’t really affecting me, and there were people smoking cigarettes everywhere so I decided to just leave early.

Day Six:
I woke up and met up with Jessie and Emily to go see a rehearsal at Cape Town opera. We ran into Evan when we got there, and we sat there for about two hours watching the rehearsal, which was pretty cool because I’m not super into opera and I’ve never really even seen one, so seeing one in the process was very interesting. After that I walked around with Evan until he found a taxi to take him to table mountain for cheapish, and once he did that we separated. I walked around by myself for a bit, which was really, really nice. I stopped at a market and bought this really awesome bottle opener, and it was just so nice to be able to get acclimated to a new city by just walking around alone with my thoughts. I went back to the pizza place Kevin and I had gone to a few days before to meet up with him and Nate for lunch, but I got there early so I just sat there for a while observing everyone around me, which was really nice. They got there around 2, and we ordered pizza and hung out. It was a very nice meal. After that, we decided to go to the place with really good hot chocolate. We each a hot chocolate and they used the free wifi to look into their India trip. While they did that I headed over to the Africa trading post store, where I went kind of wild and bought a lot of amazing things. I found them at the hot chocolate place when I was done, and they saw all the cool stuff I bought and decided to head there as well. We shopped really quickly there and then at one more store before getting back on the ship to get a good seat for Desmond Tutu’s speech. It was amazing. He is such a genuinely happy guy and his words inspired everyone of us who was listening. Then I was lucky enough to get a picture with him which is pretty balla. I hung around with a bunch of people and went to bed.

Overall, I’d have to say that I’ve enjoyed Cape Town the least thus far. I felt like I was in San Francisco or other parts of America, and I don’t really feel like I learned as much there as I did in the other countries. However, Evan’s got family here and there are a few weddings coming up, and he asked me to be his date to one of them, so I know I’ll be back and I’ll have the chance to explore a little more in depth. Also, I'm horribly depressed to be leaving Africa. Africa is freaking amazing. I will DEFINITELY be back to this continent.