South Africa

I’ve definitely learned something during my stay in South Africa ~ I am not in shape, at all.

South Africa has been an amazing place, somewhere that I definitely have to come back to. This country is definitely full of diversity, everywhere you look. There are so many things to do here, that I don’t think a person could get bored living here. I only had the chance to be here a week, but every minute of it has been jammed packed with someplace to go or something to do.

The first day, Friday, I went to lunch at a place called Dodge where I discovered the wonderful world of Italian Gelato. After that we took a taxi to Table Mountain which we took the gondola up to because we didn’t have time to hike it. Although this gives me one excuse to come back here, I must hike Table Mountain. The view was spectacular. If you stood in just the right place, you could see both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Cars looked like ants and the ship looked like just a toy. That night 11 of us, including Matt’s parents, went to a Mexican Restaurant (I know we are in South Africa) but the food was amazing.

It rained all day, for the most part on Saturday. That was okay though, because I spent the majority of the day in a bus. I went to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point with SAS. We walked to the lighthouse in the rain, but somehow I managed to stay dry. I also went to Boulder Beach where I saw African penguins and from there we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant where I ate ostrich. That evening I went out to dinner with some girls and a guy from the ship. We went to a sushi restaurant, where sushi and cocktails were half off. I don’t eat sushi, but I had chicken tempura, two sides, and a raspberry daiquiri for under $10.

On Sunday we were suppose to have rain, but we lucked out because it only rained about 10 minutes for us. I was quite lucky because I was cycling through the winelands today. Well the first cycling part was not through the winelands but more through a valley of a mountain. The first half was all uphill, so therefore the second half was downhill. Then when we got back to the bus, we had the option of riding in the bus for 5km, or biking. We decided to bike because this part was actually going to be going through the winelands and it was on the road, which made it a LOT easier. That afternoon, our guide drove us through some beautiful old Dutch towns. At the 2 wineries we stopped at, I had the opportunity to try 9 different wines, though I only tried the first 2 because I really don’t like wine. That evening, I went to the Codfather in Camps Bay for dinner with some of the same girls I went with the night before. This place didn’t have menus but rather you ordered directly from the kitchen what type of fish you wanted and then the size portion.

Monday, I just wondered around the V&A Waterfront for a little bit, and then I headed to the Green Market and Long Street for the afternoon. The Green Market was huge, but after awhile some of the stuff just all seemed to be the same. The walk back from Long Street to the ship was fun. We originally took a taxi there, but decided to walk back. We stopped at a book store and then a music store, and then Greg decided we had to stop at a wig store. That was an unexpected stop and buy for him. I didn’t really do much else that day, mainly just walked around the waterfront some more.

Tuesday. This is the day that I was really looking forward to. Back before I had even left, I signed up to go sandboarding independently with some people. Things were a bit unorganized at first, which really got to me since I like to have an idea of what’s suppose to be happening. But the girl who supposedly organized the trip didn’t know what was going on herself. Chaos. But anyways, when everything was finally together we headed out to the sand dunes with our guide. Now I’m horrible with names, so I cant remember what his was, except that he and the other guy with us were originally from England and both moved to South Africa during the last 5-10 years. Now sandboarding is basically just like snowboarding except for the obvious ~ its hot out so less clothing is needed and sand is softer than snow so it doesn’t hurt to fall. We were given snowboard boots and the sandboards and were off. They took us to the sand dune we would be spending our day at and we dropped off our backpacks and started the climb up the dune. The view from here was incredible. We were able to see Table Mountain easily, which is a fantastic view on within itself. We were given one on one lessons on how to sandboard which again is just like snowboarding. Fortunately for me, I was able to catch on quite quickly. I can’t now to be able to actually try snowboarding. The only bad thing about the sandboarding was having to walk up the dune each time and the wind blowing sand onto every part of your body possible. After the day was over and we headed back to the ship, there was sand everywhere. I still had sand on me after taking several showers, but still it was all worth it.

Wednesday, I did another FDP for a class and went to the Cape Flats Nature Project. This was actually pretty interesting and I did learn quite a bit about the conservation issues that Cape Town is enduring. Here is just one more excuse as to why I could come to Cape Town again, to work for the Urban Biodiversity Conservation program. I don’t really feel like going into details because for anyone who isn’t a environmental bio major, the stuff would be pretty boring.

Thursday was our last official day in South Africa. I did some last minute shopping in the morning and then I went to Robben Island that afternoon. Now I definitely started second guessing myself as to why I was going to visit an island that was formerly a prison, when I couldn’t wait to leave home so I could get away from visiting the WCP weekly. But in the end I was glad I went. I originally was by myself when I went, which I didn’t have a problem with. I figured with there being over 800 from SAS in Cape Town, there was bound to be at least another SASer going to Robben Island and if not, then I could just randomly meet some other tourist who was also visiting. Well it turns out that there was a small group of SASer’s going as well. So I ended up going on the tour with them and I actually did talk to some man for awhile on the ferry ride who is a travel photographer from Boston. The whole idea of Robben Island being a former prison seemed very surreal because it only closed within the last 15 years. Learning the history of the island first hand from former prisoners is definitely something I’m grateful for seeing that most museums anyone goes to these days just have historians, who weren’t really there and didn’t really know how the people felt, giving the tours. I spent the rest of my last day in Cape Town just wondering around the Waterfront before heading back to the ship.

It was a bit upsetting to be leaving such a wonderful place with such wonderful food and such wonderful Italian Gelattos. I almost forgot, I made it a point to eat a gelato everyday, because they were so cheap and so delicious. So it turns that due to “high winds”, our ship was able to leave the port to go bunker that night. We didn’t end up moving until early the next morning and we didn’t actually leave Cape Town till Friday at 5pm. Now that was torture. Going to class and eating ship food when Cape Town was right outside the ship.