Cape Town

After coming back from the 11 day Easter break trip, it was really hard to settle down to being back on campus and going to classes and doing my reading. After just a few days of being back, a couple friends and I were already experiencing some serious cabin fever, stuck on campus in Durban. Durban is great but it's not the kind of place you can just take a walk around if you're feeling cooped up or bored. We also had a huge Zulu test to study for which occupied the better part of a whole weekend. After a weekend in the library and my teeny tiny room (really- Myrthe can touch both walls at the same time...I can't because I'm shorter and my arms are shorter) I needed to get out again, so we started really planning our trip to Cape Town.
I had been planning to go and trying to get some friends to come over the period of April 22-27 because the 22 was a public holiday and we had no school, and the following Monday was also off because of holiday (April has a ton of public holidays in South Africa) so it would mean more travelling with less classes to skip. Myrthe and Annereike, my two good friends from the Netherlands also wanted to come, but Myrthe's mom and Annereike's parents were visiting at the end of the week, so we left for Cape Town on Tuesday, the 21st in the morning and Anne (it's easier to abbreviate her name) came back to Durban Friday morning, Myrthe came back on Saturday afternoon, and I came back Monday morning!
The flight is just 2 hours and we took this domestic budget airline called Mango (everything is orange- even the planes- I loved that!). It all went well and we got to our backpacker on Long Street, called Inn Long Street. Long Street is really awesome- it's a really vibrant and active part of CapeTown. I guess first I should describe Cape Town as a whole- it's not very "African," it's much more European or even American than the rest of South Africa. Several people I met said the waterfront and beach areas remind them of San Francisco. I was a few times reminded of Bost and DC which was surreal and you had to keep reminding yourself of where you were- South Africa. It was so nice for a change to be in a city that you could feel free and safe to walk around on the streets and turn down different streets if they seemed interesting. In Durban, you travel from point to point via taxi and NEVER travel down and unfamiliar street, so Cape Town was very liberating. Long Street has tons of restaurants, bars, shops, and markets. We got there at about 11:30, Myrthe and I, because Anne had taken another airline and to make a long story short, spent about 10 hours in the Durban airport and arrived 12 hours after she was supposed to in Cape Town due to multiple delays. Myrthe and I walked all the way down Long Street, stopping at different shops along the way, down the the Victoria and Albert Waterfront (yah how African does that sound?). The waterfront was really cool- lots of different boats from sail boats to fishing traulers and tugs. We sat by the dock and had a drink and saw a seal swim by! We wandered around the different shops there and checked out the waterfront area, which I really liked. We stayed there until Anne finally made it, then we had a nice dinner, which reminded me of San Diego since all the restaurants have open fronts but it gets pretty chilly at night so they have those big heat lamps ups for you. We came back to the backpacker and watched the nightlife from the giant balcony that overlooks the road, then crashed from our early morning flight.
The next day we went to Table Mountain. It's this really cool mountain that is just behind this city and rises up over the city skyline. It is flat on top, hence the name, and a popular tourist spot and landmark because of the incredible views from the top. Anne and I hiked and Myrthe took the cable car up (she's afraid of heights and has to get them over with quickly so the 3 minute cable car was better than the 3 hour hike). The hike was really difficult, as we had been warned, because it pretty much goes straight up through a ravine, but the scenery was gorgeous and we took plenty of rest stops to take it all in. There were lots of other hikers to chat with as we went. We finally made it to the top and it was totally worth it! You could see the entire city of Cape Town and then from the other side, beautiful ocean views that just stretched forever. You could also see Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were imprisoned during apartheid. The top was all rocky and very beautiful and we walked around the top for a while.
After we came back down via the cable car, we decided to go to Simon's Town to see the African penguins (yes these do exist, I swear!). We took the train from Cape Town and it took longer than we thought so we didn't have alot of time with the penguins before our return train but it was fine because it didn't take us too long to find a spot on the beach where they were that actually wasn't inside the park where you have to pay to get in and see them. We could go right up to the rock were a group of them were and watch them from a good distance (they bite). We saw them swimming around too, it was so cute! I was in love...
That night we ate at this amazing restaurant on Long Street called Mama Africa. I had a chicken kabobs with mango and a tasty cocktail that tasted like an ice cream sundae. The live music was amazing. There was a band with tons of marimbas and cool instruments and then this incredible singer who just belted out these cool melodies...bought the cd it was so good.
The next day we went to Robben Island, which actually as I learned has a history dating far back before apartheid. Sailors and explorers had been stopping there since the 1600s and lepers were kept there for a while as sort of a quarantine. It has a strange and haunting history. Of course, Nelson Mandela and other famous political prisoners were kept there as well during the apartheid, including Robert Subukwe who was kept in solitary confinement for 6 years. The tour begins with a ferry ride to the island, then a bus tour around the island (during which it was thundering) where all the sites are pointed out, including Subukwe's prison, the lime quarry that the prisoners had to dig lime in, and the old leper cemetary. The island is also home to the third largest colony of African penguins so penguins came out of the bushes to watch the bus go by (a funny site). The tour ends at the main prison where a previous inmate from the apartheid takes you around, which was really interesting. We saw Nelson Mandela's cell and where all the anti-apartheid leadership were held. It was very surreal because you have to remember that these things were happening as late as the 1990s, during my lifetime. The last political prisoners were taken off the island in 1991 or 1992 an the last civil inmates in 1996. This is something that is not even history yet- it is still in the current lifetime memory. After Robben Island, we wandered around the waterfront some more and then spent what felt like hours weaving through this three story shop- the Pan African Market, where each room is full floor to ceiling with things like huge carved wooden masks.
The next day it was just Myrthe and I and we went to the Castle of Good Hope- a fortress built by the Dutch. It was fun to walk aroun and you could go up on the top of the fortress. We also went to some of the smaller museums in the city, like the District 6 museum. It's like a memorial to District 6, a black and coloured neighborhood that was declared a "whites only" area during apartheid and all of the families were forcibly removed to other worse areas of the city, far from their jobs and schools. We also went to the old Slave Lodge and learned about the history of slavery in Cape Town. We also walked around the Company Garden's, which were pretty. In the evenings we really enjoyed watching the satellite tv in the backpacker with the other really nice and cool guests. It was a nice change from the soap operas we get here, some from the US and some in Afrikaans and Zulu, and the soccer and cricket matches. Their tv had vh1, mythbusters, survivor man, and lots of movies. Luxury.
The next day Myrthe and I wanted to go to Stellenbosch, part of the winelands just outside of Cape Town. It was rainy but we hoped it'd clear up. Needless to say it didnt and our train broke down 2 stops away from Stellenbosch for over an hour....we finally got on the next train and made it there with just enough time to walk to town in the pouring rain and have a nice indoor lunch and glass of wine (because that's just what you have to do there) and walk back to the train station for our return train so Myrthe could catch her flight. The area would be beautiful on a nice day...we tried to see it, haha, but weather happens.
That night I was on my own but I just grabbed some quick dinner down the street and at at the backpacker and watched tv with the guests I was getting to know pretty well. The next day I took a day trip with the Baz Bus, a bus that caters to backpackers travelling along the South African coast, to the Cape Peninsula. The first stop was Hout Bay where we took a short but really cool ferry ride out to Seal Island, home to a colony of Cape Fur Seals. We saw them playing and swimming in the water and lazing on the rocks. It was really cool to see even more animals and I reallly love seals. The other people on the trip were all cool- I was the youngest but had the edge of having been in Africa for several months already. I was giving out travel advice like a pro haha. There were several other Americans and lots of people travelling on their own too. We all chatted and swapped stories. The next stop was a nice overlook, looking down on Muizenburg and tons of surfers in the water. We had a muffin and juice then headed to Simon's Town where I got to the see the penguins again. I knew this was going to happen but didn't really mind returning! This time we went into the park and walked along the boardwalk through penguin territory. Here there were many more and even little fuzzy grey babies and ones that were in between and were grey and glossy. I saw the full cycle from baby to adult and there were even some moms on nests still. It was really great.
Next we went into the Cape Peninsula area and the scenery was gorgeous. It was really raw, untouched nature. The whole things is high up on these cliffs that rise out of the Indian and Atlantic oceans, since they more or less meet here (although technically they come together at Cape Agullus). The area was covered with low thick shrubbery called fynbos and it was beautiful and open. We got to bike ride for about 20 minutes to the place where we had lunch and I loved the ride. I barely had to pedal and just took in the scenery. Lunch was sandwiches- good, then we took the bus (it was really just a big van) down the the Cape of Good Hope which was really cool to really be there. We saw ostriches there too! Then we went on a hike up and around the Cape Point, over an around the cliffs, through the fynbos, and the views were awesome, of just blue blue blue sparkling ocean and rocky cliffs. We ended the hike at the Cape Lighthouse which was awesome and had amazing views of just ocean and other mountains rising out of it. On the way up a baboon ran down the path right by us! There are lots of babboons in the area, and they have issues with home being built in their habitat- they have learned how to raid kitchens! The tour took us back into Cape Town with commentary along the way, then dropped everyone off where they were staying. It was a great day and I'm so glad I got to see the seals and the Cape of Good Hope area because it was amazing.
The trip overall was great. We had a short week of school, just Tues, Wed, and Thurs, as today, Fri, is another public holiday. Since I was just travelling, I'm on campus for this one. I think I may go to the beach later (I love that we can still do that in "winter") and to a dance performance on campus later. We only have three weeks of classes left, then study break and exams! I can't believe it! My laptop is being repaired again so that's why there have been no new pictures lately!