CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA!!

Thursday, February 17^th, 2011

Our visit to Cape Town, South Africa began a little rocky. Literally. The boat was forbidden to dock in Cape Town because of the rocky waters.  We were scheduled to arrive at 0800 on Thursday, February 17^th.

I am not sure if I have mentioned “the voice” to all of you blog listeners out there, but if not I will explain. “The voice” is the dean who makes all of the announcements over the loud speaker. She is actually the same dean whom I mentioned in an earlier blog pertaining to the first day of orientation. She does not have the most welcoming of voices so why she was given the job of “the voice” I haven’t a clue. She tends to provoke feelings of anger when she wakes you up at 8:00am on the only day you don’t have an 8:00am class just to tell you to that we are losing another hour.

Anyway, back to being stuck in the ocean…..

After being awoken by “the voice” who notified us we would not be docking in Cape Town as scheduled due to the windy conditions, most of the students congregated on the 7^th deck to evaluate the situation. I could see Cape Town in the distance! There is was…. Just sitting in front of us… but we couldn’t reach it! Such a tease. Because the boat had slowed down significantly, we were really rocking. I felt at times that the boat was actually going to tip over. Walking across the deck became a real challenge. I grabbed a breakfast burrito from the grill and waited for “the voice” to finally give us some good news. If you ever go on SAS, GET THE BREAKFAST BURRITO!! You won’t regret it.  

The rest of the day everyone awaited anxiously hoping to receive word that we would be landing soon… we never did. Therefore many of us spent the day staring at Table Mountain in the distance and eating one too many candy bars from the grill. I also may or may not have purchased two ice cream cones… call me crazy.

Before bed, we received word that we would be able to dock the next morning, so we set our alarm clocks for extra early so we could run off the boat and start our lives in Cape Town!

At 6:30am I awoke and attempted to stand. When I fell back down again because of the intense rocking of the boat I knew it wasn’t good. I called the front desk and sure enough we were still in the middle of the ocean.

It wasn’t until around lunch time that the MV Explorer finally docked in the Victoria and Alfred Harbor in Cape Town, South Africa. To say that we were excited to get off the boat is an understatement. Think black Friday- sas style. People pushing people over racing to be the first off the gang way. Elbows flying. There may or may not have been injuries.  

We landed in Cape Town on such a beautiful day!!!! The Victoria Alfred waterfront is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! We walked around the waterfront with gigantic smiles on our faces! WE HAD MADE IT!!! EEEEKKK!!!!!! I cannot attempt to use enough exclamation points here!!!!!!!

Not wanting to waste a minute of our precious time in Cape Town, our group set off! Liz, Sarena, Katie, Alison, Natalie and myself were joined by Sarah and Elizabeth. Great group. We decided to try and tackle Cape of Good Hope/ Cape Point and Boulders Beach where there were supposed to be penguins! WAHOO!!

After speaking to information we hopped on a bus to take us to the train station. Thankfully, people speak English in Cape Town or we never would have made it. We sat on the bus and began chatting excitedly about how happy we were to finally be in Cape Town. We weren’t paying very close attention to where we were going and after a few stops a man stuck his head back on the bus and said, “Girls this is the end, the train stops here.” HA. We got off the bus.

There was this funny moment when we all looked around, saw no train station, and realized that we had no idea where we were. I asked a man in an orange vest and he smiled and pointed us around the corner where we found the train station!

Yes, most of the people in South Africa speak English but it is a different kind of English than mine. It is laced with such a strong accent that it can literally sound like they are speaking in a foreign language at some points.

I loved the train ride to Cape Point! The scenery along the coat of South Africa is so beautiful!! The colorful houses dotted along the white sand stand in front of the most beautiful backdrop of mountains. We attempted to not look like tourists buttttt I am going to go ahead and say that we did. I practically had my head stuck out the window the entire way giggling with excitement.  Yes giggling.  

A lady on the train told us that we probably didn’t have enough time to fit everything in because we really shouldn’t ride the train after dark. Great. Just a small glitch in our plan. The rest of the day turned into something like a scavenger hunt.

We located a white van that looked like it would fit all of us and convinced the driver to be our personal tour guide for the rest of the day. We had only a few hours to fit everything in so we were in a bit of a time crunch. I don’t know if you have ever ridden the Mad Hatter ride at Disney world… but if so… replace the ride car with a big white van with dark green velvet seat covers and you have a picture of us racing to Cape Point.

We passed Boulder beach on the way and stopped to take a picture of the penguins. Yes PENGUINS! Penguins were just walking around the rocks and beach enjoying the sunshine. I snapped a picture of two that were playing together like they were the best of friends! Such a moment!

The penguin visit was more like a drive-by considering we were on a mission to make it to the Cape of Good Hope/ Cape Point. SO penguin pictures and back in the mad hatter mobile.

The drive to Cape Point was beautiful! It didn’t take us long to get there and as soon as we arrived in the gate we saw a baboon. They actually have pink butts. I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. BRIGHT PINK BUTTS. Toooo funny!

Our van driver was so speedy that we made it in time to see both Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. Cape Point is the end of Africa and the meeting place of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Pretty dang cool!

Cape of Good Hope!

Converting currency really throws me off. It is something like 7.4 Rand = $1.00 USD and so you never have any idea how much money you are actually spending. I felt as if I was throwing out 100’s spending a fortune and at the end of the day we had only spent $23 USD!

We made it back to Cape Town just be before dusk! I’d say it was a success!

We noticed masses of crowds all headed in the same direction and realized they must be heading to the U2 concert! Yes U2 was scheduled to perform at the World Cup soccer stadium the same night we were in Cape Town. (OMG OMG. I really feel like my life is not real!!!!! EEEEKKKK- A frequent thought running through  my mind during our entire stay in Cape Town)

We followed to crowd towards to stadium and stopped at Romanos to eat. American girls WOULD eat pizza for their first dinner in Cape Town, South Africa. Yes, we would.

We spent the next few hours outside the world cup soccer stadium listening to “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAYYYYYY” (Bono, obvi) We ended our night on Long Street, the entertainment district of Cape Town, dancing to Justin Beiber.

Saturday, February 19^th 2011

After a solid 3 hours of sleep, Liz, Katie, Alison, Sarena, Brendan and I woke up early the tackle the hike up Table Mountain.

I don’t think any of us knew what to expect. I pictured us casually walking up neatly mulched trails all the way to the top; maybe climbing over a rock or two. False. The word hike now means something more to me. We were literally climbing straight up rocks the entire time. One of our group members turned around after 7 minutes and said she thought it would be best for her to meet us at the top via cable car. Hha the rest of us pushed through the massive amount of pizza and McDonalds we had consumed the night before and made it to the top!

It was worth it!!! THE VIEW WAS AWESOME!!!!!! J

After taking 1 million pictures and enjoying the incredible view we opted to taking the cable car back down the mountain. Not trying to break any records or anything.

We headed back to Long Street for an incredible, well deserved lunch.

We spent the next few hours browsing the Green Market which is SO COOL! Shout out to the fam- I got yall some sweet gifts. Be excited!!!

Market shopping in SA is veryyyyy different than Ghana. People weren’t breathing down our necks, forcing stuff into our hands. It was actually a rather enjoyable shopping experience.

We stopped by a gelato store next to satisfy our sweet tooth. What happened next would defiantly not be FDA approved.

The two employees immediately put an apron on Alison and offered her a position at the gelato store. They let us taste every single flavor 10 times each. I was ushered behind the counter where I was allowed to scoop my own gelato!! (with my dirty, mountain climbing hands haha) They next took Brendan behind to counter where he proceeded to taste every flavor with the same spoon- defiantly not sanitary. We probably spent over an hour socializing with the gelato men! It was a blast. Before we left they obliged for pictures with everyone and then Acorn (one of the employees) picked up Alison (6ft 4in D1 basketball player) and swung her around and around. We were in tears laughing so hard. I love South Africa.

That night we ate a restaurant in Stellenbosch called Moyo. We were seated underneath this huge tent and immediately had our faces painted with traditional African artwork. So cool! It was buffet style with the most delicious food known to man- chicken, steak, venison, springbok (the national animal of SA), and more and more delicious food! My stomach is growling just thinking about it! We all ate so much that we had trouble moving.

We then met some of Alison’s friends who are studying at the University of Cape Town. A few of us had to head back to the ship eventually though because our stomach’s hurt from eating so much. High five Carter

Sunday, February, 20 2011

We woke up early to meet our guide for our arranged Bikes and Wines tour. We rode a train out to Stellenbosch to begin our tour. Our group consisted of Liz, Alison, Katie, Natalie, Serena, and I. The other two members of the group were the nicest ladies from Canada named Caroline and Monique.

Upon initially signing up for a “cycling through the wine lands” tour, I pictured myself on a beach cruiser with a big fat seat, riding my bike along shaded,paved paths though the wine lands.

Therefore, I was a tad surprised when our guide, Dan, brought out mountain bikes and helmets. We began our journey on a rocky pathway alongside train tracks. To say that I was sweating would be an understatement. I was pouring.

The first winery we visited was Welmoed, followed by Spier. Spier is a very commercialized winery and has the most beautiful wine lands. We rode through them before our tasting. Despite what you might think- the more wine tested the better I became at riding my bike!

After Spier, we visited a cheetah conservatory. Cheetah’s are such beautiful animals. So perfect looking.

We visited one more winery, ate lunch, and finished our tour at a brandy factory. Brandy… hmmm. The tour guide told us that it was an acquired taste, but I can honestly say I don’t think you will ever catch me walking around sipping on brandy.

We concluded the tour and caught the train back to Cape Town. Again, I really do enjoy trains. The scenery is wonderful and if they aren’t too crowded the ride is quite pleasant! Plus you can buy everything you need from candy to q-tips from the man that walks up and down the train car. How convenient.

  

Liz and I then made an attempt to attend the Hillsong- Cape Town church service. Our attempt was a bit of a disaster considering our cab driver got lost, charged us too much, and we were an hour late. We ended up at the Crystal Towers Hotel attempting to get a taxi back to Cape Town and when the taxi finally arrived we were so ready to get back to the boat. 10 minutes into the ride back I realized that I had left my phone at the hotel. Good one. The taxi driver was so wonderful though and whipped the car around, called the hotel, and had them bring it out to the front! WHEW. What a close call. I kept calling myself an idiot and told the taxi driver that my dad would kill me if he knew I lost my phone. He thought it was hilarious.

On the way home (for real this time) the sun began to go down and I relaxed and admired the orange sunset behind the black shadow of Table Mountain. It really was incredible.

I turn to comment to Liz when I notice that she is as pale as a white sheet. She hadn’t been feeling well all day, but in the taxi car she actually looked like she was going to die. We finally arrived back to Cape Town where I drug her to get something to eat at the mall food court. I figured she was just exhausted and dehydrated. I ran to the pharmacy and grabbed some electrolyte packets and forced her to drink them. Poor Lizzy was struggling! She finally ended up getting a bit sick (I’ll leave out the details) and felt much better!!!

That night there was a concert in Camp’s Bay that everyone from the West Coast was excited about. (apparently everyone from the West Coast has cooler music than those of us from the East Coast. Pshhh. To each his own). I decided to join up with the west coast kids and head to Camp’s Bay. It was such a pleasant taxi ride when all of the sudden I reached into my purse and noticed my wallet was missing. I had my chap stick and my cell phone, but not wallet. Grrrreeeatttt. I’ll make a long story short by saying- after crying to a taxi driver, and questioning a security guard and some homeless people, I was able to recover my wallet with everything in it. Sorry dad. I promise it won’t happen again.

Monday, February, 15, 2011

I woke up this morning to a call from Chris saying- “get up here you are going to miss the safari!!!” AHHHHHHH.

In record speed, I brushed my teeth and ran off the boat to join a group of people for a one day safari to Aquila game reserve.

The ride there was beautiful! I love the mountains- they look so incredible against a blue sky with a few white clouds.

We arrived at Aquila and ate a delicious buffet breakfast!! Next, our ranger Timothy took us for a drive around the reserve. I have been to the zoo before, but seeing these beautiful animals close up in a natural environment was AWESOME!

We saw ZEBRAS, SPRINGBOKS, OSTRICHES, WILDABEASTS, RHINOS, ELEPHANTS, ALLIGATORS, WARTHOGS, HIPPOPATUMUSES, AND LIONS!

My favorite animal was defiantly the lion!! I took some awesome pictures and hopefully I will be able to upload them sometime soon! They really are wonderful!

 My favorite animal- THE LION! 

Someone was hungry!!!!

David, Chris, Armand, and I ate a delicious sushi lunch back at the Cape Town waterfront and then took care of some computer issues at the mall.

It was our last night in Cape Town L No one wanted to leave! We met at Mitchels and then headed to Mercury (something cool from the West Coast- called dub step (sp?) was playing).  

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Today Joellen and I walked around the Green market and just took in the sights of Cape Town one last time before heading back to the boat. We sat at a café and people watched for a while.

When we pulled away from Cape Town tonight I really almost cried. It was such a wonderful few days! I loved every minute of it!!!

I can’t believe we are already leaving Africa. It is going by too fast. I am looking so forward to the other countries, but I don’t want this trip to be over. I have loved the traveling we have done so far. Figuring out train stations and working past language barriers, it is all so new, but so exciting!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE SOUTH AFRICA!