Day 1
Well today started out like any other day that we pull into port. First everybody wants to get up early to watch the sunrise at like 6 but I was fully content on sleeping in my bed. But when 6 or so rolled around we opened up the shade to discover that we couldn’t see anything because a thick fog was covering everything. When the normal breakfast came and went we discovered that because of the fog they had closed Cape Town harbor. So to make the best of the situation I jumped back into bed until 11. The voice then announced that they were going to be serving lunch early so with nothing else to do we went down to the dining hall. Because the engines were turned off the waves were throwing everybody around. There were many dishes broken at lunch that day. The fog did lift and we docked in Cape Town and were able to get off the ship at 130. Steve, Emily, Chris and I then ventured downtown to visit the castle of good hope. It was old... (Like any fort) and we got to walk the ground for while. We started the walk back and wanted food so we saw a pizza place and went there. Even though we told them we didn’t have that much time they were still kind of slow… we had a banana and bacon pizza. Actually it was really good. It seems that all of us are on a banana craze here…everything is about bananas…banana milkshake, crepes, ice cream, cake, soup….you name it.. ok so Emily and Steve had to do a Township music thing at 5 so we didn’t get a chance to walk around downtown anymore. We walked back to the ship on the waterfront. In search of an internet café me and Chris went into the clock tower mall… we didn’t find one of those but we did spot Teresa, jess and Cindy shopping. Together as a whole gaggle we went to the other mall the Victoria waterfront mall. We headed strait to the Pick and Pay (supermarket in the mall) were I bought myself a south African sim card from Vodacom 27-021-055-1445 if you ever wanted to call me in South Africa….yes….umm yeah oh and Chris also bought the girls roses because it was Valentines day in all. Since big groups are not that cool in all we broke up and even though I already ate I went to the panekoek huis with Teresa and Jess. We talked and whatnot...oh so very exciting. I can’t remember exactly but I think I might have gone back to the mall but I know I returned to the ship early. I talked to my mom and went to sleep….
Day 2
To keep up with tradition I got up with the groupies and ate breakfast at 730. The group left around 830 to venture out and to climb up Table Mountain. I wanted to go abseiling down Table Mountain (repelling) but when I called to make appointment at 9 I found out that because of the wind the cable car was not working at the time. We had bought tickets to Robben Island the day before for 2 so I didn’t know if I would have enough time to have to wait for the wind, go there come back and still make it so I just told the lady that I would climb tomorrow at 230. With oodles of time on my hands what else did I do but go to the mall that is just a block away… so for about 4 hours I pillaged that mall. There was this sweet store that sold clothes from up and coming designers for relatively cheap prices. I bought some crap there…umm I also went to the diesel and miss sixty stores… I was under the impression that everything in Cape Town was about the same price as things in America but actually things are slightly cheaper. I was walking around the 2nd level of the mall and I spotted a sign for sushi…I had a craving so I went for it…so alone I had a sushi lunch in cape town with a view of table mountain…crazy I know. I got Kappa maki the uge for R12 which is 2 dollars yeah cheaper than the US. The whole lunch for was like R50 with tip which is like 8 dollars…two kappa makis, French fries and a coke …yeah still amazes me. So after that I went back to the ship with all my purchases to meet up with the crew to go to Robben Island. We met up and walked over to the boat landing. The trip over to Robben Island was pretty uneventful so I actually fell asleep…we got to robben island and were then put onto buses to tour the island. They drove us around the city. People actually live on the island also. It’s not that big though.. maybe 7 miles? If I remember correctly? We got to hop and get a photo op.. Then they take us to the limestone quarry where they made the inmates carry loads of limestone back and forth around the island. It was supposed to demoralize them. After that they dropped us off at the maximum security section of the prison where a former inmate was our guide. I got to see Nelson Mandela’s cell and our guide showed us his cell.. I forgot his name…but he was at Robben Island for five years from 16-21 because he was a student protestor. He is one of what South Africans call the lost generation because during this time many people did not receive proper education in the apartheid system. Because we were the last tour of the day we really didn’t get to see the penguins that roam the island and we actually had to run to not miss the ferry going back to the cape. Now going back was a little bumpier. So because of the salt spray I went inside to sit down but after 10 min people were starting to get sea sick….not cool. I was sitting there then the husband of the lady I was sitting next to got a sick bag from the holder and I knew that was my cue to get out of there…none of that. So I braved the salt spray outside. After a half hour very exciting ride we were back at the dock. The crew met up with Jess and we were on the hunt for dinner. We looked in the lonely planet and made a reservation for the African café. We walked there and that took like 45min. The Africa café is a really cool restaurant. It’s a set meal so you go and order drinks then they bring out all these different dishes from all around Africa. It was family style eating and you could reorder as much as you want. During the meal they also came to the different rooms and sang and danced for us. It was a ton of fun and we talked forever… We were there for about 3 hours…told ya it took us awhile. We didn’t want to walk the “scary” walk back and I had my camera on me so we grabbed a taxi back to the ship. We said our goodbyes and I went back to my room… I also talked on the phone…that’s a given…
Day 3
Today was one very long day……..
I woke up uber early again…see the trend….umm delish…ok so I got ready and my trip left around 830 for a township tour. Our tour was going to the Khayelisha Township on the outskirts of Cape Town. Townships are basically squatter villages that people have built from whatever supplies that they can find. The government is trying to help to get people into permanent housing but that takes a very long time so the townships remain. In the townships people have access to electricity that they pay for by a purchasing system, sanitation and water…that’s it..It’s very basic but cool to see what people have done with what they have. So we first went to the craft market where people have made stuff from different things like art from pop cans and jewelry, this way we are helping the people in the community directly. After we stopped by a school and gave stickers to the kids. We also visited a bed and breakfast that was started by one woman in her community and her idea has now spread to other women in the township. There were also a lot of people just sitting around in the township and we learned that the unemployment in South Africa is thirty to forty percent…so people just can’t find work to do. it’s a endless cycle. One interesting place we did get to go was a work project where women get to bring their children and while they are there they make rugs and when they sell they get the profit. I did buy a really awesome placemat from the women.. Wish I could have bought more but I had absolutely no more money on me…. So we went to the last bed and breakfast and had cookies there…so we finally loaded the bus up and went back to the ship…this is at 130 they were holding the ship lunch until we got there but I had no time for that snazzy so I packed my crap and left in like 15 min for my abseiling appointment on table mountain. I took a taxi there for like 15 dollars and bought myself a return ticket on the cable car up to the top. I got up there only like 5 min late and walked on over to the abseil umbrella. So I paid the money and the guys gave me a quick 2 min lesson in abseiling (repelling) I really should think that people need more training than that…I survived though…umm yeah then they hooked me on a lead rope and I had to climb over the side and down some boulders to get to the take off point. At this time I had started some sort of following and I had a audience watching me fall off of the face of the earth…exciting. They allowed me to look over the edge (sheer drop) and I was like “cool” they found it very entertaining that I was so calm about the whole deal. I mean it was fun but after skydiving and hang gliding I don’t know it just wasn’t as scary. plus I’m not that afraid of heights…so I started walking down the cliff and I noticed that I was the only one going and I asked “ are you guys coming with me” and they were like … it’s all you …there will be somebody at the bottom…uh that’s reassuring… so I just repelled down some 350 feet. The views were crazy and it was a clear and sunny day. Oh and they told me that there would be a surprise for me later on. Well the whole surprise was that all of a sudden there was a indent? In the rock so I was just sitting there letting myself down the rope for the last half. I don’t know how long it took but probably around 10-15 min or so. So I got to the bottom and the guy was like now you have to walk back up… ok…..his exact words were “just keep going to the left” sure….i mean there was a little leeway but this wasn’t a little hill it was a mountain…with dangerous cliffs…lol so I started my “25 min” hike back up the mountain alone… there was somewhat a path but it was hard to see at times. All I had was my throw-away camera and my bottle of water….and the beating sun. so hot….I was glad that I decided to wear pants because otherwise I would have had scratched all over my legs. I finally did find the top after quite a hike of a hour….the whole thing was quite an adventure. I went to the gift store and ended up spotting a fellow yearbook photographer. She was with some friends that decided to climb tb and were just arriving. So I stuck with them and ended up sharing a taxi back to the ship. This would put me around 530 or 6. I think I laid down for a few mins but the call of the mall was too strong so I left to go to the mall. As I was leaving I spotted Cindy who was also going to the mall so with some girls we went to the pick and pay. This is around the time that I also made the decision to go on a safari and I made the reservation 10 min before they closed not knowing anybody who was going to go on it….so the stores closed and we went to a sports bar/restaurant on the waterfront. I wasn’t that hungry so I got some chips (French fries) and we talked for quite a while and watched some of the Olympics on the tvs. We left the bar prob around 1130 and returned to our floating home…I talked on the phone…and went to bed around 2….see told ya it was a long day…..
Day 4
Not long after I laid my head down to sleep my alarm was going off at 530 to get up for my day safari. I walked down the gangway towards the meeting point and I spotted some SAS people I asked them if they were going on the safari and they were so I walked with them. The van was supposed to be there at 6 and they were actually there we pilled in and sat there for like 30min we waited.. There were some other people (non sas) who were like window shopping outside but then they eventually got into the van… I don’t get it were we waiting for them? So “late” we left Cape Town for the 2 ½ hour drive outta town. We pasted the wine lands and mountains. I fell asleep for maybe 1 hour but the ac was soooo cold that I couldn’t really fall asleep. You know that feeling. WE arrived and they offered us juices…we went striate to the buffet breakfast hat they were serving. The safari was on a game reserve so it’s not the wild but the reserve was very large and the animals can roam freely around. ON the reserve was the lodge/hotel and restaurant. After breakfast we loaded up into the safari truck. We drove around a very bumpy dirt road in search of animals…. I saw hippos, giraffe, springbock (deer things), wildebeest, ostrich, zebra (far away), rhino, and lions…I was like 15 feet away from a lion….ohhhh so after a fun drive and very educational too J we returned to the lodge we were served lunch and had a ½ hour or so before our van was gong to pick us up again to bring us back to cape town. They had a cheetah area in the reserve so I went there and was able to pet a cheetah that was lying down…they are the fastest land animal crazy. This is nearing 2pm and since it’s in the middle of nowhere with no shade it’s like a billion degrees I swear African hot.. At least in Cape Town you get a wind from the ocean not here…just hot. So the van arrives and we take off not without me forgetting my jacket on the desk in the lodge…I tell the driver before we totally left and we turn around….seriously….uhh.. All drama aside we start the drive again with a full van…where did these extra people come from??? This time it’s different and instead of being uber cold it’s uber hot….. But I fall asleep anyway for like a hour and then watch the scenery for while. My mom calls and I talk to her until we arrive in Cape Town. I walked back to the ship and was there for a couple of hours but in the end I went back to the mall again. It really was a cool place. I brought my film and waited as it was developing. Because I knew that I didn’t have that much time left I did some last min shopping and exchanged some money. I ran to the store just as the mall was closing luckily they let me get my photos…J and I went to get some gelato and headed outside. I was sitting there listening to the group of singers when Steve comes up to me from behind and I was surprised so he was with some people and I went and sat with them. We went back into the mall and I ended up getting a slice of pizza. Steve and I needed to use the internet so we went back to the ship to get out thumb drives and then went to the internet café for a while. I uploaded some pics and looked at Kari’s pics of Europe! I can’t wait to see Paris, was it a easy city to get by with absolutely no French skills? I hope so…. Umm yeah we left and went back to the ship…talked I think and went to bed….
Day 5
Here starts off our exciting Stellenboch adventure.
As a group we woke up early and ate breakfast together in the dining room. We gathered ourselves together down at the gangway and waited for everybody to get together for our taxi. While we waited we watched the new cruise boat and all the hoop laa that accompanied them. They had musicians and what not but one thing that was hilarious was that everybody on the ship had to at least be 75…. We nicknamed it the sail till you die cruise…I saw many a walkers….. So we waited and waited and even had to send Steve out to find Chris who was late….We went into the van and declared because he was late that Chris had to sit on the ground we had like 10 people in the car. We were on our way when all of a sudden our driver took the exit to the township…we were like what’s going on? He said that he was going to change drivers…imagine the look on our faces…it was great… so we changed drivers and we asked if he know the way to the town and he said that he did. So after 30min or so we arrive in Stellenboch. It’s a cute little wine/college town…just a cute little city with little shops in what not…well our “expert” driver had to stop like 3 times to ask directions to our hostel…uhh yeah. We couldn’t check in yet but we could leave our bags. We split our group in half and Emily, Steve, Kaitie, Rebecca and I went to the tourist info to find a place to rent bikes…to bike to a winery we found out that because of our time crunch we really didn’t have the time to rent bikes and bike around. We opted for a taxi ride. By the tour guy recommendation we went to this one afdfjdkje (German sounding name) it was really pretty and Emily, Becca and Steve did a wine tasting.. Kaitie and I watched because we think wine is disgusting….we also walked around the grounds a bit. The group ended up shipping some wine back home (we can’t bring alcohol on the ship). The whole thing lasted about an hour. We hoped back into our pimp ride off to Spier where our restaurant was. The place was really cool. It was outside and you could eat under tents or in tree houses (platforms) we ate in the trees. They had buffet and I got to try ostrich, antelope, buffalo, and springbock. I think I liked the antelope the best. They had really good deserts there also….fresh raspberries…..back on track.. Right next door was another winery so we did another wine tasting. This time kaitie and I said we had to try some.. We could get 5 different wines. We would try a sip of one…say it tasted like urine and give it to Emily (she loves wine) we tried 3 until we said we reached our limit and quit. Really guys wine is soooo uber disgusting…ick..ok at least I’ll never become a wino. We were going to go to another winery but they were beginning to close (it was a Saturday) so we opted to go back to the hostel. We check in find a guy sleeping in our room with a Speedo on (that’s just Baxter we later learn long story…) there are like 10 people in a room but yeah..ok we hang around until the group reunites with dinner plans. We start walking downtown and wanted to go to on café but end up at another. I ordered a grilled cheese with tomato comes with fries and it was only R21 which is like 3.50 yeah uber cheap… we eat then we went to Denim and Diamonds a bar…at 9. it really want’ that busy so yeah and they were playing really old 90’s music. It starts to pick up and we dance a bit but it wasn’t that exciting. We leave around 1130. Some people want to look for another bar but in the end everybody just goes back to the hostel. I slept on the top bunk with Kaitie right next to me and we started laughing at the situation …the giddy laughs…you know them…had to be there….but we decided that we need to make t-shirts that say “I survived Stellenboch SAS 2006”, and Huis Chuffy on the back…yeah….good times
Day 6
I wake up in my crazy Huis Chuffy (name of our house we were staying in) and get ready in 10 min. I say goodbye to everybody and hop in the taxi with 3 others back to Cape Town (8am) we make it back relatively quickly. I dump my snazz all over the room and hurry to get ready for my day of sand. I walk the 15 min to the pick up spot and wait for the shuttle from downhill adventures. This is when I find out that last nigh the entire western cape had a giant power outage and everything doesn’t’ work lol…exciting. I wait till like 945 but the transport is a no go (trip is sub to leave at 10) so I grab a taxi to the store. It wasn’t that much like $5. I get to the store to discover that the van to go and pick up people hasn’t even left yet so I really didn’t have anything to worry about…American me…lol thinking that people would leave on time… so I waited till they picked up other SAS people. I did know somebody on the trip and another girl from the U of M. So off to the sand dunes we went. The dunes would have been a amazing sight if it wasn’t cloudy/foggy and rainy. The rain especially made sand boarding difficult because of the wet sand you can’t really go that fast. Sand boarding is basically snowboarding on sand…same board and boots the only difference is that you have to wax your board every time you go down and climbing up the hill with a board (and no chairlift) is changeling. I never really did fall down though. One plus was when you did fall, it didn’t’ really hurt at all. I thought it was an amazing experience but even with the cold I would rather snowboard than sand board….too much energy to sand board. After we finished…all sandy in all…ohh and I scratched my lcd on my little camera from the sand. Didn’t think of it at the time…good thing I didn’t ring my good camera along. Ahh hem after we finished everybody went to the beach to try surfing well I did something else…tell you later… and I returned to the beach when everybody was finishing up surfing.. One funny thing is that today was the only really cloudy/cold day in Cape Town and this was the day that I had to go sand barding…well I did originally want to go on Monday but they weren’t doing any trips so I had to change my plants and go on Sunday… with the cold/clouds and along with the chilly water drifting up from Antarctica the ocean was a balmy 48 or so degrees. Everybody had to wear full body suits and still they were cold….not surfing a good idea…but they said it was a blast... I’ll have to take their word for it. Once they cleaned up Scott (our Downhill adventures guide) dropped us off at the waterfront. This was prob around 5ish. I went back to the ship and right after I got back Emily returned from her operation hunger trip. By consensus everybody (when I say everybody usually I mean Emily, Steve and kaitie) were hungry so we consulted the wise lonely planet no results and agreed on a waterfront venue…Lei Lei the girl I was in Rio with called and I invited her to dinner too.. Josh the ship photographer also came with us. We were going to go to Den akur but they were fully booked for the night so we went to the green dolphin right next door. We sat outside and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. We ate and talked for awhile. The bill took a while to come and we were still debating what to do for desert some wanted this or that. So Steve and lei lei left the group and the four of us moved into a inside table to eat desert and listen to the live jazz that they were playing. We found out that we had to pay a cover charge for eating inside (4 dollars) so we sat there until the guy was done. One guy in the band had an authentic mullet heck yes…ok so we were there for a total of like 4 hours lol… We returned and I ended up getting dragged back out to a bar but the one was closed and we collected people along the way so I just slipped back to the ship secretly J I took a shower and talked on the cell.. Emily had some family issues so I didn’t get to bed until 4 ….whatever happened to sleep?????
Day 7
The last day in Cape Town was my only day that wasn’t chalk full of plans. So I woke up late 945 (yea that’s uber late around here remind you that I went to sleep at 4) and met Kate (from St. Thomas) and kaitie for breakfast at Harry’s pancakes (actually crepes) we had a fun banana filled breakfast. After the fact Kate was going to go to the hospital (not for her self to visit the kodomotachi) and me and kaitie ventured into downtown. We went to Green Market which is a market with “African” goods…ya know souvenirs so I bought some stuff there and we continues walking around a bit. Kaitie needed to find a bookstore and a fabric store so we found them. This one bookstore had a ton of magazine…like the most in one area ever…so we were trying to find another bookstore but ended up on the main road so we gave up that idea and just walked back to the ship. We were planning to go to a museum around the area but it closed early so that was a no go. Just had to add that in lol… I took like a whole 15 min nap or so and Emily returned we waited some more and then Emily, Kaitie and I were going back out for a last dinner in Cape Town. We agreed to go to the same restaurant that I had my sushi in the second day (because it was relatively cheap and quick). I again had some kappa and we ate our last South African dinner with Table Mountain in the background. We even took a picture (how touristy of us) this was nearing 7pm and onboard ship time was 9. Emily and Kaitie wanted to go back so I said I would stay and finish up my shopping needs. I went to a couple of stores in the mall and on the waterfront. I walked past the restaurant that was infested with SAS students drinking fish bowls (a whole bowl of alcohol) it was insane…..and snapped some shots of Cape Town at dusk. I got on the ship around 8ish (no line at this time) and took my last steps in South Africa. I had to hurry to get all my receipts together, vat tax return on purchases, and since I saved everyone I had a ton…lady said it was the most she saw so far lol…and ran up to the deck to watch people in line. We saw this one guy puke like 5 times in line…seriously guys drinking is soooo much fun huh? But other than that the line was pretty uneventful. There just was a lot of overall drunkenness abounding around the ship. We had singers come and sing some songs for us before we left. We were supposed to leave at 11 but we come to find that it was actually 3am ok…so me and Emily gave up and went to bed. My mom calls me (4 I don’t remember what time) and I barely remember what she said but we weren’t’ that far off from the coast so my cell still worked….and it actually did the next morning for a bit. Other that that that’s the anti-climatic end to my Jam-packed story of South Africa.
Again here I find my self. Sorry that this update took quite some time to find itself on the internet. Well as it turns out because of the fact that I flat out worked myself too hard in Cape Town or I think I caught some crazy cold from the estudiantes…I was sick. It wasn’t too bad but for one day I slept a lot…I just didn’t feel too good. One good note is that even though it’s been rocky this leg I really haven’t felt seasick… maybe my general sickness is taking that over…who knows.. So I really haven’t accomplished that much this crossing. I kind of stared a Amazing Race groupie following and now they are addicted …. We don’t have that many episodes left. That’s fun …I’m sad that I’m missing the real amazing race that should be premiering any time now. When I post this should still be Adria’s birthday…so adria have a wonderful 21st and don’t be too stupid if you know what I mean….:) other than that I should be studying for a global studies test that is tomorrow…We loose another hour tonight so I’ll then be 10 hours ahead of central time. I also need to figure exactly what I’m doing in Mauritius…maybe get into contact with the people that are going to the Taj.. Among everything else…school work…bleh…. Again I miss you guys and I’ll be in Mauritius in like 1 ½ lol…. Have fun in the States!
Oh and by the way I don’t really read over my entries so if they have mistakes live wit it!
This is the picture from my friend's room of the tower..
cheap euro wine.....yumm monoprix
What a sweet place...Cambodia rules!!
Me at Angkow WAt!
Another great pic
This is me at the Great Wall!!
This is me and my university friends i made in beijing and nicole from the ship
