Cape Town, South Africa March 31-April 4

Cape Town, South Africa! Probably one of my favorite ports overall. I stepped outside and knew in the first 5 minutes that I would love it here. I immediately wanted to move to South Africa. It was just absolutely beautiful. It was also the fist port where I didn’t have a ton of SAS things. I only had one SAS trip and it was the first day. Anyway….

The first morning I woke up and usually it takes awhile to clear the boat but we literally we allowed off right away. We were docked in a port like Hong Kong where there was literally a shopping mall right there. Abby and I had a trip to one of the many townships. Townships are full of people who were kicked out of their homes during the apartheid. They were moved to this collective “slums.”

Our trip was at one so we had about 3 hours or so to walk around. We were told it was not safe to walk from the harbor to the city and so we decided to stay in the V and A Waterfront and do a little shopping. This place was like Shelter Harbor in Hilton Head. It had some really small cultural shops and a ton of food. The only difference was that it had a huge shopping mall. It had live music in the middle of the streets as well…although not as good as Shannon Tanner of course haha.

At one we met up with our trip and headed to Khayelitsha Township. This is the largest township in South Africa and has about 2 million people. We get there and we are taken to this small stone building and inside there are little knick knacks that the people of the township made. They had some men playing the wooden xylophones greeting us. We were there for less than 5 minutes before the kids started to swarm. I went outside to hang with them. They were adorable and we started dancing to the music. It was great! Ahhh, I love kids. Haha

We got back on the bus and were driving to this other area in the township. We walked into this “courtyard”—and I use that term lightly because it was a small green field with a little playground and some rooms. It was home to the Philani project. We were shown around and we walked into this room with a bunch of looms. These women use old cloth, old shirts and term them into rugs, bags, place mats, etc. We got to she them making these giant rugs. All the money goes to this organization. It was amazing. From there we walked over to the school. There were only about 5 kids there because it was Easter and a lot of parents kept them at home (meaning down the dirt street). I sat down and played with these two boys who were just unbelievably adorable.

From there we headed to Vicky’s B and B. As we walked down the dirt streets and past these houses made of wood and whatever they could find, kids started swarming again. We hung out with them until we were being summoned inside the B and B. Each township has several bed and breakfasts so that travelers can stay and really get the feel of the township. I went back down to play with the kids a little more. The one thing that is the same in every country we’ve been is that children love cameras and love seeing themselves on the screen. They would ask for you o take there picture and then grab a your arms to see it.

From there we left and headed to a different B and B. We walked in and there were some tables set up for us. They served us some snacks. I can’t remember the name of the one type of food but it was essentially deep fried dough. It was amazing and a popular South African food. We also had muffins and these unbelievable apple pastries. YUM. The lady who ran this B and B went on to tell us about how she ended up there. Her story was great. The one thing I always say is that everything leads back to Pittsburgh…and it really does. She was telling us about her life, how she was kicked out of her home and sent to live in a township, and how she went to the U.S. to work with organizations that help South Africa and what not…and of course of the places she worked was in Pittsburgh. Abby and I cracked up. What were the odds? She also worked in Chicago and some other places in the states but ended up coming back and opening a bed and breakfast in the largest township in South Africa. I got her card because Abby and I really wanted to stay over one of the nights because we didn’t really have too much planned.

Along with the delicious snacks they showed us around their section of the township. And of course as soon as we stepped outside the kids swarmed…not that I’m complaining. We walked down the street until we hit this fence where there was this big open field where there were a bunch of kids playing. As we walked around the area the kids were told to stay across the street…did they listen…no haha. They would come running and just jump on your back. One kid brought me to the ground. It was pretty funny.

It was a great day. We headed back to the ship and met up with everyone and headed out to the shopping area to go to a bar. We went to this place called Mitchell’s. We had a few drinks and then everyone wanted to go to this street called Long Street. I wasn’t feeling too well and heard to be carful at night so I went back to the ship.

The next morning Abby and I wanted to Robben Island and to hike Table Mountain. We stopped by the ticket desk the day before and Robben Island tours were sold out until the day we left :(, which kind of sucked. We woke up and got this cab driver named Abi to take us to Table Mountain for what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike. It was the hottest day and I foolishly did not get up for breakfast because I wanted 30 more minutes of sleep. The first 20-30 minutes I was booking it and then all of a sudden I got extremely nauseous, light headed and miserable. I downed a ton of water, which I, of course, didn’t bring enough of. After we stopped once we stopped every minute for like 5 minutes. It took us forever and we were delusional. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do…harder than the Great Wall for sure…and I never thought I’d say that. It was a straight up shot. It was rough. It took us 3 long, hot hours. The funny thing is the day before other friends of ours told us the top was a cold HA. It was hot which made the walk even harder. At one point we took off our shirts and hiked up in our sports bras. Despite the long excruciating hike the view was unbelievable. Absolutely breathtaking. You felt like you were in heaven.

After we took pictures for about 30 minutes we took the gondola back down to the base. We were looking for a place to eat and about 15 minutes away was a beautiful bay/beach area called Camps Bay. There were a ton of restaurants right on beach. We went to this nice restaurant and ate outside. I had some amazing garlic butter prawns. Earlier that day we book this “booze cruise” on a pirate ship. Ya, a pirate ship. It was called the Jolly Roger and the crew was hysterical. Clearly the captain was trying to be like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean (the way he talked and moved) except he was super funny and kept cracking really good short jokes. One was…he asked me my name so I told him and he was like “that’s a long name for such a short girl.” We had a glass of champagne and relaxed as we watched the sun set. On the way back to the harbor I got to steer the ship. It was so cool! After that Abby and I went to get some food in the waterfront. We were in Cape Town during a huge Jazz Festival and since we couldn’t get tickets to the thing we thought we would go to this restaurant that had some jazz. There wasn’t much I would eat except prawns so we sat down and I ordered that…not knowing they were out of season…uh oh. I ended up paying about 50-60 dollars for prawns I could have gotten at different restaurant for less. I was a little mad that they didn’t tell me before hand but oh well…I mean they were delicious. After dinner we headed back to the ship to get a good nights rest because in the morning we were…shark cage diving!!!!

Abby, Patty, Mem and I had to be up and ready at 5 to head out to go shark diving. We got picked up a little late and then started driving for 2 hours until we got to the one spot. Everyone passed out in the car. It was about 12 Semester at Sea students and 4 other people in Cape Town on travel. We got there and they gave us a little breakfast, a run down and then we were set to go. We went out on to a 36 foot boat. There were in total about 25 of us and everyone had to get a wet suit, cap, goggles, and booties on. While we were getting ready they threw out the chum to try and lure the sharks near. Then we would get into the cage and hold on. The leader would then tell us to take a deep breath and go under the water to see the shark passing by. The water was freezing…about 56 degrees Fahrenheit. The first group got a really good look at a shark. Each group got to go under a few times. I was in the second group and we probably had the worst luck. We must have been in the water for 45 minutes to an hour and only saw the shark about 1 and a half times. The first time we went under the shark was on our left, which was where I was located in the cage so I got to see it quickly while it turned around and went to the back of the boat. Then we sat for like 30 some minutes until we got to see another. The visibility is really bad and therefore you can barely see the shark until it is really close. The second and last time we got to see the shark it literally came right towards the cage and then turned at the last second. The tailfin almost hit the part of the cage I was situated in. It was so cool. Yet, it happened so fast I only remember a flash of it all. The rest of the groups got really amazing chances to see these sharks…my group, unfortunately, not so much. But you could go to the top and get really fantastic pictures as the shark went after the chum.

After we were done they served us some lunch as they showed us the footage the videographer took. I ended up buying the disc and it is pretty awesome. Then they took us back to the ship and Abby, Patty, and I met up with Katie got some food at this Italian restaurant in the waterfront and then we went back to the bars there. We went to Ferryman’s, which was right next to Mictchell’s because they had some live music…and I say that loosely. They were like an overpriced karaoke group. They sounded so bad it was hysterical. On top of that you had these really drunk women dancing and it was sooo funny. We were cracking up. Katie actually tapped the girl and we named her Roxie and her friend Linda. After the bad band was done we went over to Mitchell’s for another drink and some food. The four of us went back to the ship fairly early and passed out. On the first day Abby and I set up a tour of Cape Point and the winelands with a group called Mile by Mile and we had to be up and ready at 9.

Abby and I got up the next morning to prepare for our full day tour of Cape Point. There was a marathon going on until 2 in the afternoon so they had to reverse our schedule and instead of seeing Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope first, we went to Stellenbosch—the winelands. First we went to this one winery called Zeven…which was not located in Stellenbosch (which is the main area for wineries and wine tasting). Zeven…was beautiful. We sat down at like 10 and started having some wine. I actually really enjoyed myself. I don’t know if I could drink several glasses of wine but I actually liked most of the whites I had. They had these amazing cheese…oh my god…I inhaled them. After we were done with the tastings of two whites and two reds we got a tour and explanation of the facilities and the process of making wine. I really wanted to buy a ship a bottle home to the parents, you as a thank you for this trip, however because of state alcohol laws the winery couldn’t guarantee that it would actually get to them. They could guarantee that it would make it to the U.S but actually getting it through the state was another question. I bought one of the cheese…this 6 month aged cheddar cheese…so good. From there we went to this place called Spier, which was actually in Stellenbosch. It was also a winery but it wasn’t as good as others. However, it had a cheetah and bird reserve and for just a few rand you could pet and play with them. We only had the time to do one so of course Abby and I decided to pet the cheetahs. It was so cool! They would take you in some cages, have you wash your hands and feet, and then take you to the fenced in areas where the cheetahs were. They would then take pictures of you with the cheetahs. Lastly, we went to this last place called Tokara for one last wine tasting. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first. The first was more welcoming you sat down at a table and they were just nicer. Tokara was set up more like a bar, however I was a lot nicer and had a better view.

After the wine tasting we headed into the town of Stellenbosch. We drove past the university and some of the homes. Here they only speak Afrikaans and some English. We passed a beautiful church and synagogue. The area reminded me of Shadyside in that it had real artsy shops and small food stops as well as some big named places. The town was just absolutely gorgeous. They had some kiosk/stands outside so Abby and I did a little souvenir/gifts for people shopping. We got back into the car around one (with the other couple that was with us) and headed to Cape Point. Once we got back closer to the city we had lunch at this small bay area in Simons Town. It was delicious. After we ate we went to the Penguin Colony. These penguins were pretty much just chilling out on the Boulder’s Beach. They were gated off a bit so they didn’t escape but every now and then you saw a few in the parking lot. You could enter the gate and walk around and get pretty close. At one point I was only about a foot away from one. You did have to be careful because they built their nests in the sand. As we drove to Cape Point we went through these small towns areas like Camps Bay, Clifton Beach, Kalk Bay, and Muizenberg. We got to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We chose not to pay to take the bus up the mountain to the top of Cape Point but it was a gorgeous view either way and you could see the Cape of Good Hope. The Cape of Good Hope is the Southern most tip of Africa. Here is where you were supposed to be able to see the baboons. Sadly, I didn’t see them and that is all I really wanted to see :(. We got back into the van and headed back to the ship. We passed by Long Beach, which is the beach and area that had Monkey Houses and the worst tidal waves. It is the most dangerous beach because the tidal waves are so unpredictable. We also got to see Chapman’s Peak, which was amazing. As we drove under it our guide pointed out that they had to carve into the side of the mountain to create enough road space. It was barely held up by these columns. We stopped several times to take pictures; the views were breathtaking, especially the one stop we made to see Hout Bay. Lastly, we drove through Green Market Square and then headed back to the ship. It was a great day and we got to see and do absolutely everything!

We got back to the ship and met up with Austin, Kevin, Tyler, Rebecca and everyone else. Tyler went to bed while everyone else had planned to go out to Long Street. Now, I was avoiding Long Street as much as possible. We were warned about the city at night yet people still wanted to go even though there were perfectly good bars in the waterfront. Each night several people would come back with things stolen. One kids got his hands and knees torn up because he chased after a guy who pick pocketed him. Half the time it was people who weren’t even drunk. Whether or not they stole big things like phone and cameras or small things like money, IDs, and credit cards…it just wasn’t a headache I wanted to deal with. I had overheard Christina, a girl I work with at Pitt who is also on this trip, talking about going to the movies. She had invited me along and I told her I wasn’t sure what I was doing quite yet. And of course I ended up going to the movies. We saw the “Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. It was so awful it was funny. The script and the concept were just terrible but every now and then there was a funny one liner. I didn’t care how good or bad the movie was, it just felt so nice to be back in a theater with some popcorn and a drink. I got back at like 1 and got some stuff done. The rest of my gang who went to Long Street got back at 3. None of them got anything stole but nonetheless I’m glad it was a risk I didn’t take and I ended up having a blast with a different group of people.

The next day we woke up and planned to meet up with Austin and Kevin and all the other people who were back from their three day safaris. Austin, Kevin, Abby, and I did a little present shopping in the waterfront and then headed to this other huge mall called Center City Mall. It was absolutely massive. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary there…just like a normal shopping mall except it was gigantic. We walked around for a little and just hung out and had a good time. We noticed there was a small amusement park outside but we assumed it was closed because we couldn’t hear anything running and it was Easter day, but as we were driving away in our cab we saw that it was. We were kind bummed. As I’ve mentioned before Austin has smoked hookah in every country and he obviously couldn’t find any on his safari so he was determined to find some on the last day. Our driver from the day before told us about this place in Green Square Market called Cubana. We headed there for a few drinks and some hookah. We hung out for about 2 hours…didn’t do anything too special and then headed back to the waterfront because Kevin wanted to buy something else. We shopped around a little more and then got back on the ship in time to do tax refunds. Haha Overall, it was nice relaxing last day in Cape Town.