Give Us Us Free!!
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2007
1
11
20
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
Cape Town,
South Africa
Thursday, November 22, 2007
When: November 21st, 2007 - night
Point of Entry: V&A Waterfront at a posh sushi and tapas bar & restaurant called Haiku.
Gale force winds kept me up all night last night. It was incredibly loud. It felt like there was a hurricane passing right outside our apartment door. The running themes for our trip thus far are "not enough sleep" and "late morning starts." Last night was no exception. Who can blame us. We've crossed many time zones, have logged countless hours of travel time, and walked the entire diameter of the earth. Twice!!. Ok, maybe I'm being a bit dramatic with that last part. But my feet and legs would tell you otherwise.
We woke up to a rainstorm - very unusual for a South African summer. And the first thing that came to my mind was that youtube song, "Chocolate Rain." Hahaha - I have no idea why it was in my head but Angela didn't much appreciate the sound of my non existent mocked baritone voice singing it while she was still trying to sleep.
It was pouring lions & elephants outside - and it was cold and windy. I guess we brought the London/Paris weather with us. But, we tried not to let it get us down. We thought about taking a few tours. But since we got such a late start, there wasn't much we could do. Besides, the things we were interested in depended on calmer weather. All ferries to Robben Island were cancelled and so were all shark cage diving excursions. Sandboarding was also out of the question, obviously. So, we decided to be a couple of nerds and visit the museums.
We went to this historic and recently restored Slave Lodge. It was built when Johannesberg was first settled. It was pretty interesting to learn that the slaves weren't all Africans. I learned that Asians from India, Indonesian, and China were also enslaved during this time. Crazy!! There was this mock slave ship exhibition in the museum that really moved me. The harsh conditions that these slaves endured was horrific. It gave me a small glimpse of what Seinke might have been feeling. No wonder he was so passionate when he stood in front of the supreme court and yelled out, "Give us us free!!"
Now we are at some tapas & sushi restaurant. We are soooo under-dressed. Hahah, everyone's in proper clothing while we're in sweats. Haha. Fuck it - what are you going to do, right? Anyway the food was fantastic. Best food we've had during this entire trip.
Not much else to report about today. It was a much needed day of recovery. Tomorrow, we're hunting penguins and baboons.
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