Cape Town - My New Favourite City!

  Cape Town, South Africa
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

After leaving Allison in Nairobi, I flew to Cape Town and got in on the Wednesday Night - fairly late, so just hit the sack as soon as I got there.  It's so weird to think I was only there for 5 days or so - I had such an amazing time and met some really great people, it felt like I'd been there for soooo much longer!  But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Before I start, I have to say how much I marvelled at being in a developed city again!  Clean streets, running water, reliable electricity (while the Panari obviously had all of this in Nairobi, it was a new experience to get it all around you!).  The first day I grabbed breakfast at a nice cafe and then headed down to the Cape Town waterfront, famous for its restos and shopping.

Cape Town Harbour Front

It was absolutely beautiful - a gorgeous harbour, western stores, great food, it was exactly what I needed!  I toured around the harbour for a while - a bunch of German naval ships were docked and open to the public (yes, that's right, German Sailors IN uniform ON their ship and only too happy to help me cross the gangway...sigh) so I went through most of those (the SHIPS!)

German Ships

and then headed to the Waterfront Mall for some shopping (my version of a cigarette I suppose...sigh). 

I picked up a new pair of sunglasses (the only real shopping I'd done in about 6 weeks if you can believe it!) and a few other things (although I found it impossible to replace my iPod charger- there'd been a run on them or something!).  I grabbed lunch (SALAD!!  Without having to worry about asking for a bowl of vinegar to soak it in!) and then wandered the city for a while.  It turns out that I'd actually gotten there for the end of Pride so walked around that for a bit and then headed back to the hostel to freshen up before dinner.

I was sitting in the hostel bar (FABULOUS hostel by the way) and ended up chatting with some english peeps (Charlie, Kelly and Craig to be exact) and ended up hitting it off with them - which started three nights of fairly limitless partying and debauchery (don't worry mother/father, nothing TOO crazy).  We ended up at a bar that first night and had a blast, then hit the beach at Camp's Bay the next day.

Camp's Bay

Okay, this is where I have to point out one thing that I both loved and hated about Cape Town - the people.  They are SO unbelievably attractive, I spent the entire time feeling rather drab and shabby and began breaking most of the mirrors I could get my hands on.  I'm not sure if it's a requirement for citizenship, or if all the world's beauties simply gravitate there - regardless, the population was one constant stream of human perfection.  The beaches were an especial hotbed for such modelesque examples - which provided for a most enjoyable distraction while sunbathing (beneath the largest towel I could find of course).  The four of us spent most of our time there gaping.  

Camp's Bay was great - we had an awesome lunch and the beach was beautiful - exactly what you'd picture of a beach paradise.  That night we went up to the top of Table Mountain, one of Cape Town's most famous landmarks, and saw one of the most amazing sunsets to my memory.

Me with ocean in background

We were facing right over where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet and had breathtaking views as the sky gradually turned to orange, pink, and then purply/dark blue. 

Dangling our legs over the edge

Then we had this AMAZING fresh seafood meal just nearby (for any of you going, Codfather's is a must - it's like a fish market and they can do these huge platters of all kinds fish!  We had this amazing Blue Marlin and Tuna that had been caught that day!).  Of course the evening didn't finish there - as soon as we were back in the Hostel we started it up again - good LORD!  We did though all manage to sign up for Shark Diving that next day.

The Nightmare - So we all went shark diving, all of us with a hangover.  At first we thought it wouldn't be a problem, especially after weathering the lengthy drive outside of Cape Town (about 2.5 hours to Gaansbai).  we boarded the ship and sailed through rather choppy seas to the point where they'd been baiting the sharks (I know, horribly unethical, but so it goes).  It was then that we realized the Hell we'd entered.  At first we all just felt somewhat queasy, then one by one the passengers (there were like 30 of us) started losing their lunch overboard.  I thought I'd hold it in - nope, lost it, 3 times.  Actually, I only lost it twice over the boat, the third time was while I was IN the shark cage, and since I didn't want to spray my fellow divers, I had to do it underwater - I shit you not, I was throwing up UNDERWATER!  So went my nightmare!  We all kept asking ourselves why we had paid so much to torture ourselves - and we still had to sit out there for an hour and then ride the waves back!!!

Suffice to say, we were happy to see land - although we did see 8 sharks (one of them was a 3 metre great white, so totally worth it!)

Shark Diving

.  For the next day we'd signed up for the wine tour, so of course we had determined we weren't going to drink that night....or at least not much....or at least be home by 2...of course none of that happened and we ended up missing the thing the next morning, only to end up on the beach again. Actually I almost didn't make it to the beach - you see, we were ALL supposed to go on the wine tour, but when I got up to wake them, I could only find Kelly, who drowsily informed me they weren't likely going!  And I thought, if THEY weren't going to go, no way was*I* suffering through it!  So I promptly cancelled!  Anyway, around noon I heard a rather loud racket at my door - they only realized at the last minute I was still even there and so were kind enough to rouse me and drag me to the beach - which was of course in truth very much appreciated!  Clifton 2, as the beach was called, proved to be just as beautiful, if not as busy (although of course those that WERE there were PAINFULLY gorgeous!) as Camp's Bay.  We hung out there for the afternoon, then headed back to the Waterfront where we got dinner (and cocktails of course!) and just enjoyed the fresh air before heading back to the Hostel.  That LAST night was going to be just relazed chilling out in the hostel...maybe just a couple of drinks...okay the bar again...great, hungover to Singapore!

Final night out

While it was definitely a wild ride, it was an awesome one, and I gotta give kudos to the two english ladies and the one gent who let this Canadian tag a long (I really hope you guys eventually made it out of Cape Town!).  Cape Town was an amazing city - I apologize for going on so long about it, but I just had just a blast.  I most certainly will be returning there soon - and I'm going to make it to the Wine Tour this time!