Day 11-13: Hermanus - Cape Town
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2004
1
5
57
Trip End
Jan 05, 2006
Where I stayed
Hermanus / Cape Town,
South Africa
Saturday, September 25, 2004
http:\\community.webshots.com\user\pauldwade
Just chilled in the Hermanus Backpackers on the Thurs afternoon and then caught the BazBus at about 8...arriving at Cat and Moose Backpackers at about 10. Seemed pretty quiet really, maybe everyone was out on the town. Staying in another 6 bed dorm :O( Oh well, thank god for earplugs, was knackered so pretty much went straight to bed.
Got up this morning (friday) about 9, showered, breakfast and finally got my stuff into a laundry service so I'll have nice clean fresh clothes again...not that I smelt or anything!!
Still seemed quite quiet, not many people around to chat too so will probably only stay one more night and then move on
Alex who I met in Cat and Moose
. Bought the SA gay mag this morning to try and find out where the bars are so might hit the town tonight, could be a busy one with it being Heritage Day (a public holiday) today.Unfortunately the weather ain't being too great today, it's raining, some of you may be pleased to hear that it ain't gorgeous sunshine everyday! ;O) Plus coz of the holiday many places are shut so it's all a bit quiet...we'll see what happens tonight!
So after writing the last bit I wandered of too a kind of healthy fast food place (salads and wraps and stuff) and in there I met a friendly German guy called Alex. We got to talking and found out that he was also staying in the same backpackers as me which is cool - turns out he was in the same dorm. Very easy guy to talk to and we got on pretty well, chatted for over an hour. He had also been travelling round SA with friends but the friends had gone somewhere else for the weekend so he was sticking around.
Ended up going out with Alex in the evening to a bar called Stones which has loads of pool tables, haven't played pool for ages but had a few good games, felt like a true lesbian! lol
Then we just wandered around a couple of other bars and ended up in the Long Street Cafe which is a kind of bar/cafe thing
Hot chocolate time
. Just sat and drank till about 1am...by the way, stuff is so cheap here - dunno if I've mentioned it but bottles of beer/cider are around £1 a bottle, you can have a good main meal for £2-3 and my rooms are costing anything from £7-19 per night depending on whether it's a dorm or private room...so it ain't expensive for me which is cool.Also decided to mention to Alex I was gay as he started talking about relationships and girlfriends and frankly I didn't wanna be making stuff up - he was cool, and he also said he'd have never guessed!!!! So there's proof that I am butch ;O) It was nice to have someone to chat to for the night and was glad that he wasn't bothered (and why should he be!).
So Saturday came and the weather had improved slightly this morning, more blue sky but there's often a cold wind so still need a jacket sometimes. Checked out of the Cat and Moose and moved down a few doors to the Carnival Court where I have a dorm for 2 nights then a single for one.
Yesterday I was wandering around the De Waterkant area which is kinda the gay village in CT and found a place called 'House of the Travellers' - it's basically a 5 star hostel, it's sooo nice inside, cream walls, chocolate leather sofas, white linen...just my kinda place and it's only £15 a night for my own single room!
This is where I'm ending up
! So I'm gonna move there on Tuesday and spend my last few days in CT there, it'll be dead handy coz it's right near all the gay bars so can safely stumble home and it'll be good to have a really nice place to come home too.Anyways, Alex and I went down to the Waterfront area this morning - after travelling round and seeing the real South Africa the Waterfront is about as hideously touristy as you can get. There was even a stage show going on and one of the songs was a cheesy 'Welcome to Cape Town' number....awful!! Had a wander round for a bit and then we caught a taxi down to a place called Camps Bay (no it's not the gay beach!!) - however the clouds had reappeared and it couldn't decide what to do but still a lovely place, beautiful white sand beach - took some piccies.
Have to say that Alex is the first travel buddy I've met on my way round who I'd like to think I'll stay in touch with, very easy to talk to and an all round good bloke. His English is great but I appear to have become his surrogate english teacher which is cool. He goes back to Germany next week but hopefully we'll stay in touch.
Also booked my Cape Peninsular tour today for Wednesday, should be cool - takes you all around the cape area on a driving/biking/hiking tour. Also thinking of doing a wine tour and township tour before I go. Might even rent a car for a couple of days just so I can get around and see all the other places in the area. Flight back to Joburg is also booked for Saturday so I get to experience a sat night in JBG too :O)
Anyways, that's it for now I think - tonight I'm meeting up with Alex for a few games of pool again and them I'm off to gayville :O) Fingers crossed ey!! ;O)
