100 km/h primary visit of the marvellous Cape Town

Trip Start Jun 29, 2008
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Trip End Aug 31, 2008


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Where I stayed
New Church Street Backpackers Hotel
(Cape Town hotels)

Flag of South Africa  ,
Monday, June 30, 2008

Well, this was my first night at Cape Town, the first night I slept so far away from home, not to say at the other part of the world. For my first day travelling, I chose to walk around a bit everywhere in town without any precise objective. I fell casually on the Parliament, the National Library, the Government Lane and its beautiful gardens and the Castle of the city which was originally built by the first Dutch sailors from the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) and simultaneously occupied by the English and the Dutch. I included some pictures of it, the most flabbergasting souvenir I have from this visit was the view on the city and the mountains from the roof of the castle and the arsenal. Yes, yes you can walk on it, and try to imagine what could ever have stand there before all these huge buildings and modern infrastructures. Just sit back behind one of those canoons and figure it out while breathing fresh air coming directly from the sea that you can see from where you are. More practically, do prepare yourself to bring an adequate adaptor and do not change your currency in banks they are far too greedy to give you a decent exchange rate!! I chose an alternative by just asking a merchant to give me some change. What a surprise he spoke French, he came from Congo and immediately assured me that a friend of his could give me some cash. Francis was a pragmatic businessman leading a clothing shop in the city centre. He gave me a good exchange rate and all sorts of nice tips about the city. I was kindly offered a sightseeing to Victoria and Albert Waterfront, where most tourists like to walk around and shop. I guess I would not believe it if I was told the number of km I walked per day. Indeed I was almost everywhere in the city. I also looked for the street where my new appartment is located and got a very good feeling about it because it was nice. Then, I also found where my workplace will be. Interesting enough is to notice that almost each building has a "armed response", "trepassors will be prosecuted" shields on its doors or barbwire and walls as surrounding of luxurious swimming-pools and verandas. And naturally the richer the more protected. We do also have alarms and stuff in France but that goes not SO far. I guess, security remains a hot issue here, although I find that Cape Town is rather a safe city. What is depressing is that the downtown and more generally the entire city becomes a real desert after 6 pm. It results maybe from the fact that is is already pretty dark at that moment and that we are in the winter here, yes in July and until August!!!! I am getting very excited about tomorrow: I am to move to Roeland Street to my new stable home and meet my boss for my internship, pfiou!
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