Day one in Cape Town began just as expected, full of excitement and jetlag. We had breakfast, a little orientation-type meeting, then it was off for our city tour! Unfortunately the day started out cold, cloudy and misty, but got much better by the afternoon. We took the bus to the Waterfront, which is a mall of sorts, for lunch. It was an interesting building composed of two stories, many normal stores you would find in the US, such as a music store, Apple store, a Best-Buy type store, along with a food court and outdoor patio area complete with a ferris wheel! We decided on Thai food for lunch, and I am proud to say I ate the entire entrée using just chopsticks!
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| V&A Waterfront |
After lunch, we began our real city tour, led by our personal guide, Ish. We started with a few gorgeous views of the Atlantic Ocean, where some crazy fools were surfing and playing in the freezing water! We then climbed the mountains up to Signal Hill, where I then flirted with quite a few panic attacks as the bus was winding corners (on the opposite side of the road, mind you) as we ascended. From Signal Hill, we had a fabulous view of Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, and the city below. Once I was actually looking at Table Mountain I realized how much bigger of a feat it is going to be to climb the sucker! Not to mention then taking a cable car down the mountain! I’m starting to really question this whole skydive/bungee jump idea. Heights are totally not my thing.
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| Laura Claire, Leanna, Natalie, and I at Camps Bay |
For dinner, a few of us decided we would go to one of the fanatically reviewed restaurants around the hotel/apartments. However, when we left to meet in the lobby, we found just about every single student on our trip waiting for taxis to Buena Vista, a Mexican restaurant quite a few miles into the city. We had to wait for the taxis to come and pile all of us in for the ride. All of the 30 some-odd left in the first and second shifts, leaving four of us behind for the next cab. We decided we would go find the rest of the group going to Buena Vista at the hotel bar and get a nice cocktail while we waited. However, as fate would have it, right after we ordered our myriad of South African concoctions, the cab driver calls and says he’s here! Perfect timing. We grab the drinks and make a run for it. Luckily we were able to fit in the cab-12 of us-perfect. Since the cabs here are one flat rate, you most definitely need to make the effort to fill it up!
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| Table Mountain |
Once at Buena Vista, we were seated outside with another large group from our trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the heat lamps that most other outside tables were pampered with. This place wasn’t just a restaurant-it was a salsa bar- how fun is that?! However, among the groups of older Europeans and Africans, we were not so welcome to come play, as we would surely get in their way. We all decided we would just have to come back…perhaps on a night with free salsa lessons? I think yes!
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Laura Claire, Joanna, and I on Signal Hill- Table Mountain in the background |
This was the day of my first African shower. May I just say it was one of the most heavenly things I may have ever experienced. Not so much because of the particular facilities as much as I had been trapped on airplanes for the past 72 hours it seemed. (okay, maybe more like 24, but still.)
A few funny things that happened today involved various problems including:
1) Apparently everyone decided to bring boots on the trip- I didn’t get the memo.
2) No one’s hair straighteners were working! SGP –not that I would ever need one anyway
3) About 95% of us fell asleep around the last hour of the tour - on the bus - sitting up - then slipping off our hands or elbows and falling for a second before snatching our heads up again. We all then embarked upon one of the most epic mass nappings ever.
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| Camps Bay |
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