We are at the 1/3 mark! I’ve been gone for just about five weeks and will be back in the U.S. in about ten more weeks. While this travel is amazing, I felt a little homesick getting back on the boat after Cape Town. Of course classes started back immediately and I realized I had no time to be homesick when I have three major papers and two midterms...

Anyway, Cape Town was pretty incredible. The actual port reminded me a lot of San Francisco’s port. There’s Robben Island, just like we have Alcatraz; and they have the same type of expensive seafood restaurants. Although it’s 8 Rand to the American dollar, so expensive still wasn’t very expensive.

I tried to go to Robben Island four times! Each and every time the ferry got shut down because of winds... and it wasn’t that windy. I was really upset about it, but managed to find other cool things to do. For example, the first day we got to port I had tickets to Robben Island (which then got cancelled) so I got into a cab with some kids I knew and went over to District 6. This area of Cape Town was known for it’s particularly vicious devastation because of apartheid. While originally an all black neighborhood, during apartheid, the white government literally threw all the black families out into the countryside in squatter camps and demolished their homes with all their things inside. Now District 6 is one representation that shows the devastation that occurred. After we walked around and went through the museum we decided to explore Cape Town a bit more by foot. While exploring, we happened upon Green Market Square, which is a popular crafts market in the city. With some shopping under out belt we went on an adventure to walk back to the port. It was a very long walk. We did stumble into a flower market and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. There were rows and rows of flowers and nothing else. That night me and three other girls accompanied my best friend on the boat, Jonah, to the gay bars of Cape Town. The city has a surprisingly large gay population so there are a ton of gay bars. The first one we went to we ended up staying at for most of the night. It was called Bronx. We had a great time there, although Jonah had to buy our drinks because he got them for way cheaper than we did... I met this guy there who actually lives in LA and comes to Africa a couple times a year to do AIDS education workshops. Anyway, he works for the LA school district and I was talking to him about how I want to teach high-risk kids and he gave me his card and told me to give him a call when I get my degree. Not so sure I’d want to live in LA, but a funny way to get a job offer.

Right across from the ship was this mega mall with all kinds of stores and brands that we knew. We knew that we wouldn’t be seeing brands we knew for awhile, so we went shopping. There was one store that had up-and-coming designers of South Africa and there were a lot of cute and not very expensive things there. There was also an organic supermarket that we hit up for snacks on the boat. The rest of the day we spent exploring around the port. Just like in San Francisco, there are tons of things to do just around there. That night we went to a few bars on Long Street, which is Cape Town’s version of Bourbon Street. We went way big that night... I was hanging out with this one guy from the boat, but this local kept buying me drinks and I eventually would sneak the drinks over to my friend because I could not physically drink any more. It was a little intense, but fun!

The next morning we got up and took a taxi to Stellenbousch to see the big rugby game. I’m talking this is the Apple Cup of rugby. The game was University of Cape Town against University of Stellenbousch. We met a bunch of UCT kids in the parking lot before the game and tailgated with them. The game was soo much fun and probably a highlight of the trip. Everyone was super drunk at the game and I still don’t have the slightest idea of how rugby is played. Even with no concept of the game I painted my face blue (for UCT) and enjoyed myself. That night we went out to the bars on Long Street again and had yet another night of getting painfully drunk in Africa...

The next morning we woke up early (I was still way drunk from the night before) and went to a local flea market that a taxi driver told us about. It was kind of sketchy, but I went with two guys so it was legit. After some shopping we went to hike Table Mountain. This mountain is 3,600 ft but known for it’s difficulty to climb because it’s basically like walking of really steep stairs for 2.5 hours. Double unfortunate for me, the guys I went with are super outdoorsy and made us go a very fast pace, the longer route (hiking for about 3.5 hours and doing the steep part in only 2 hours) and being no longer drunk I was super hungover. Fun fun. Once we got to the top it was totally worth the view. We happened to get to the top at sunset and was able to see the sun set over the entire city of Cape Town. Again, I have many pictures of this to bring back. That night, a friend of mine had been invited to a wedding in town and was told to bring some friends. So, as soon as I got back from Table Mountain we got all dressed up and went to this really fancy Spanish wedding at a 5 star hotel. Definitely a fun and interesting experience, but got a little weird, so we left. Since we were already all dressed up we went to this really upscale bar and got cocktails. When we got back to the boat most people went to bed, but me and a friend went out to a bar at the port for a couple more drinks. It was a nice way to end a bazaar night.

Our last three days in Cape Town were mostly spent exploring and putzing around. One of the days we got a tour guide and went to Cape Point, which is the South Western most point of Africa. There’s a part of Cape Point where there are thousands of African Penguins, which are about the cutest things I’ve ever seen and we were able to get sooo close to them. On the way to Cape Point there’s an area called Whale Beach and it’s really amazing. I have never seen so many whale so close to me! It was very cool. The other absolutely amazing part of Whale Beach and Cape Point is that there are wild baboons running around and it is stressed that is there home before anyone who lives there’s home. When we were in the car a group of baboons came right up and looked in the windows and everything. One of the females had a baby that was just a couple of days old. Our tour guide told us they can be extremely nasty, but if they don’t think you have food, they’ll mostly leave you alone. Cape Point on a whole was just stunning. There were also wild ostrich running around throughout the tall grass. I guess the ostrich’s brain is smaller than their eyeball and if you ever come face-to-face with one you should just grab a big stick and hold it up as high over your head as possible and they will think you are too big to fight. That night we went out with this guy Thomas that we had met the first night. We went to this small bar that was inside a hostel and was only locals (a SAS-free bar is hard to come by at times).

Our final night in Cape Town we spent at the bar close to the ship, Mitchell’s. I met these guys from Scotland who had just gotten off being on an oilrig for six weeks. I talked them into buying me and my three friends like five or six rounds of shots because they’re on the Euro and it was so cheap for them, hah! It was another good night.

Okay I know this was a long one, but we were in Cape Town for a week and so far it’s my favorite port. As I said before, we have a bunch of days of classes... 12 days on the ship, with only one day off for something called the Sea Olympics and then we will be in India. This blog was a nice little distraction for the homework I have to do, but I think it’s done now. I miss you all like crazy, but time flys when you’re having fun, so see you soon!

Xoxo,
Fal