This past summer I met up with my boyfriend and past roommate in South Africa. Dylan (my b/f) was there for school finishing up his first pharmacy rotation and many of us took advantage by coming to hang out. Several friends from college came to visit before I arrived and Adam was to be there the duration of our stay. This was my very 1st time abroad!
I arrived in Cape Town after a grueling 24hrs of travel a bit grumpy and tired but very excited to see Dylan. It was the first time we'd seen each other in 4 months. He even picked me up with flowers!
We stayed just above Seapoint on the slopes of Lion's Head. The places was pretty remarkable with a view of Robbin Island as well as part of the tip of the cape. Dylan got lucky and was able to rent a room in what was an old mansion slated for renovation. The nephew of the owner decided to make a few bucks renting out the rooms before the remodeling started. It was strange but nice staying in such a wealthy neighborhood.
Our first major stop was to Simons Town to see the penguins. This was the first time I'd ever seen penguins outside of a zoo and, as a lover of all things small, cute and/or soft looking, I was pretty excited! Walking over a little boardwalk to the beach there were penguins literally everywhere but on the path. They were sitting below the bushes, under the boardwalk and in human-made nests. There were also babies everywhere! At the end of the boardwalk there was a booth to pay in order to move forward. Fortunately we got there just after closing and were able to walk straight through to check out the little guys. It was pretty cool to be walking around with the penguins everywhere and them not seeming to care that there were people near by. A highly recommended activity if you are in the area. The restaurant also had some pretty well priced and decent food with specials starting as low as 30R (~$4)!
Our next destination was Cape of Good Hope. Here we hiked up toward the light house and around the little trails for some amazing views of the entire cape. It was incredible to be not only at the southern most point of Africa (and on day 2 no less!) but to see the other point of the cape. Seeing the geography in person was quite amazing. While walking around and enjoying the nice weather we saw otters playing in the water, some lizards, and even a whale spouting.
The first picture shows the other side of the cape in view. Below is us at the southern most tip.
The next day the boys took me surfing at Muizenberg which was pretty much perfect for me. The waves were tiny and forgiving and there were no rocks! I wore my first wet suit and felt a little silly but it was well worth it. Probably my best surfing experience so far.
Our last big Cape Town adventures before hitting the road were to hike Table Mountain, followed by a World Cup game (Argentina vs Germany) at Greenpoint Stadium. Hiking up Table Mountain was beautiful and little scary all at once. A good portion of the hike was extremely vertical and we were definitely climbing a bit! The views at the top were well worth the 3hr climb and it was nice to be away from people for a while. I think the photos show for themselves.
 |
| and of course, we chose the hard route. |
 |
| Finally at the top! |
We rounded out the day with my very first world cup game. Sadly Argentina lost 0-4. We left the stadium wet (from the Germans behind us spilling beer with each goal, and as you can see, there were a lot of German goals), a little cold and hungry. It was kind of strange how rude people were to us when we were wearing our Argentina scarves, especially because the people that were being the loudest were most definitely not from Germany. Either way it was a crazy experience to be in the stadium and watching the game!
No comments:
Post a Comment