Cape Town March 17-21

Is this for real batman.. ?! Watching the sunset over the ocean is one of the most gorgeous surreal things ever. This night might have sold me on living near an ocean!

Table Mountain with the Cape Town lights! (breathe taking)

Dang it.. penguins are ugly and apparently mean :( sad.. Madagascar makes them seem cool and funny!

They call me freedom.. just like a waving flag (thanks Jan for making us all listen to that song 45 times).

 Cape of Good Hope from Cape Point at the lighthouse!

MONKEYS :)

Jan and Mac.. in the Mercedes mirror.

The random parade that happened right outside of the two oceans hostel that we were staying at!

We took off for Cape Town at about 9 p.m. (or 21:00 as South Africans would say) in a Mercedes – thanks to Jan. I have no idea how he got such a nice car – I guess I will just use the explanation “It’s because he’s German.” That usually works for most things: when I can’t understand him, when he is acting weird or when he shows up with a Mercedes to pick up some 20 years olds to drive to Cape Town in South Africa. But don’t worry I wasn’t complaining: nice leather seats, A.C., a good radio, and a huge trunk. We were on our way (Me, Breana – my roommate, Mac – Jan’s roommate from California, Thomas – a German, and Jan another German also one of my best guy friends here). We ran into some rain on the way there and apparently the windshield wipers go on automatically when it is raining – that was a topic of conversation for awhile. First we congratulated the Germans on their invention and then I concluded that it was unnecessary and that they were only showing laziness (because really how hard is it to turn on your wipers). Plus it wouldn’t clean the window automatically when it was dirty with bugs – so what good is it anyway. Anyway.. we ended up staying in Knysna, which is about 3 hours from P.E. It took us awhile to find a place to accommodate us at 1 in the morning, but after using Jan’s phone – which was somehow connected to the car so that he could make calls with the car and it would transmit over the speakers – we found a nice little place.

We left the next morning headed for our destination after a pit stop to take pictures of the beautiful lake adjacent to the town. It is a beautiful town, quiet and small. The rest of the ride went pretty well.. I tried to get some sleep, rocked out to some music, and then when we got stuck in traffic I got out of the car and waved to the passing cars. It was such a great time – I loved making peoples’ day as they would pass and wave and laugh. I even got some of the semis to honk. Then as we passed the construction workers or the other stopped cars – I would stick my head and arm out the window to wave and say hi. Crappy that we had to stop and delay our arrival time but thank goodness for fun times and memories of the people’s faces who were looking at me like I was an alien! Haha

We got to CT, found our hostel and started roaming around the city. That night we went to watch the sunset over the ocean with Table Mountain and the city in the background. It was absolutely gorgeous and if I could do that every night of my life – I would be one happy camper. It almost seemed unreal and I had to keep asking myself it was real or if I was dreaming. We of course took lots of pictures and we even found a crab that we held and took pictures with. Then Mac found a jellyfish and decided to see if the dead jellyfish could still sting – conclusion it couldn’t (at least not the one that we found). After the sunset we went down to the waterfront where there was a mall and lots of restaurants as well as a massive Farris wheel. We walked around the mall and then found an amazing and sort of cheap seafood place to eat at. Jan and I split a massive plat of mussels, fish, prawns (shrimp). calamari and calamari heads, as well as chips (fries) and rice. It was soooo good. Afterwards we went down to Steers to get some ice cream and witnessed some drunk guys around our age yelling and arguing with the workers (something about he just wanted his food but he hadn’t paid for it or he changed his order or something – who knows). We went home and I turned on the T.V. to find MARCH MADNESS!!! I was probably one of the happiest people in South Africa at that moment. It was sooo great to sit down and watch sports (well real ones – the only ones that are on here are cricket, rugby and soccer – none of which I really understand). So I stayed up kind of late watching ESPN and an American sport. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until it was right in front of me.

The next morning we got up and made breakfast and then headed to try to climb table mountain but it was later in the day (almost noon) and the line to ride up was about 45 minutes long. We thought for a second that we would just hike but then killed that idea since it was probably about 95 degrees outside and the sun was out and full. So instead we decided to head back to the hostel, change into our suits and go find some penguins and the Cape of Good Hope. We started driving on the long and curvy road down to the Cape of Good Hope. I started to feel a little car sick as crazy Jan/German was driving like a NASCAR driver. But we made it safely to see the ugly black and white creature that Madagascar makes look cute and funny. It was still awesome to see penguins!! J

After our pit stop at the birds we continued on to the end of Africa (well not the furthest south but close) and made it to the Cape of Good Hope. We stopped along the route to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. When we arrived to the Cape we saw some monkeys – a dad, mom and baby. So we took pictures and observed them picking lice off of each other white the baby played with a stick. Then we started a trek up some steps to a lighthouse, which took forever it seemed like and it was sooo so hot. I think I was over heating, which caused me to be crankier than normal – meaning I was not much fun to be around. However, I tried to keep to myself and let the others go on so that I wouldn’t have anyone to listen to my complaining. After the lighthouse we went down to where the Cape of Good Hope sign was where it happened to be much cooler (which increased my mood by 1000 percent). A bus of Asians also rolled up, which of course made the day even better. They immediately swarmed the sign while screaming at each other where to stand as ALL of them had to get a picture of each one. They even ended up getting a picture with Mac and the South African flag that Jan had brought. He wanted to go to the Cape for the soul purpose to listen to a song called “they call me freedom just like a waving flag” and wave his German and South African flag at the sign. I think we ended up with about 100 pictures of him doing this and I even ended up with a couple of pictures of the Asians taking pictures, which was WAY more interesting. Oh how I love Asians!

That evening there was a parade that went right by our hostel. So we sat on the balcony and watched the sort of Mardi Graus-esque parade. There was a lot of dancing, bright lights, plastic animals and even a float full of gay men dressed as women (the obvious highlight of the parade since everyone was super loud as they were going by). The parade was great, however I somehow lost my purple Camelbak waterbottle off of the balcony. I am assuming it fell down, which hopefully it didn’t kill someone. But after that the night just didn’t go as well. I was also upset since earlier everyone else went out on the town while I was sleeping with out even telling me what was going on. But all in all it was great to see the parade and I held it together trying not to get to down. Afterwards we walked around forever trying to find some cheap food where there was not a big line – hard to do after a parade! The rest of night for me was spent with me watching ESPN and going to bed sort of early.. it had been a long day.

The next morning enthusiastic Jan (who woke up every morning to his phone playing a horrible country song singing something about I hear my alarm clock ringing…) woke me up at 6 something. I am sure my face was wonderful and my reaction was what!?! He kept saying lets go we are going to go hike Table Mountain. Yeah, just what I wanted to do early in the morning but I knew I had to. So the two Germans and I went to climb the mountain while the other 2 lazy Americans slept the day away. We started the hike and it was cool for awhile while we were in the shade but then the mountain got steeper and the sun came out and shined on our backs the rest of the way. There was really no way for me to prepare for this hike except to ride one of those stair masters – as it was pretty much solid stair steps up the ENTIRE WAY! It made me feel even worse about me taking 2 ½ hours to get to the top when a 55 + year old woman said that she does it in about 50 minutes. Are you kidding me?! I will be lucky if I even hike a mountain ever at that age let alone doing it once a week in way less than half the time it took me. I tried to use the excuse that I am from Iowa – the flattest place EVER! Haha At one point (when we were all still sort of together before the 2 Germans left me) they were speaking in German, which I had no clue what they were talking about until I heard my name, which they didn’t deny when I called them out on it. Sweet. So yeah it took me longer than them but whatever ‘it is not about how fast I get there it is all about the climb’ at least that is what Miley Cirus tells me and thanks to Jan I was able to sing and think about that song the whole way up.

The view from the top was wonderful. At first it was very cloudy and hard for us to see Cape Town or the ocean. After about an hour we checked back and it was much better so we took tons of pictures and then headed down the cable car. When we got back to the hostel we made some lunch (or I mean Jan and Thomas did). It was amazing pasta with some sort of buttery sauce and chicken. It was the best meal every - or wait maybe that was just because I had climbed a mountain and was starving. After a quick nap we headed out to the beach. That night I ended up watching some good ole b-ball and went to bed early, while everyone else went out. There was no way I could – my body wouldn’t let me. I think the heat, climbing a mountain and my allergies were finally getting the best of me.

The next day, Monday, we took our time getting ready, took some pictures of very colorful houses and started on our long trek back home. We stopped for lunch and I got a Pizone that was filled with pineapple, olives, and peppers and of course cheese. Everyone else had KFC for like the 4^th time on the trip – I didn’t eat it once but South Africans sure do love their fried chicken. I rode for a little less than half of the way back in the passenger seat, which was soo nice. I am so glad I was able to do that, as it was so much more comfortable and roomy. As we got close to getting back we were almost out of gas so Jan had to strategically try to drive slow and smart to save gas while also try to make it back fast since we had a specific time we had to return the car. We made it to the gas station I am sure on fumes – the car stopped telling us how many km’s we had left and just showed us a picture of a gas pump in the car. It all worked out - I guess he dropped the car off with one minute to spare.

What a weekend.. I am almost as tired from writing about the weekend as I was at the top of the mountain, which I didn’t mention that I might have laid down on the rocks in the shade for maybe a good 15 minutes (well until I got distracted by a lizard). It was a good weekend, it was packed and I felt like I was grumpy the whole time but hopefully I wasn’t to annoying to the people I went with and hopefully they will still be my friends :)