MY EPIC SWAKOPMUND ADVENTURE (part two)

SO the next morning was sort of a lazy one. We didn’t set alarms and didn’t wake up particularly early, but eventually the prospect of coffee was too strong and Brittany, Steph, and I got up and went in search of a place to eat since most shops were closed Sunday (unfortunately, this included the Village Café). We eventually found a book shop/ coffee shop called Muschel Books… or something like that. There we leisurely sipped coffee in the sunshine and relaxed while we waited for Margaret and Jess to join us.

After that, we went over to this restaurant called 22 degrees south. It’s an Italian restaurant that had DELICIOUS flat bread pizza and an honest to god LIGHTHOUSE as it’s centerpiece. We ate outside in the sunshine at the foot of the lighthouse. Oh, fun fact from here, Namibian “lemonade” is clear, carbonated and tastes mostly like sprite. Next, we went to the craft market… and my god was that stressful.

These guys REALLY want to sell you something. They will come over and say “hello sister” or something along those lines and then tell you that they will give you a “very good price”. They had all sorts of jewelry, carved animals, bowls, salad spoons, etc. all made by hand in the Caprivi area of Namibia… supposedly. I STILL don’t know if I believe them since they all seemed to have the same stuff. The interesting thing about the market is that all of the guys try to RIP YOU OFF. Seriously. You’ll ask how much for ONE little carved animal and they’ll tell you N$120… that’s twenty American dollars which is definitely WAY too much for the little figures. (we saw them in shops for about N$30). The trick is to haggle them down in price without ripping them or yourself off. It’s difficult. And it was HILARIOUS to watch Brittany haggle. She called them out on their tricks and even told them to back off laughingly enough that they brought out a stool for her to sit on in order to be comfortable while looking. It was HILARIOUS. But beware, if you don’t want to get sucked in, DO NOT STOP. Just walk past. Also, they tried to rip us off less when we said we lived in Otjiwarongo rather than the states.

We decided to de-stress at the beach. It was only a block or two away after all! Basically, we all put our toes in the water and crowed over being in the atlantic IN AFRICA and then the others proceeded to look for cool rocks and sticks to put in the bowls they bought at the market and I stayed in the water some more. As expected, the bottom of my jeans were soon soaking, but what else is new?

After that bit of de-stressification, we dropped our purchases off (mum, expect a souvenir from the market!), and then we… decided we needed more coffee… and went to Café Anton. I was NOT kidding when I said this was a food tour. THEY HAD THE MOST DELICIOUS PASTRY THINGY EVER. The end.

THEN we went to dinner… after having coffee. I am amazed we were even HUNGRY. We ate at this place called The Lighthouse which LOOKED like a bit of a shabby-ish pub from the outside but was actually pretty fancy inside. I had this burger melt THING that had normal burger stuff, but also a FRIED PINEAPPLE in it. DELICIOUS! The waitress was a bit rude, but besides that we were fine. Then we went back to the Gruner Kranz.

Luckily, the club was closed, but the bar was open! So we went and played pool. It was HILARIOUS. When we arrived, there was this drunk Australian guy who ordered us and the bar tender all tequila shots and then bought us our “first round”. I grabbed a savanna light and we went to play pool while trying to sneakily avoid him. It was great! And then the manager guy that Margaret had made friends with came over and bought us three more rounds of pool and gave us these shots called Springboks which had so little alcohol that you couldn’t even taste it. Delicious!

The next day the shops were open again, so we went around begging for donations and shopping and ate a GINORMOUS breakfast at the Village Café. We had scones, toasted sandwiches, and mochas. DELICIOUS. Just before leaving, we drove down the highway a ways and found a spot on the HUGE NAMIB DESERT SAND DUNES that we could legally climb. We found one and climbed to the top. It was… amazing. On one side was the ocean stretching as far as the eye could see, on the other was an honest to god sand dune DESERT. It was breathtaking.



We then headed back to CCF. It was great to go to Swakopmund, and I would DEFINITELY recommend a visit to ANYONE who comes to Namibia.