DAY 6:
Today Ali and I split up to do our own thing since she wanted to spend the day taking REALLY touristy pictures and figured I wouldn’t want to. She was mostly right, besides I wanted a day to myself. After middling breakfast, I washed my sharky smelling swim suit and headed off to Camps Bay. (Another even MORE gorgeous beach!) I spent the day lying in the sun and wandering over rocks and generally enjoying myself. It was just windy enough that I never got too hot even lying directly in the sun. Evntually I had enough of the sun and combie’d back to Cape Town. There were still two hours until I had to meet Ali for dinner, so I walked along the waterfront (not the OFFICIAL waterfront) and wandered quite a ways to a lighthouse! Very pretty and very old, mum would be proud. We had dinner at a pizza place that had GREAT pictures in the ads and the menu, but not in reality. Which was okay, and I spent the rest of the evening at the hostel bar chatting with the other guests. Met a very nice kid (he was 19…) from the states who I swapped travel stories with, and the bartender who was interesting, and a rather drunk Scotsman. It was very fun. :D
DAY 7:
We checked out of our hostel and headed off on a HIGHLY sketchy looking train to Simon’s Town where the PENGUINS ARE! The scenery on the way was beautiful! Simon’s town was very quaint and quiet and felt like any gorgeous little town by the sea. We checked into our hostel and then wandered around looking at the shops (looked a lot like the French Quarter in New Orleans). Eventually we wandered around the different beaches and oo’d and aww’d over the random penguins we found hanging out there! We eventually went over to the boulder beach viewing platforms where there were LOTS of penguins hanging out. I didn’t have my beast camera with me and Ali didn’t want to stay too long, so we fled from the abundance of asian and French tourists and headed back to the hostel. We stopped on the way for FANTASTIC pita bread pizza and then rented movies which we watched at the hostel bar (the only place with a TV). Bed sounded quite good at that point, so we hit the sack! (The unfortunate thing was that I woke up with about 20 new bug bites. D: )
DAY 8:
I got up VOLUNTARILY at 7am to go take pictures of penguins for 2 hours. Seriously. They were that awesome. And I didn’t even get coffee first. They were just SO funny and they sounded like DONKEYS! Then I went over to the part of Boulder Beach where you can actually swim. With. Penguins. SO COOL! They were swimming RIGHT next to me and the water was warm and blue and it felt like paradise. (well… if paradise includes a few screaming kids, a crowd of old people, and ducks that want nothing more than to rob me of food…) I wandered around and laid on beaches and found little markets and such until dinner with Ali. We ended up going to this little pub (turns out the place with the MENU was upstairs) and we ate sketchy, but good, pub food and drank for the rest of the evening. There was a lovely older Scottish man named Pat who we hung out with until we eventually called it a night and went home.
DAY 9:
I woke up not feeling my greatest and so Ali went on ahead of me to Cape Town while I slept for a couple more hours in the hostel. Eventually, I got up and made my way back to our original hostel via the train. I was planning to just wander around and maybe go up the cable car to the top of table mountain, but I was told it was a bit late for that. SO I ended up at South Africa Gay Pride instead! Woah! It was pretty much like other gay pride festivals I have been to (of which there was… one) and there were a lot of pretty men and sparkles and drinking all around. I mainly went around taking pictures and wishing there was a little more shows or events and a little less drinking, but it was fun all the same. Since Ali and I didn’t have any plans to meet, specifically, I ended up getting tortellini pasta for dinner and cooking it at the hostel. I also had a DOCTOR PEPPER! Not something so common here in Africa! We had to get up for our taxi to the airport at 5am, so we pretty much just went to bed early and tried to think happy thoughts about the next day’s travel.
DAY 10:
We made it to the airport in plenty of time and there were no problems. Our flight was pretty enjoyable and when we landed in Joburg, we were tired but in pretty high spirits. Our only REAL snag was that when we got to the bus rank I couldn’t remember where the combie rank was! I knew it was basically in the same place, but I had never actually BEEN in the HUGE bus rank terminal before. I ended up leaving Ali with our bags and wandering around asking for directions until I found it. The combie rank truly is FOUL, full of garbage and exhaust fumes and bad tempers. But we eventually found the right combie (just as cushionless as the one coming up) and waited for the combie to fill. (long distance combies leave when they are full, not at a specific time). The ride back was uneventful, but left me with a cramp in my lower back that persisted for days. D: We got back to Gabs at about 7pm, and I never felt more glad to see the Gabs bus station. A taxi driver was right at the door to our combie and we were driven back to the dorms no problem. Overall, it was an AWESOME trip. :D
Moral of this story is! I love sharks and penguins (and they love me), tanning is actually possible, my life is a food tour, craft markets are my downfall, and coffee makes the world go round.
THE END!
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