Exploring Cape Town!

            Hello from South Africa! Thanks to Namibia having a long weekend (because of Cassinga Day and Worker's Day), we were lucky enough to travel to Cape Town, South Africa for almost a week. Man, that city is absolutely gorgeous. I can seriously see myself living there for a long time. The landscape, city, mountains, ocean, people…breathtaking. Five of us stayed at our friend Theo's house in Bellville, a suburb just outside of Cape Town. It was great having the freedom to travel around the city with a semi-local and explore everything. While in Cape Town, we went to the largest mall in Southern Africa, hiked Table Mountain, went on a wine and city tour, saw PENGUINS, experienced Cape Town nightlife, and explored downtown and the Waterfront. The city is so big that I guess I'll just have to come back someday and finishing exploring. 

            On Friday, we met up with the nurses at Table Mountain where some of us hiked up the mountain while the others abseiled down the side of it. Alice, Heather, Kerry, Theo, and I hiked up the mountain. That was by far one of the hardest hikes I've done, but the views were absolutely gorgeous at the top. The hike was all uphill (obviously) and had so many rocks in the trail that it was basically rock hopping all the way up. It was supposed to be about 2.5 hours, but we were able to do it in an hour and twenty minutes. No wonder we were tired at the top! About half way up the trail, a man was playing the marimba and it was great to be serenaded the rest of the way. When we reached the top, we could see everything: Cape Town way beneath us, Robben Island in the distance, the mountains surroundings us, and ocean as far as the eye could see. We took the cable car (gondola) down the mountain since the fog was rolling in and then went our separate ways: the nurses went back to their hotel and we went to Theo's house. That night, Alice and I watched She's The Man (I forgot how amazing that movie is!!!!) and did homework and applications with the amazing wifi Theo had while Eslie, Kalie, Carly, Theo, and Gareth went out to explore the nightlife of Cape Town.

At the top of Table Mountain!

            The next day, all nine of us met up at the hotel to do our wine and city tour. Special shoutout to Bryanna for planning and booking so many of our excursions! On this tour, we drove all over Cape Town and surrounding suburbs, learned about the history of South Africa and how it pertained to Namibian independence, saw Boulder Penguins (oh my god they were adorable!!), toured and hiked at Cape Point, went to a nearby beach, and went to two wineries for wine tastings. The day was jam packed with things to do and it was great to see how gorgeous Cape Town and South Africa are. Our driver told us about living in apartheid times and the shifting of power from the Afrikaans to the blacks, his experience with being deployed in Namibia, and the current xenophobia happening in parts of South Africa. It was very interesting to hear a different perspective about apartheid and shifting power, and especially about Namibian independence. Having first learned about independence from a Namibian context, hearing the other side was very eye-opening about the contradictions in stories. One main example was that from a Namibian standpoint, they were at war with South Africa for independence, whereas from this perspective we heard, South Africans were simply protecting Namibia from evil communist powers. But this is only one perspective that we heard about; I talked to another individual who had an entirely different story about the fighting. Anyway, back to the wine tour! At one of our first stops, we went to see the Boulder Penguins, aka Jackass Penguins because they sound like donkeys. They were adorable! I may have found my new favorite animal. They were simply the best; I could have watched them all day. They live in South Africa all year long so they don't migrate anywhere. Some of them were swimming when we got to their area and it was incredible to see them dart around in the water. They are so fast! The ocean views we saw were breathtaking. The water was so blue and had a very distinctive gradient to it as it got shallower and shallower. As we hiked to the top of the lighthouse at Cape Point, we were kind of on a peninsula so we were basically surrounded by water. It made me realize how much I missed the ocean and can't wait to live near it again. After seeing the Cape, we were on our way to the two wineries, Steenberg and Constantia. I had never gone wine tasting before so it was a lot of fun tasting new wines and seeing which types I like. I bought a bottle of Semillon at Steenberg and can't wait to open it back home. Both wineries were gorgeous! The grape vines went on for ages and everything felt very relaxed and peaceful. We all got pretty tipsy from the wine so the drive home was hilarious. We were so talkative about everything, got into political debates, and then all hung out in the nurses' hotel room for a bit. It was great to be able to spend time with everyone, simply hang out, and make hilarious memories in Cape Town.

Such adorable little animals!

The view from Cape Point

Constantia Winery

            On Sunday and Monday, Alice and I took an Uber taxi to the Waterfront in downtown Cape Town. First off, Uber is such a great invention! It was so quick and easy and made getting around Cape Town a total breeze. When we got to the Waterfront, we listened to a Marimba band for a while. They were hilarious! The lead singer went up to us and sang to us and they all seemed to be having so much fun. Alice and I ended up buying two of their CDs and I love listening to it now. I definitely spent WAY too much money in Cape Town, but hey, you're only in Cape Town once, right? haha We spent the whole day downtown exploring the five-star waterfront hotels, nearby malls, and a little bit of downtown. We ended Sunday night with the rest of our 5-person group meeting us at the Waterfront and celebrating Carly's birthday at a nice Portuguese restaurant by the water. On Monday before we left for the airport, Alice and I went back to the waterfront to get breakfast at an artisan food market. It reminded us of Granville Island in Canada and was delicious. We had amazing coffee (the barista knew a ton about coffee), some yogurt parfait things, and yummy crepes.

            We were lucky enough to stay with our friend Theo in Cape Town. It was great to see him again and all catch up about everything. On our first night there, we met up with one of Theo's friends, Gareth, and had chicken schnitzel at his house. We all went to a local bar called Stones and they taught us how to play pool. The boys were super good at pool and taught us some tips. For Carly's birthday, we went into Cape Town to celebrate and experience the night life. I didn't feel like drinking so I was the DD. Let me just say, driving on the left side of the road is WEIRD. But I did it! Thank goodness his car was automatic! This week was a great trip and I was so sad to leave such a beautiful city. I will definitely be returning there someday! We only saw a small part of Cape Town and I can't wait to see the rest. Now that we're back in Windhoek, we are finishing up our last week of classes, getting ready to go to Victoria Falls next week, and then fly home the next. I can't believe our time here is finally coming to an end. I feel like we just got here. Time to make the most of these last couple weeks!