Of course during this week I had SOO much to do including finalizing plans between me and Irina; as well as prepare myself for my STEPS screenings with Mary (fellow PCV) for when I returned. I was in touch with Irina, who was already in South Africa and it turned out that she was actually going to be in Velddrif (up the west coast) during the time that I was set to be in Cape Town. So I decided to book a hostel for 3 days so that I could see the sites of Cape Town and than make my way to Velddrif to see Irina and her family. However, finding public transportation of any sort was slightly impossible and it was coming to the point where I was probably going to have to rent a car (YIKES!). I also looked at the 10 day forecast and saw that it was pretty much going to rain the 3 days I was to be in Cape Town. My vacation was off to a good start...
Saturday: I woke up early to catch my 6am bus to Johannesburg. Took a cab to the airport and waited for about 5 hours for my flight to Cape Town. I was picked up at the Cape Town Airport by the hostel shuttle service. I have to add that on my way to the hostel; we passed an accident in which there was a body lying in the middle of the freeway. According to my driver, it was most likely some IDIOT trying to cross the freeway!! He said that he hears about it at least once a day. Yay. Welcome to Cape Town.
Arrived at the Backpackers and Africa Travel Centre and wasn't very pleased. It was a nice little hostel; but it was DEAD. I was also not given a room with lockers (when they said they would) and the lady at the front desk also charged my card when I asked her not to. So I spent one night there...and than walked over to 2 other hostels in the area on Sunday Morning.
Sunday: I walked over to CapeTown Backpackers and was greeted by a very nice young woman who could tell I was stressed and offered me a cup of coffee. I could tell this was a much better environment! So I dropped my stuff off and asked for suggestions on what to do since it was Sunday (and most seemed to be closed) and it was rainy. As suggested, I walked down to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.
The waterfront was filled with shops, restaurants, and craft vendors. I also hopped on the City Sightseeing double decker bus and rode around a bit to several of the different places. However, of course as soon as I got off, it started to POUR...so I ran back to my hostel to change and grab my rain coat. Than I walked down Long Street a bit, but found most of the stuff closed. However I did find the Green Market Square, which had a bunch of local African craft vendors. I know this is lame...but I had been wanting to see it-so I ended my night with dinner and saw Eat, Pray, Love. I went back to the hostel and found a bunch of people hanging out at the little bar.
I ended up meeting three young women, who had all met each other while being Au Pairs in New York several years ago. They were all travelling together and visiting some other Au Pairs who lived in South Africa. Two of the girls-Farina and Tina-were from Germany; and Jenny was from Sweden. (For those that may not know, my family used to have Au Pairs and I have also been to Sweden to visit ours; so naturally conversation sparked pretty quickly! I had mentioned wanting to see Robben Island, but it was sold out; and it turns out they had an extra ticket for Monday and graciously offered for me to join them!!
Monday: So I woke up early to grab breakfast with my Au Pair posse and headed down to see if our Robben Island tour was still on. Unfortunately winds were too high and the water was too choppy; so our tour got cancelled. We didnt really have a back up plan; so we ended up walking around the craft sheds at the waterfront and than headed to the Slave Lodge Museum. I found a lady who did pottery and mosaics and LOVED her stuff!! I bought a casserole dish with little elephants but the thing I really wanted to buy was a safari animal mosaic mirror! It was so cool but there was no way it was going to fit in my luggage!! Afterwards, we went our separate ways; and I made my way down to Camps Bay, since the sun was finally starting to come out.
Camps Bay was ABSOLUTELY beautiful!!! You had ocean on one side; and unbelievable views of Table Mountain, Lions head and the Twelve Apostles behind you. I had only wished it was a bit warmer. It was so nice to walk along the beach and see WATER!!! I tried to take a picture of my feet in the water...and than managed to get completely soaked up to my knees.
I ended up climbing up some rocks by the water and just sat there in complete solitude for about 3 hours and watched the sunset. It was SOOOO pleasant and probably one of my most memorable parts of my trip. I had no where to be; nothing to do; and no one to worry about. The Camps bay area had a few shops and restaurants; and found them to be a bit ritzy and pricey...but heck, I was on vacation (and hungry). So I enjoyed nachos and a margarita on the balcony of a restaurant, overlooking the beach! I went back to the hostel and hung out at the bar, where I met some other travellers, as well as my Au Pair posse. I met some other people from Florida, LA, Germany, and Australia.
Tuesday: So Tuesday was probably the best day...not only because the weather was finally cooperating but because I also went...PARAGLIDING!!!!!
Before I left for Cape Town, I had actually seen an ad for paragliding and decided I definitely wanted to do it. However, due to the weather I was unable to do it on Monday; and than was really hoping it would happen on Tuesday. Well I called the company and they said to meet them up at Lions Head and that there might be a chance we could fly!! So I met my tandem para glider, Jacques up by Lions Head, and he told me the winds werent good from Lions head, so we were going to go check out Signal Hill. Jacques said he had been paragliding for over 15 years now and couldnt even count the amount of times he's gone (after joking around with me as this only his 2nd flight..righhht). He said flights usually last from about 15-30 minutes. (He told me I should definitely come back in the summer-as its happened 7 times-where theyve taken off from Lions head; the wind took them up to Table Mountain; and than back down to the ocean-overall being about 30-45 minutes---Um..YES PLEASE!!) So we were up at Signal Hill for probably about an hour and he decided the winds werent too strong; and they were in the right direction for us!! So we started to gear up (and for some strange reason...I wasnt nervous at all...despite the fact that I was about to run off a mountain and I've never liked this kind of stuff!)
He told me we would start walking forward and a bit; and that when he said run...RUN. There were some bushes that we were most likely going to go through and he said don't mind the bushes...just keep running! We had a ton of on-lookers as we were all geared up and literally just standing there waiting for the right wind (for about 15 minutes). I told my instructor that standing there was slightly torturous. Than all of a sudden he screamed...RUN!! So overall we had a pretty smooth take off and we were flying in the air for about 15 minutes!!! We took off of Signal Hill and flew right over the city. Table mountain was behind us; Lions head was the to left of us; V+A Waterfront was to the right; and the ocean was straight ahead of us. He took a bunch of pictures and so did I! Once we got over the ocean, he started to do a few tricks back and forth and than we landed on a patch of green grass right by the beach. It was definitely an incredible experience and I really loved it!
So after my paragliding adventure, I decided to hike up Lions Head. Since I'm so out of shape, the climb probably took me about an hour and 1/2 and I found it to be a really pleasant hike. The views from the top were beautiful. (Everyone had said make sure to go up Table Mountain-which didnt happen) but the views OF Table mountain from where I was-were incredible. So I sat up at the top for about an hour or so overlooking the ocean+robben island, the twelve apostles, and table mountain. On my way down, I actually bumped into a girl who asked me if the hike was safe(since she was doing it alone) and I told her I didnt have any problems, as I just did it solo and you pass other hikers along the way. (This part of my story is relevant I promise...just wait.)
So after hiking I decided to walk down Long Street along the shops and than made my way back down to the Waterfront for dinner. (This entire trip I was indulging in food x10...and it was great!) I had steak and veggies with a nice glass of wine. Just as I was finishing up dinner, the young girl who I had passed early on Lions Head, passed me and I asked how the rest of her hike was. She said it went well and than I found out she was from Tennessee but went to the University of Virginia! So I ended up grabbing a glass of wine with Lindsay and we chatted it up for a few hours. We both went back to our hostels for a bit; but decided we would meet up with each other to go out. So I met her at her hostel-on Long Street- where we we first met two guys from France; and than went to Mama Africa's (with some awesome music) and met 3 guys from Germany. I also met (Lindsay had met him at her hostel) a guy from Texas who was volunteering with Mercy Ships--I had heard about this from another PCV--and it's a NGO that uses old cruise liners and in a sense-turned them into travelling hospitals. They go from country to country (I think mostly around Africa) offering medical services of all sorts to those in need. The guy I met was actually doing PR-and would go to the various countries before the ships arrived to publicize the ships arrival to clinics, hospitals, etc. Overall, it was a pretty awesome last night in Cape Town.
Wednesday: So all throughout the week I was still trying to find a way to get to Velddrif. But after asking the travel desk at my hostel; the Cape Town tourism office, and the front desk of Port Owen Marina (where Irina was staying)....they all said I should rent a car. So I finally caved in...and decided to rent a car, seeing how it was going to be the only way I would see Irina.
So on Tuesday, the travel desk set up a reservation with a car company and I would be picked up and brought to the car rental office on Wednesday morning. Everything was pretty much set and ready to go, I just needed to pay. Ha. Easier said than done.
So I had not used my Botswana credit card at all-as I planned to use that solely for my car rental. Well it turns out I couldnt use it because it didn't have the raised name and number-and they had to make an impression of my card. So I had to use my other card...which was fine, because I knew I had enough money on there. However, it seems as though my bank had decided to CUT OFF my card...and I didnt know why. I had been using the card this entire time and had not had a problem with it. Well it turns out (after a lot of stress and finally calling Wachovia) that they cut it off for security purposes to make sure it was still me using the card. What I had thought would be an easy pick up...ended up being a 2 hour ordeal...but finally I got the car!! I was given a small, red Automatic Hyundai! I was pretty nervous about driving on the left side of the road and also not used to having the steering wheel on the right side!! But the directions to where Irina was seemed pretty easy...and they were!!!
It took me about 2 hours to get to Port Owen Marina and I was on the highway mostly, so I didnt have to worry about remembering to be on the left side of the road!! Irina and her family were staying at the Port Owen Marina time shares and on Wednesday we mostly just hung out and talked!! We did go walk along the beach and found a baby sea lion!! We had an awesome stir fry dinner and I was lame and went to bed at like 9:30 since I was so tired!!
Thursday: I must have been tired, seeing how I slept in until 10am!!! (I havent slept in past 8am since Ive been in Botswana!!) We had breakfast and than took a road trip up to Elands Bay and Lambert's Bay. They seemed to be small fishing towns, but not much going on besides that. We had lunch at a small restaurant in Lambert's Bay and also took some walks along the beaches throughout the day. We hung out, watched tv, and packed that night. I even got to do my laundry in a washer and dryer!! AHH!!
I was so glad I got to see Irina and her family, as it had been since January since I had last seen her! She brought me an awesome care package full of goodies from home!! We had a lot to catch up on, and I hope she's able to make it back to Botswana before my 2 years are up!
Friday: Friday morning I woke up around 4am and headed back to Cape Town to catch my 8:30am flight!! I didnt really have any problems, just took the wrong turn off on the N1...but it was easily fixed! I caught my 8:30am flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, took a taxi from the airport to the bus station and than waited for my bus back to Gaborone.
Well my bus was about 30 minutes late; than we sat in about 2 hours of traffic in Johannesburg; and than all of a sudden we pulled over in the middle of no where. Well for some reason (still dont know why) my bus broke down...so than we had to sit for about 3 hours till a new bus came. Finally a new bus came; but we were still far away from the border and there was a debate as to whether or not the border closed at 10pm or 12pm. If it closed at 10pm, we werent going to make it over boarder. Someone finally called to see what time they closed; and luckily they closed at 12pm. We finally made a stop at a gas station-and I hadnt eaten all day, so lucky for me, I got to have Nik Naks for dinner (aka cheetos). But I was happy because we finally made it over the border and I made it home around midnight! Clearly my vacation was coming to an end...stranded on a broken down bus, followed by Nik Naks for dinner...ha. Welcome back to Botswana.
So I had a great vacation, and found the all of solo-me time to actually be quite nice! I gave myself the weekend to get back into the swing of things and first thing Monday morning I have my first STEPS screening with mary!! We will be screening a film to the Form 2 classes at my Junior Secondary schools on Monday+Tuesday; I'll be heading to her village on Friday; and than Nov. 2nd we'll finish at my school. Im excited to be jumping right into things!!
Here are pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2465263&id=7813917&l=4e30803426
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