SAS Travelogue-Capetown, South Africa

SAS Travelogue-Capetown, South Africa

by Rebecca Smith

Well, I don’t know how to say hello in Kwazulu, Kosa, or Afrikans, so just deal with it. Anywho, Capetown, South Africa, ummmm it freaking rules. I love it here. Too bad we have to leave tonight. It’s gorgeous. TJ, Sam, and Sylv, this is the surf mecca of the world. There are beautiful beaches and because this is the point where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet, the waves are awesome. I did not go surfing though, because it is spring time here and still rather chilly, not to mention I don’t know how to surf. So I did what I do best. I shopped. So first day in port, I stepped off the ship into the most beautiful waterfront ever, also backed by a lovely view of Table Mountain. The whole scene only made better by the presence of a rather large shopping mall. YAY!!!! I must be in heaven. I love Capetown. So we spent the day shopping. I bought some South African music. We went to Green Market Square, which was cool, but they had a lot of the same stuff they had in Kenya. Then we went to The African Music Store, which was right between the African Pot Restaurant and the Hemp Store. All of which were neat stores, and the music store was especially cool. On the way back to the ship, some man followed us and shouted at us, “Why do tourists carry around so much luggage?” So I looked down at my small bag and said, “We’re not.” And he said, “Relax, I was just saying hi!” And I kept to myself the myriad of ways to say hello, and how that was no such greeting. So he told us how lovely our energies were and our auras were so positive. He invited us to a party where we could “put our feet on the ground and smoke up a little” with people who also had nice energies. We declined and tried to escape, but he was intently staring at my friend’s chest until she was like “Are you looking at my necklace?” Which was good, because I thought he was either ogling her or tripping. We eventually got away and returned to the ship. The next day I woke up at the butt crack of dawn so we could leave early to go to the winelands of Stellenbosch. We didn’t actually leave the ship until 8:30am and didn’t actually get on a train until 10:10 and didn’t actually arrive until like 11:30 and didn’t actually start cycling until like 1:30pm. So good thing I got up early. Cycling through the winelands, whose stupid idea was that? Oh yeah mine. Well, for about 3km I was trailing like 1km behind the rest of the group and having a hard time of it. All I could think of was man am I out of shape. Then I realized I had the gears at the highest resistance and I was trying to kill myself. After I figured that out and fixed, I was exhausted and huffing and puffing, so then we hit a hill, a big one. What did I expect, wine country is a mountainous region, of course there will be hills. So WHY DID I SUGGEST CYCLING?!?!?! On the way up the hill I passed a dead frog and wished I was it, and then a flattened snake and wished I was it, just so I wouldn’t have to be cycling up the damn hill. Then I reached the top, and discovered, hey we missed the turn, we didn’t have to go up the hill. Well, that’s just great!!!! Arrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!! We finally reach the first vineyard, and lo and behold there are two flights of stairs before we reach the top, there is a collective groan from the group. Needless to say we indulged in a rather long wine tasting. By the time we were done “sampling” and talking with our new friend Martin, we’ve been there nearly two hours. We only had time to hit one more vineyard. Here we met Natasha and some people from Austria. Natasha was cool and gave us lots of info on South Africa and wine and music. Stellenbosch is a university town as well as wine country, so both Martin and Natasha were students at the university, with part time gigs at the vineyards. It was beautiful, but exhausting. Next time I will take a motorized vehicle of some sort with a driver so I can sample my heart out. My friend Steve said the whole fun of cycling was weaving back and forth on the way back after much sampling. I thought that was the part that made it an extreme sport. Speaking of extreme sports, the third day, I again got up at the butt crack of dawn, and again, my valiant effort was thwarted. Shawn and I were to go skydiving at 9, so we were to catch a shuttle at 8. Well that never came. So we tried to get on the 9, but there were 20 other people waiting for a van with 16 seats. So that didn’t happen. So then the driver told us another one would be there in 10 min, and 2 hrs later, that still didn’t happen. So then, we found a girl to bitch to and she called and finally at noon we got on a shuttle to the airfield. Well, good thing we got there so early, because we had to wait another 3 hrs before we could actually skydive. The whole time before this day I was picturing myself having a Road Rule’s wussy girl-esque freak out session in the plane where I cry and demand to remain on the plane for descent. That didn’t happen. I actually did just fine. Egon, my tandem dive partner told me that when we reached the jump point, he would open the door, we would turn around and fall backwards. What actually happened was he opened the door told me to put my feet out, and next thing I knew I was flipping through the air at 120 mph. Soooooooo COOL!!!!! We did a couple of tricks and then the chute opened. He let me steer (well I don’t have enough upper body strength, so he pretended I was steering while he was actually doing all the work) and we did some spirals and some sightseeing, and a little nosedive (I don’t know if that’s what its called if you’re not in a plane, but you get the point). It was so awesome, and then it was over. I wish I had brought my camera, but I would have lost it during the free fall. Oh well. Totally awesome. I will do it again one day. That night we went to the university section of town for dinner and a bit of fun. Dinner was so cheap and very good. Then we went to a pool hall cuz they were playing rocking music and had cheap drinks. Me and this girl Erin played pool, horribly I might add. So when these boys challenged us to a game, all we could do was laugh, because we were so bad, it could hardly be called a challenge. Surprisingly, these boys were worse than us. If it was because they actually sucked or were just more drunk than us, I don’t know, but we beat them. Heh, whatever. Then we had to leave because Shawn was slightly incapacitated. She didn’t play pool, because she was helping hold up the bar, and buying every drink special they had. So we all piled in a cab and sang “Lean on Me” and other songs all the way home. So much fun. Love Capetown. Must return. Afrikaner boys are beautiful, am determined to marry one and live here. OK last day, did a service project called Operation Hunger. We did not do any service work. Don’t know whose organization screwed that up, but it sucked. The kids were cool though, and the high school choir performed for us and they were AWESOME!!!! They put all other choirs I’ve ever seen to shame. RULED!!!! And now I must jet to finish my shopping. Talk to you all again from Brazil!!!!