After the break we continued west to Cape Town. I got to drive at this point, and believe me it took a while to get used to. All of us hugged the shoulder of the road for a while until we got used to the drive. It wasn't that bad once we got going and were around other cars. I did however had to keep reminding myself to go LEFT LEFT LEFT around the round-abouts.
We drove into the Cape Town area after dark, but the city looked awesome with all the lights and mountains. We stayed in a suburb called Fish Hoek in these cottages on the beach.
On Monday (our first full day in CT), we went to the District 6 museum and learned about the forced removals of citizens. Back in the 50s and 60s, District 6 (which is now right next to the city centre) was home to coloured residents. The neighborhood was run-down, but not horrible. However since it was during apartheid, the white people wanted this valuable land for themselves, so they forced the coloured people to move to what are now the Cape Flats townships on the outside of the city. Nothing was actually done with much of the old District 6 during apartied, and today different groups are fighting over what should become of it. From the pictures we saw of the neighborhood, it just needed to be fixed up a bit, it wasn't a slum as the whites claimed. Our tour guide in the museum was an ex-resident of district 6, so he knew about this stuff first hand.
After the museum, we went to Green Market Square, an area where people sell paintings, jewellry, bowls, clothing....you name it, they probably sell it. I got a few cool gifts here, and its nice because the prices are usually negotiable. It was a unique atmospehere becuase everyone is eager to show off their items for sale. After wandering around the market for about an hour, we drove to the Malay District of the city. This part of town used to be inhabited by ex-slaves, but it is now mainly Muslims. Many of the houses are painted different and bright colours so it was cool to walk around and see. From the Malay District, we drove to Chapman's Peak to look out and take pictures of part of the city.
On Tuesday we went to Cape Point/ Cape of Good Hope. Cape Point is where the two oceans (indian and atlantic meet) and it was gorgeous. Cape of Good Hope is the southern most point in Africa. We hiked for about two hours here before setting off for Boulder Beach to see the penguins. The penguins were smaller than I thought they would be....they weren't tall like in Happy Feet but they were adorable anyway. After seeing the penguins we went to Robben Island. This is where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners from the 1960s onward. Our tour guide here was an ex-prisoner who was on the island from 1981-1985 I think. He would talk about how cruel things were, but I think in keeping with the idea of Nelson Mandela's policy of reconciliation, he never complained too harshly if that makes sense. We learned about prison life: they were up everyday by 6:30 am, and worked many hours a day, before returning to their cells for dinner and were locked away by 4:30pm. Many of the prison cells housed thirty men in bunk beds in a large room with three showers, however the more important/ leaders of the ANC (like Mandela) were housed in small, one person rooms. We got to see the courtyard where Mandela wrote "A Long Walk to Freedom" and other resistance literature was written and passed around. We got to see Mandela's cell, it was crazy to think he spent 27 years in here. Once the tour of the prison was over, we got to see the rest of the island and learn about its history. It was originally an outpost for Portuguese ships rounding the Cape. Then it was used as a leprosy colony, then it housed common-law prisoners, before welcoming the political ones in 1961.
On Wednesday we went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens (and climbed some trees), visited the Rhodes Memorial, and the University of Cape Town. The university sits at the bottom of Table Mountain and was absolutely the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It kind of reminded me of UCLA but way better.
On Thursday we went to two wineries in nearby Stellenbosch. The wine tastings were only 20R or maybe $5. After tasting some wine, we drove to see these colourful houses on the beach in one of the suburbs.
On Friday we got on one of those hop on/ hop off buses. We first went to the South African Jewish Museum which was kind of boring (no offense) but then we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was phenomenal...I wouldn't have thought a country like South Africa could have a nice Holocaust museum, but it had so much information. From the museums, we got back onto the bus and went to Table Mountain. We took the cable car up and it was amazing once we got there. You could see all of the city since it was a clear day. After getting off the mountain, we went to the Waterfront for my favorite activity.....SHOPPING.
On the way back from CT we stopped in Knysna to play with elephants. They were so huge, I was always afraid they would step on me!
All in all it was a great trip!
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