The first day in South Africa we did the literal coolest, most culturally enriching thing I can imagine. We bought freaking SNACKS.
But really, our ship docked in the afternoon instead of early morning because of some bad weather we experienced after Ghana, so we explored the Victoria Wharf area and refilled our stocks of peanut butter (a literal necessity), Nutella, and I bought so much dried fruit it was kind of ridiculous. (It wasn’t enough, though, because I’m writing this right before India and it’s all gone now soooo.) Also I bought an insane amount of gifts for people because I know I’d personally want cool stuff from Africa, so I couldn’t not buy every single interesting thing I saw.
That night we went to a bar and sat outside in the biggest, nicest beanbags I’ve ever sat in and if anyone was wondering, that is 100% the best way to drink red wine and naughty lemonade.
I had an amazingly impactful field class the next day at Robben Island. It actually resonated enough that I’m giving it its own blog coming very soon.
The third day in Cape Town I went with my friends Jenna and Max to Table Mountain, I didn’t even know it’s one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, but I am definitely not surprised. And the wifi lounge had quality service so you already know we hung out in there for at least half an hour and edited pics. Had to do it for the gram, obviously.
We got back in time to change and find an Uber that would drive us, Hanna, and Kelsey two hours away for our safari. Aquila game reserve is absolutely great, 10/10 would recommend. We pulled up and were handed these cool metal chalice-looking wine glasses before we even signed in. We paid extremely little for how luxurious that place was, I’m still so shocked that it wasn’t way pricier.
Lions, elephants, and zebras oh my (????) We saw so many animals so close up, like rhinos, hippos, and a few that I didn’t even catch the name of. I was so amazed to be so close to animals like those, not in a zoo but out in the world. The first thing we drove up to were the elephants, and I realized right before we drove away that I had to take a pic of Big Al with them because duh, they’re both elephants. It literally didn’t even occur to me until the last second but I’m glad I realized. So basically, Roll Tide from Africa;)
That night we were driving the 2 hours back, and for a while we were in the middle of nowhere and could see the stars so clearly. It was stunning, and I was thinking about so much that I had experienced in less than 72 hours and it finally hit me that I’m doing the most amazing thing in the world. I’ve had to remind myself literally multiple times a day of what country I’m in or what crazy new thing I’m doing because it doesn’t feel real. But in that moment, it did. It still felt like a dream, but it just really hit me that I’m really here and I’m really doing this.
I got to go kayaking with Hanna, and some penguins, on the fourth day. This huge whale surfaced so close to us and it was amazing to be surrounded by so much life. I absolutely adore kayaking anyway, so I would have been happy regardless, but there was this huge seaweed growing like I’d never seen before and the water was so nice and the area was gorgeous and it was such a great day. I tutor my Global Studies professor’s daughter, Karen, and their whole family was kayaking as well. I loved getting to spend time with them outside of the ship and a school setting. Getting to do any of these in-country things with anyone is super crazy because when you think about it, you realize that you have a legitimate bond with those people now. No matter what you did, you did it together in a foreign country and I can’t even say that I’ve done that with most of my close friends or family.
The best part of the day was that night, though. We went to a comedy club for Jenna’s class, shout out her for taking world theatre and having to go to shows in a bunch of the countries. It was a Wednesday night so there wasn’t a ton going on, but we went to this karaoke bar and it was one of the best nights ever.
From Sweet Home Alabama to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, we freaking killed it. The amount of people who were excited that I went to Bama was ridiculous and some guy that went there like 30 years ago bought me shots. Then I met a guy from Brazil who works for the company that produces Amarula (the best cream liquor ever don’t @ me) who said we did a good job on our group rendition of Don’t Stop Believin so he bought my friends and me Amarula literally for the rest of the night.
Hell yeah for Theo and his free drinks and bad karaoke in the middle of Cape Town with 6 of my fav people.
We might have been a little drunk when we woke up at 7am for our wine tour, but that didn’t stop us from fully experiencing 2 wineries and a brewery the next day. Singing Dancing Queen (like 5 times, no joke) and drinking bottles of sparkling wine is the only good way to end a 10 hour day of drinking, so that’s exactly what we did. #noragrets 😉
To finish off the night I got sushi, so I pretty much can’t imagine anything better. Literally just wait until Japan when I only eat sushi for 15 meals straight.
Our last morning, we woke up at 2:30 am, hiked Table Mountain, got our first good coffee in a month, more sushi and went back to the ship and passed out so fast. I wrote a separate blog just about hiking because that was the hardest, most amazing thing I think I’ve ever done and it definitely deserves its own space.
South Africa is my favourite place by far from this trip and I can’t believe how quickly it went by. I think I could stay for at least a month and be content with exploring the different sections of town and learning more about its history and maybe even hiking another few mountains (coming for ya Lions Head.)
Leave a Reply