Dancing, Hop On/Off and the Amazing Adventure That Almost Happened
Friday night kicked off my first weekend in Cape Town with free time so explore as I pleased. First of all a small group of us travelled to the waterfront mall to have a wander around the shops. Some of us wanted to buy a cheap phone for the free sim the staff members gave us , personally I was on the look out for a new baseball cap as a useful souvenir. I found the perfect one and have worn it everyday since! Then we had a quick drink before heading back to Obz (Observatory the suburb in which we stay.)
All the volunteers met at 'Jerrys' a local bar in time for the football match - Liverpool vs Chelsea. (I'm just glad we didn't do the same with the Man Utd game the next day.. Enough said.) Everyone was in high spirits and by the end of the match all the girls had lost interest in football and much preferred a round of tequila - lead by the lovely, loud, latina - Andrea of Mexico. The party carried on into another place, a favourite spot for the volunteers to listen and dance to some RnB/rap music and then to an amazing bar full of pool tables. There must have been over 20 tables and also some arcade machines dotted around the place. The two things I remember the most there was the Malibu and Coke tasting great and the number of songs by the Arctic Monkeys! A little bubble of Sheffield thousands of miles from home.
Saturday was when most of the volunteers went on a wine tour - I'm far to unrefined for that sort of stuff.. In other words I don't like wine.. Luckily another volunteer was of the same opinion so instead we went into Cape Town city centre to explore using the bright red tour bus. We managed to walk down long street (a notorious street dominated by bars and nightclubs) which was quite lovely during the day. In particular a cute little cafe called Lola's where we stopped for some roobios tea (tea from the Cape) and cheese cake. Then we explored around the area - like Bo-Kapp a colourful Muslim district with beautiful houses and a mosque. As well as the company gardens which was lovely, lots of pretty flowers, fat squirrels, majestic trees and birds that will scare the life out of you with their deafening squawk. Yeah that happened to me!
The other highlight was the tour guide from the 'pentagon castle' which was a pretty puny fortification compared to the massive ones in the UK. He was incredibly knowledgeable and super fun. Especially as he asked where everyone was from, so he could point at a citizen of the country he was giving a history lesson on. Naturally the Dutch and English (me) got a lot of attention but it was in a lighthearted manner which was really funny. But the key moment was at the end. He obviously lived and breathed this history. The passion was incredible, so when he gave a speech about historical attitudes and how to move forward it was inspiring. I remember the way he made me feel rather than specifics words he said. However this phrase stood out: 'Only when we free ourselves from shame and blame can we move forwards'
Sunday was the day that might have been. Don't get me wrong the morning was magical, half of us sat down at a local cafe for breakfast. I had French toast with syrup and fried banana but the eggs benedict looked amazing, not to mention the French toast with fruit nuts and Nutella.. Can't believe I didn't choose that in hindsight! But fortunately I have a sweet friend who donated some strawberries to me so I was a very happy boy.
Now for the nightmare part, we split up to get ready for a nice easy hike around the silver mines reservoir. Or at least that's how it was recommend to us. When we told the taxi driver where we wanted to go he just looked blankly at us. Bless him, I had just woken him up from his nap in the car. So he callled HQ on the radio trying to find this place and we just went round in circles for like 15 minutes. It was laughably terrible. It was going to cost a lot and take us 1hr to get there according to the radio. That was NOT what we were told. The fair was far too much for us so we aborted mission and went into the city centre. And tipped the bloke well for the fiasco we had caused.
And so we embarked on a relaxed cultural tour of the city - of course I was now the guide having spent the day before in town. Company gardens again, a quick pop round the informal markets and then we went to the South African national art gallery. The security was hilarious - the 'safe' lockers for our bags could be lifted up.. Maybe I just have a criminal brain, the others thought I could be a master thief. It was a shame you couldn't take pictures because there were some freaky statues and powerful artwork- as you can imagine coming from a country with such a recent emotional history.
I feel that covers just about everything - I have learnt a lot this last week and going forward I will try and do more frequent smaller blogs and now I have a couple RealTalk and Heart2Heart topics to share too. Stay tuned! Love to all my family xx
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