36. Even without a penny, Cape Town's beautiful!

Saturday 11 May ~ Sunday 12 May

You Can Steal my Purse, but you can’t steal my fun! I meant that!

I woke up pretty early on Saturday morning, and I remember that my first conscious thoughts were nice happy thoughts. And then I remembered suddenly about my purse. And the worries began to set back in. However, there was something almost calming about the fact that it was the next day. By now, he’d undoubtedly sold my purse and wallet, probably for alcohol, he’d spent my cash, probably thrown away my credit and debit and insurance cards. Hopefully also thrown away my drivers license and my Wildcard. I didn’t like the idea of him having pictures of me. I don’t want to know what he did with my postcards and the present I had in there for my mom. He’d probably sold my sunglasses – I wonder if their next owner will notice the tiny speck of green water-based paint on them that would never come off. It had landed on my sunglasses one hot sunny afternoon while I was painting the Fabretto School in Cusmapa, Nicaragua this past December. Sigh.

First stop on our touring schedule today: Cape Town’s most famous charm – Table Mountain. Although many of us would’ve loved to hike it, I’m sure, I don’t think we had enough time and some members of our group are injured and so would not be able to hike this intense hours-long hike. So we took the cable car up to the top of the mountain. This would not be a pleasant experience for those afraid of heights. The cable car climbed very quickly and at such a steep incline, it was almost going straight up. But once we arrived at the top, we were in for the most spectacular view in the world, well at least one of them. It was stunning. Also, since Cape Town is one of the world’s three windiest cities, Table Mountain is notorious for being unpleasantly windy, and is frequently closed due to dangerously blustery wind conditions at the top. However, just for us, there was no wind. It was pretty warm. It was phenomenal. And breathtaking. I hiked around the top for a bit with a few people, got a tiny bit too close to a huge cliff. Took some Wildcat group pictures with our fierce claws. Go 'Cats! 

Lion's Head from the Cable Car Boarding Point

Cape Town from Cape Car Loading Point

Don't look down!!! 

Mariah and I atop Table Mountain

Look at that view! 

Wildcats! 

Nouha and I 

Cape Town! 

Me and Nouha being adventurous/daring.
Yes, that is a drop to the bottom. 

Something so freeing about this!

Oh hey! 

Cue soundtrack from something cool. 

Why is it so flat?!

Mountains and Oceans. That's the Indian Ocean back there.

Indian Ocean on the far side of Table Mountain

Going back down. Wheee!!!!

After two perfect hours atop Table Mountain and lots of photo taking, we left and went to the Old Biscuit Mill Market. It used to actually be an biscuit mill, but now it's a Saturday market. The tour company gave us each R60 for lunch. I found a R60 ostrich burger, ordered it, and spent 100% of my total money. I briefly contemplated saving my money since it was all I had on this continent, but since literally everyone around me was eating, I quickly discarded that idea. My food was delicious. And Mariah ordered a milk tart (melkterte) but it was too much for her, so I had to help her finish it. It was delicious. It's a Boerkos specialty, and oh so good! Everyone shopped after lunch, I just browsed since I had no money. It's probably for the best since I saw lots of stuff there that I would've loved to buy. An easy way to stop spending - get robbed!

We then went to the Rhodes Memorial (dedicated to Cecil Rhodes who basically owned most of the southern part of Africa...Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - was named for him originally. It was a cool structure with a great view of the city.

Rhodes Memorial

Cape Town from the Rhodes Memorial

Cecil Rhodes

Our final stop for the day was the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Amy (my English teacher from high school who's lived in SA for three years) told me that Kirstenbosch is her favorite place in South Africa. I soon learned why. It was gorgeous! So many flowers and trees and interesting plants. The gardens were huge. Continuing my carefree feeling of being purseless, I embraced my vulnerability and got down on the ground and rolled down a grassy hill. It. was. amazing. I hadn't done it in years! But it made me feel really good. Doing something I hadn't done since childhood made me somehow feel safe and secure and worry free. I ended up going on a hike around the gardens with Neha and Mariah, and, feeling very impressed by the beauty of the gardens, probably still slightly dizzy from our grassy hill rolling adventures, and intrigued by trail signs that eventually led us out of the park toward a place called 'Skeleton Gorge,' we decided to be silly and narrate our own Indiana Jones-type adventure/reality tv show, called Neharieariah (so clever) while we sang Disney Songs (especially Just Around the River Bend, because we were pretty convinced we were going to round every corner and come face to face with some skeletons of some sort in a gorge) and of course the Indiana Jones theme song. It was quite a silly way to spend an afternoon, but I needed it!

OMG So pretty! 

a natural stream - it said the water was safe, I tried it. Most delicious water I've ever drank.

Giant spider

Just hanging out and having fun in the gardens. 

Care free! Hakuna Matata! 

Oh ya know because we have a Northwestern athlete, one of the best divers in the country on our program. Go 'Cats!
And because our TA Dilon is so cool that he walks on his hands. 

Neharieariah takes on the world

Adventures with Neharieariah will continue next week! 

Sunday, not officially part of our tour, we all decided to stay in Cape Town, but do different things. Seven of us went out to brunch to celebrate Lily's birthday. We ate brunch, and then some cake and sang to her. It was fun! Then we wandered around Long Street for a while, going in some of the few open shops. (This place really shuts down on Sundays, especially in the morning!)
Then we found a place called Greenmarket Square, where lots of vendors construct a market every single day. It's located right off Long Street in the one and only square in all of Cape Town. There were a lot of cool things there, more unique than other markets we've been to that all seem to generally sell the same souvenir items. This place had a lot more custom, handmade items that I haven't seen anywhere else.

After browsing Greenmarket for awhile (again, I was just browsing, limited by my lack of money), we decided to go to the beach since the weather was so nice. We went to Camps' Bay where we'd been four weeks before for Smitha's birthday. It was beautiful there again. I walked around in the sand, went and climbed some rocks, waded a bit too far until I was soaked up to my belly button (oops!) in icy cold water, played with some seaweed, looked at some shells, tanned, and ate some chocolate cake which we'd bought for Lily for her birthday. Again, although I didn't have a purse or any money,  was sitting on the beach at Camp's Bay, with Lion's Head behind me, Twelve Apostles to my left, the Atlantic Ocean stretching out practically forever in front of me, friends around me, sun shining down on me, eating chocolate cake. Really, I couldn't complain!