We arrived a little late in Cape Town, which was once again frustrating. It was very foggy and we couldn’t get into port on time. Eventually, we did dock in Cape Town, South Africa. I could not believe we were finally here. I went up to the top deck and saw the city, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The city was huge and it was built between the ocean and table mountain, which dominated the city’s skyline. It was definitely a perfect place to build a city. We waited until the ship was cleared and got off. We were docked near the Waterfront, which was a really, really nice mall right next to the port. I wanted to buy some camera accessories, and I pretty much convinced Rory to buy a DSLR, so we went to a camera shop in the mall. Rory decided to buy a Nikon D60 (booooo…Nikon…lol) and I tried out some new lenses. They were very nice, but I realized they were overpriced by about $200, which is ~2000 South African Rand. So, I decided not to buy anything, and we walked to the food court for lunch. There were so many fast food places with cuisines around the world (Thai, Indian, Arabian, Cuban, etc..). Achal, Z, and I saw a falafel place and decided to eat there…it was delicious! I told the guy to put a lot of the spicy sauce in mine, and it was sooo good. I hadn’t eaten spicy food in too long…hehe.
We headed back to the ship to meet our city orientation group, and we loaded the buses and headed out. The trip was ok, and we didn’t see too much. We went to the oldest building first , and I didn’t think it was too special. Next, we went to the Company Gardens (pictured), and they were very beautiful. We sat down at a restaurant and had some fresh fruit juice. I had some guava juice and it was good and reminded me of home (I have sooo many guava trees in my backyard). We also checked out a museum in the area where we saw an entire skeleton of a blue whale. We wandered around a little and then returned to the bus, which drove us back to the port. Back at the port, we decided to go check out the mall again, because we had to go to sleep early (we were leaving for our trip the next morning at 5 AM). After checking out some shops, we saw a crazy street performance. A South African dude put on a balancing show that was ridiculous. He balanced lots of things using his mouth including a torch and a TABLE! Then, we went to go eat dinner at Jewel of India, a restaurant inside the mall. It sounded and looked very nice, and I thought it would be very expensive, but it wasn’t. Dishes were about $5 each, and this was a really nice restaurant in the Waterfront. It was pretty sweet. I eagerly ordered my food (hadn’t eaten real Indian food since leaving home), and it was DELICIOUS. Z said it was the best Indian food he ever had. Content from our meal, we headed back down to the mall. We enquired about phone cards and found out they were only 1 Rand/minute to call the US!! Achal and I bought a R20 card, and we both called home. I had not talked to my parents since Spain, and it was nice to hear familiar voices again. After I exhausted my card and promised to call back, we headed back to the ship so we could sleep early. I was pretty tired, but I packed my backpack for my trip the next day and then passed out. Cape Town was amazing so far, but I wondered what lay in store for us over the next 4 days.
Yash how come you didn't call us? :(
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