Cape Town - Day 2-3

Time for another update :)

I've thankfully managed to cram quite a bit in to these past two days, and also met some cool people.

Emma was kind enough to drop me off in the center of town yesterday morning on her way to work. The original plan was to take the shuttle to the waterfront and catch the ferry to Robben Island, but since I got there so early, I was able to explore a bit on foot. There are several notable streets and areas in the city center, also known as the "City Bowl." Long Street is perhaps the most well-known and touristy. It's basically a street lined with boutique shops and cafes and restaurants. Some are quite modern and others more boho/kitschy. So I walked up and down that street and popped in to a few shops (no purchases of course).

Nearby there is a neighborhood called Bo Kaap which has many flat row houses painted in brilliant colors. I figured those would be quite photogenic, but unfortunately my lack of photographic skills doesn't do them justice.

By now it's about 10am and the shuttle bus from the city center to the waterfront has started. I make my way to the bus stand and pay my R8 ($1). The V&A Waterfront is a relatively new development with several shopping malls, restaurants, and is most importantly, the launching place of the Nelson Mandela Robben Island Museum and ferry. I've heard mixed reviews about the entire Robben Island experience but figured I should suck it up and pay the $30 to see where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were contained.

The ferry ride was about 30 min each way and once we arrived on the island, we were basically bused around like...well...inmates. But the tour guide was quite charming and we heard from an ex-prisoner and also an ex-warden.

That evening, I went to a nearby bar with Emma and David and some of her friends, who are awesome by the way :) I'm pretty sure I was the oldest one there, but who cares. I'm not sure if this is true of most South Africans, but this group sure loved their foosball. We played 10+ games in various configurations, haha. Try 4 on 4 when you get a chance (and try not to be the goal keeper)!

Today I took the MetroRail out to Simon's Town, which is a little over an hour away on the eastern side of the peninsula. The water from the Indian Ocean forms that bay so it's substantially warmer than the western side with the Atlantic water. I tried both today and it's quite noticeable. I bought a "tourist pass" for R30 ($4) which allowed me to hop off at some of the other stops along the way so I saw a bit of Muizenberg, Kalk Bay and Fish Hoek - just little resort/fishing towns. Simon's Town was worth a visit for me because that's where you can see African Penguins. Boulder Beach is about a 30 min walk from the Simon's Town rail station and since it's technically part of Table Mountain National Park, there's a R45 ($6) charge. There's a boardwalk portion that brings you by the sand dunes where you can see the penguins below. Then there is also a beach area that I nearly missed where you can actually get in the water and swim with the penguins. I managed to climb up on some boulders and perch myself there and wait patiently. After a couple of minutes, several penguins would waddle by with a foot of you and dive into the water. One actually came ashore from the water and shook water droplets all over my camera.

Tonight, again, the three of us went to Clifton beach to meet up with some of David's friends that he had previously met through Couchsurfing. Remember I mentioned he has managed to stay in Cape Town for nearly 4 months with 10 hosts and without paying a single night? That racks up a lot of friends as well. We all brought some food and had a picnic on the beach and watched the sundown and lit candles. Thankfully for the warm weather, the evenings are comfortable and breezy and we stayed almost until 10pm.

Exhausted and ready to sleep.