Thoughts from a jumbled mind: February 2012

It was a great trip. Cape Town is a really interesting city. I am definitely looking forward to going back (but boy oh boy is that a drag of a trip).

I went there for the excuse of attending Dave & Ilda’s wedding. Because they both grew up there, I figured it was a great opportunity to see the city with people who could show me the real Cape Town. Because of stupid logistics, Dave wasn’t there for most of the time when I was but Ilda made a surprisingly large amount of time (considering it was the week before her wedding) to drive me around.

We started off the day I arrived by going to the area where wine is grown (or however that works). As I don’t drink, we went to a winery and cheese place and had a beautiful lunch and tried all kinds of cheese. They also had pet goats, which were very entertaining. I quickly ran out of oomph and ended up crashing for 14 or so hours at my hotel, which managed to knock any jet lag out of my system.

Spent the next day going to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were kept. The tours there are conducted by former political prisoners, so we heard personal stories about how they used their time there to determine how South Africa should operate post-apartheid and to keep their hope and spirits alive.

I went to the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturday morning and enjoyed checking out all the crafts, but especially the huge food area. It literally took me more than four loops around the food area before I could decide what I wanted to eat.

I got to attend Ilda’s bridal shower (aka: hen party) and meet a lot of her long time friends. Everyone was very friendly and didn’t mention how incredibly pale I was. The party was at the beach, which gave me a chance to get into the Atlantic in Africa. It was freezing. (But pretty.) While I was wandering around looking for photo ops, I was climbing on some rocks and came upon a sleeping seal about five feet from me. I screwed up the one picture I took of him/her on the rock, but after my shutter woke him up, he played in the water and let me take some pix.

Fairview Winery, Ilda's shower, Old Biscuit Mill Market, Robben Island & Table Mountain pictures

We went to the District 6 museum and the Jewish museum. I wrote about this experience earlier on my blog here because it really was significant to me.

Ilda and I spent a day driving down to Cape Point, which is the southern-most tip of Africa (not really, but it’s the tourist southern-most tip). The drive was great and we got to stop at some very picturesque towns and see the local penguins, who allowed me to climb the rocks and hang out and shoot lots of pictures of them. Watching them do their wobble-walk is hysterical.

We got to Cape Point towards the end of the day, so the tourists were all leaving and the little tram up to the top was shut down, which meant we had to hike it up. It turned out to be a pretty exhausting walk, but we saw a bunch of cool animals – I’m thinking it’s because the other people have left and because the day was cooling down. I’m sure I’ve seen ostriches in the zoo, but I never really paid much attention to them. Let me tell you – ostriches are proof that God has a sense of humor. If you look at their parts, every part of them is bizarre. And they can turn their heads around in 180 degrees – I got a picture of it.

It was a really amazing, special day and it was such a gift to get to share it with a friend.

I went to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden with Ilda’s sister Isabel and their aunt, Sister Teresa (a nun who lives in Mozambique and who only speaks Portuguese). It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful park. Sister Teresa managed to reach over the language gap to let me know that my face was red (combination of sunburn and walking up a big hill).

District 6 museum, Simons Town, Cape Point and Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden pix

Because I was so taken with the animals I saw at Cape Hope, Ilda’s other sister Luisa arranged for me to go on a safari at a private reserve. It was really great and I’m so happy with the pictures I got that day.

I wrapped up the trip by going to the South African Museum and seeing an exhibit of wildlife photos. They were just amazing. While walking back through the Company Garden, where the original European settlers used to plant their crops, I stopped and had an omelet at a sweet little restaurant and did some people watching. It was pretty perfect.

Later that day, Dave & Ilda took me to Bo-Kaap, a largely Muslim neighborhood that’s characterized by the bright colors they paint their homes. It was very striking.

Safari, Bo-Kaap and the Company Garden pix

I went to Dave & Ilda’s wedding and found their friends to once again be so kind and thoughtful. They made sure to reach out to me and make sure that I was comfortable. I especially liked that there was an inflatable bouncy castle at the wedding – although D & I managed to climb in there for a celebratory bounce.

Dave & Ilda’s Wedding pix

It was a great vacation, and even though the trip to and from is pretty rough, it is definitely worth it. Here are a few of my favorite pictures I shot. Click on the picture to enbiggen (or just click on the links above to see all the pix, make them Very Big or order prints).