We’ve come to the end of Africa, the very edge of a continent I have always felt oddly connected to. The constant repeat of Shakira’s Waka Waka has played its final note (her hips haven’t stopped lying, though), the Atlantic Ocean is behind us, and a whole new set of countries in Asia waits. I will warn you up front; this entry is going to be long. South Africa did not have the same kind of progression or straightforwardness as Canada, Morocco, or Ghana. That’s not to say that those countries were simple, of course, but South Africa was a six day non-stop thrill ride of beautiful sights, complex feelings about myself and my surroundings, and late nights out with my friends. I’m going to split this entry up by each day, mostly because every day was extremely unique, also a differing feature of our time spent in Cape Town. Be prepared for a number of “best of’s.” So, here we go. I hope I don’t miss anything, but I probably will. I have in my other entries, but I’ll never really admit to that…even though I just did. Damn. Also, be aware that I’m going to be talking about alcohol, because it certainly made up a portion of my time in South Africa. Whatever, I’m legal here, so sorry for all you stingy prudes. Future employers, please still hire me, thanks. Mom and Dad, I’m still a good little boy, I swear. Everyone else…yeah, I got nothing. Let’s begin!
Day One, Friday, September 23rd, 2011: Lion’s Head sunset
The general consensus around the ship for the couple of days leading up to South Africa was that the sunrise was something everyone should definitely wake up for, especially after the disappointment of the entry into Ghana. To be completely honest, in all its simple beauty and anxious nerves as we made our way up to the port, it was one of the best mornings of my life. Finally seeing mountains again, especially one as impressive as Table Mountain was comforting and humbling. Back home in Vojvodina we do not have mountains and ocean. Reflections on the water with the purple-pinkish red sky left me utterly speechless and extremely overwhelmed with excitement and eagerness.
When we arrived, I realized that there are some unwanted tickets for some trips in Cape Town, so I took them . I found one for the first day which was climbing the Lion’s Head in Cape Town. Since I didn’t have any other plans for the first day, except my FDP, I decided to take it and go for it. In the early afternoon I had my FDP, so I had to listen boring speech of some diplomatic lala man . I left my FDP in the middle of session, since I wanted to climb Lion’s Head and not to be closed in a classroom listening some speeches. Everyone who knows me know that I always want to find out something new, but this was extremely boring. However, I left the FDP and guess what? My friends Woody, Michelle and Chelsey were on this trip with me. So, we took a bus and started lovely climbing . After a little more than an hour we reached the top and the whole world stopped. Form the top; we could see the beautiful Table Mountain and the whole Cape Town. If I had to describe this view in one sentence it would be breathtaking…We stayed there to watch sunset and that was probably one of the greatest things ever I experienced. Since I have 5 more days to tell you about, this would be it . Amazing view and great time with my friends. Andddd yes, we met 3 American student on this trip, who study in Cape Town and who offered to show us around next day. We warmly accepted . But before that educated tour around Cape Town, we went out that night. It was..Hm…Blurry, haha :D Club name was Fes and all SAS kids were there. Without money, me Chelsey and Megan somehow got back to the ship after many shots, nasty dancing and some kisses . I won’t say who made out . We ended up in the cab with some drunk girl who later on was caught intoxicated on the ship and who got some penalties, haha :D She was really fucked up :D Well, we were safe .
Day Two, Saturday, September 24th, 2011: Old Biskuit Mill Beaches of Cape Town
The next day we went to Old Biskuit Mill Market place. It was absolutely amazing. Every Saturday and Sunday a lot of people go there and eat different food from all around the world. There is huge hall with food from around 20 different countries. Most of these countries were not very excited for me, since I had a chance to try French cheese or Belgium waffle, but I was really excited to try typical food from South Africa and I got it . I ate delicious salmon with eggs, potato and some typical African souse. I was happy. Once we left market place, we went to the beach that was one hour away from Cape Town. Surfers all around, beautiful bodies and sun. What else to ask for? The most shocking thing in the train was seeing couple of young girls and kids, dressed for performance and dancing in the middle of the train. They were really noisy, so everyone could hear them. It was performance for money, not for fun, but they were really cute and very well prepared. We spent the whole afternoon over there enjoying the sun and beaches. The rest of the night was spent drinking in Mitchell’s, a local pub on the waterfront that was full of us students. It really was nice having a solid meeting place near the ship that brought so many people together. I certainly got to talk to a lot of different people each night we were there. Many of us SAS-ers also ended up at a club called Voom Voom for some awesome second-floor dancing.
Day Three, Sunday, September 25th, 2011: Robben Island and Waterfront
After circling around for a bit, we pulled into the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a positively posh place with stores, restaurants, and tourists and locals mixing and mingling. It was a welcomed change from the less-than-ideal ports in Casablanca and Tema. We spent some time looking for some souvenirs and looking for a good place to eat. Than we met Mr. Cohen, my lovely friend Nick who offered us to go to Robben Island what we did in next three hours. Robben Island is much like Alcatraz—it’s a former prison on a small island off the coast of the mainland. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of his 27 year imprisonment. 27 years is not even my entire life yet; I’d still have four years to go before being released. Scary thought. It was interesting seeing Mandela’s jail cell and hearing our guides personal narrative—he was an ex political prisoner on the island. Since they rely so much on that, they don’t have placards or signs, so that makes it hard to follow along. Despite all this, it was still a pretty moving morning. It served as a reminder of humanity’s power to both destroy and forgive—although we can do horribly painful things to one another, we have it within us to look past that and move on sometimes. On the ferry back to Cape Town, we talked to cool kids from Australia who are here as an exchange students. Looking at the ocean on the way back and thinking about what I saw, I started thinking about people and life in general. We are definitely who we are by decisions we make. Later on, we finished our day in Mitchell’s of course . I took just two beer, while Luke and Megan took probably five and ended up in gay club . I went back to the ship with Nate and decided to go to see penguins close to the Cape of Good Hope tomorrow. I was really excited.
Day Four, Monday, September 26th, 2011: The Peninsula
You guessed it—I woke up after only a little bit of sleep. Me, Nate, Luke, Sonya and one more person whom I really don’t remember who was went to Cape point and the town called Simon’s town. We took yellow train for like an hour and finally got to Simon’s town. It is a little town very close to the Cape point with amazing nature, next to the Ocean and very welcome people. Everything was gorgeous. The mountains and cliffs rose perfectly from the crystal blue-green water and pleasantly touched the sky. Cape Point was really unique, too, because it is the most southwestern point of the African continent. , since it’s their mating season, I’m relatively sure I heard two penguins getting up close and personal with each other. They are one of the cutest animals I ever saw. Walking next to the Ocean and as the day was winding down, I thought about how lucky I am to be able to see such beauty all around the world. All together, we had lunch in a restaurant with the view in the Ocean and penguins. After exploring Simon’s town, we took a train to come back to Cape Town. Later that night I talked to my family for the first time since I left Serbia on 22nd August. It felt really good after more than a month seeing lovely face of my brother and my nephew Filip. Gorgeous smile on his face made my day.
Day Five, Tuesday, September 27th, 2011: Operation Hunger
For those of you less in the know about South African social, political, and legal structure, townships were segregated towns for non-white people only during the age of Apartheid. Since white supremacy was the law of the land, townships received extremely poor government support. The townships were shanty towns of rows of shacks, essentially. I shouldn’t say “were,” though, because they still are poor, desolate towns of utter squalor. Driving through them was pretty depressing, but when we got to the party, the people were so happy, much like the Ghanaians. I was son organized trip by SAS visiting one of the townships and doing the program called Operation Hunger. Operation Hunger is the program run by SAS people and locals in Cape Town who are trying to help all kids and families who live in poverty. Basis goal is to feed kids and to make them being in school and not on the street. It was the best day of my life at that moment. I got a chance to play with all these kids and to cook for them, as well as to learn some African songs. While we were watching the performance of the kids, one mom gave me her 3 months old baby to hold him for a second. That second lasted for 2 hours. I was blessed. I was holding that little innocent baby whose future is questioned. They don’t have access to pure water; they don’t have transportation to schools that are 10km far away, they basically eat only rise every single day. All of us could easily be that baby. It is ridiculous if you think about it. Just 10 minutes far away from shiny Cape Town with a lot of glamour and luxury, there is frustrating township with 2.5 million living there with barely anything. So sad. I played on the play ground with 50 kids around me. Singing, dancing, enjoying every single second of that trip. I will be back guys.
Then, that night, I went out again to a club with a bunch of other students on the other side of the city called…well I don’t know the name, because by the time we got there, we were already tipsy. We were tipsy only because we had karaoke in Mitchell’s before we went out. I was singing my favorite songs Summer of ’69 and Don’t stop believing. I love it. I left the club earlier with Joe and the rest of the group stayed there for a while. Chelsey threw up later that night and I am really sad that I missed that :D However, she is alive; she survived her first big drunkenness. I went to bad at 5am which wasn’t the best idea, you will find out why in a few seconds.
Day Six, Wedenesday, September 28th, 2011: Table Mountain and saying goodbye to Cape Town
Ok, this was probably the most difficult day of my life. I came back to the ship drunk at 5am that morning. Ash woke me up at 8am asking me if I am still going to climb the mountain. I really thought I was not going to go, since I missed the breakfast and I was extremely tired. However, I found Woody, Megan and Luke who were ready to go. I knew it I shouldn’t miss it. So, I decided to go with them. I put Serbian flag in my backpack and I was ready to do it. We took a cab and 8 of us were on our way to one of the most beautiful places in the world. It takes approximately 3 hours to climb it. Table Mountain is 1086 meters high and has the amazing view on the Atlantic Ocean. It was 30 degrees outside, 10am and 8 young people ready to rock it. But the problems started really soon. I was exhausted. I didn’t have water. Actually I did have half liter, but I shared that with a girl who didn’t have any. After half an hour I told them that I can’t do that, it is too hot and I am tired. Everyone was screaming that this is the only chance and that I should do it. It was too early to give up. I continued. Very soon, I didn’t have any more water and the things got really hard. I didn’t have any protection for the sun; I was in my long pans without any food and water. After 45 minutes we found a stream and I basically collapse into the water. My head was happy. I filled my bottle, so I can use that water again for my body and head. After almost 2 hours it was so hard that I threw up. I threw up water, since I didn’t have anything else in my stomach. I told the rest of the group to continue and that I would go down or just stayed there. I was so bad that I honestly didn’t know what to do. However, I continued, but after one hour I couldn’t any more. The Sun was strong, it was around noon and I didn’t drink water for a long time. That was a moment when I started drinking water from the stream, not carrying about any bacteria or whatever I could get at that moment. At some point I was so helpless that I started crying. Only thing that kept me on my way to the top was Serbian flag and picture that I wanted to take there. I felt awful. I couldn’t handle situation any more. Finally, after more than 4 hours I got the top. I was so proud of myself. After these hard 4 hours, the world opened in front of me. We were literally at the edge of the world. I took my flag and got some amazing pictures. I drank a liter of water without even taking a breath. I felt really good. From the top, we could see the Atlantic Ocean, Robben Island, the station of the World Cup 2010 and the whole Cape Town. It was an amazing feeling. On our way back down, we took cable car which was the best idea at that moment. At the end, we got back to the Waterfront area and spent the rest of the day there.
Upon returning to the ship, everyone filed into the Union to hear the Archbishop Desmund Tutu address us. Yes, that’s right, Nobel Peace Prize Desmund Tutu. That guy. He gave the most powerful and uplifting speech, talking about how we have to keep dreaming and remaining idealistic in the face of adversity. He also talked about the story of Adam and Eve and how that is a great lesson in the interconnectedness of humanity and our constant desire for companionship. I was reminded of Adam Braun at a few points because he talked about how when we return home, people won’t recognize us. People will wonder who we are because we will be so moved by injustice and not be able to be indifferent anymore. I’m feeling that already. He was quite the kooky old man, telling a lot of jokes and always smiling and giggling. He ended his speech by saying that God looks at Semester at Sea and cheers.
What to say at the end? And that, my friends, was Cape Town, South Africa, in the best possible way I could describe. Amazing South Africa and great experience that will be stamped in my head and heart forever. After South Africa, I was ready for the last African country Mauritius.
