Gee Wiz! By Golly, I forgot my synopsis of South Africa. Well, heres it is yall. South Africa is a rose garden enclosed by barbed wire. The beauty is apparent and the awesomeness is evident but there is a leap that must be made for its true splendor to be unveiled. Racism has penetrated the essence of the society and racial lines still divide society. Crime is everywhere, making even the greatest of times dampened by fear. Though South Africa was my favorite country thus far, its draw backs are undeniable. I saw more civilians carrying guns in my few days here than I had previously seen in my entire life. Townships (which will be explained later) reinforce several of these notions, and an internal Us-Them mentality mars the society. The landscape is beautiful, the culture is so rich, the down town is awesome and the general life is wonderful, but the drawbacks put an asterisk on even the greatest of times.
So, back to the happy stuff. Where was I? Ah, yes, Thursday morning. 7 am, I wake up, got to breakfast and meet Chloe (one of my closest friends) to spend the day with her and the people she was traveling with. Over breakfast we decide we will climb Table Mountain and decide from there. So off we go to Table Mountain. TM is a staple of Cape Town. The city lies in front of the massive, flat mountain that offers gorgeous views of the city and surrounding miles. As we began to climb some of the group struggled, as it is a challenging hike, while others wanted to move more quickly. So Chris, Kristen, Olivia, and Katie stayed back as Ethan Rob and I climbed more rapidly. Man this hike was tough. About half way Rob fell back and joined up with the other group. Ethan and I made it up in just over an hour (1 11 to be exact) while the other group took just under 2.5 hours. By the time they got up we had already eaten and were about to go down, but we waited with them and had some time to soak up the sun. Words cannot describe how amazing this hike was. Think Massada but with a better view; though the top had little history, the nature and landscape that surround it is truly second to none.
We loved it so much that Ethan and I refused to join the other group on the cable car down and instead hiked it ourselves. It took a while and really hurt our knees, but it was well worth it. When we reached the bottom we got in a cab and went to the District 6 museum. We got there just before close, but had enough time to see most of it. District 6 was the last area to be cleansed by the apartheid government. People had been living there for generations and were kicked out simply because they were black. Seeing their faces and hearing their anecdotes made the experience pretty chilling.
When we got kicked out of the museum we headed to the Castle of Good Hope (oldest building in Cape Town) but we just missed it’s closing time. Still the outside was pretty remarkable architecture. Rather than waiting for a real cab, we hoped in a share cab and, a half hour later, ended up nowhere near our ship. We laughed it off, found the soccer stadium that was built for the world cup, and toured a bit. We then went to Toys-r-us before getting a real ride back to the glorious MV Explorer.
I got back around 6 and that is when the real fun began. I went with a couple of friends (3 of whom attend the elite University of Wisconsin) to a Rugby match. Though no big 14 games were being played (e.g. no MLB games) we went to the local club (e.g. AA baseball) and watched there. There were no seating areas so we stood right on top of the field. There were about 2,000 people surrounding the field and it was pretty intense. They seriously kill each other. Way too tough for my fragile body, but seriously an awesome sport. Chalk it up boys, two days, two amazing experiences!
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