I just left South Africa and it was absolutely breathtaking! I loved every second of it and I know I’ll go back there one day. It had a great vibe right from the start; everything was so bright and the buildings are all Victorian looking. This was also the first port where I actually slept on the ship instead of getting a hotel because our port was in this area called the V & A Waterfront that had tons of shops and restaurants, a great location, and a lot nicer than the rest of the ports we’ve been in
so it was a lot less hectic not having to worry about packing or carrying my passport around.
Basically just like every other port, the first day we just walked around trying to get used to such a big city. We wandered into the downtown region because we all wanted to go to the District Six museum, which ended up not being as great as we had imagined. From there we found these really cool botanical gardens, where tons of people were hanging out. As we were walking through, we noticed there people feeding the squirrels and the squirrels literally climbing up the peoples LEGS to get the food!! Kristin, being the adventurous person she is decided to pretend like she had food and next thing you know she has a squirrel half way up her body, it was hilarious!
There are a lot of really cool streets downtown; my favorite was Long Street, which reminded Kristn and I of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco, it had such a fun atmosphere mainly because the people were all so friendly and everyone just want to talk and have a good time. So later that night we headed back down to Long Street for dinner. After dinner we went to a really fun bar called Jo’Burg that I’m pretty sure was just a bar for locals, but we decided we couldn’t resist going in once we heard the familiar American dance music. Next we made our way to a European club called Bang Bang, which was pretty interesting, but a lot of fun.
The second day we booked an all day wine tour because we had heard so much about the amazing vineyard in South Africa (by far my favorite day of the trip!). Our tour guide, to begin with, was a hoot. He showed up to pick us up not wearing any shoes; he was VERY relaxed about his job haha! He ended up teaching us a lot and knew everything there was to know about wine which was great. After the first vineyard we all felt like wine connoisseurs, and we still had FOUR more wineries in two different towns to go to; such a great time. We all wanted to send wine home (even though we have NO idea if it was even good wine) but it was wayyy to expensive for shiping. Besides shipping everything in South Africa was super cheap since the exchange rate is 10 USD for ever 1 Rand (I always felt like I was getting a deal, probably not the case ha!) So wine tasting was a big hit.
The next day I had to find new a new sidekick to explore Cape Town with because Kristin did a service project in a township (which she loved!!) I got on one of the city bus tours, that I just basically used as my taxi, where there were 13 stops around the city. I made it to the top of one of the biggest South African icons, Table Mountain, from the top it was most beautiful view I’ve ever seen!! I didn’t ever want to come down; it was so so amazing! On one side I could see Cape Point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet and on the other was Camp’s Bay, a gorgeous beach town. Later that day, I made it to Camp’s Bay to go to the beach and had a great lunch.
That night we all met back up and went to the rugby game. The Super 14 were in town (best teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa). We got front row seats, so we got to see all the action up close. It was a fun game to watch we all really enjoyed it and South Africa won!!
So the next day was the safari, and it was QUITE the event. We had to wake up at 5 in the morning because the game refuge was a two-hour drive from our ship. We finally made it to the game park (after all of us had no luck trying to sleep in the car on the way) and it was like a 5-star hotel, so beautiful! We were welcomed with champagne and huge breakfast buffet, and then it was safari time!! We all crammed into the back seat, which ended up to be a terrible idea because we were all hanging on for our lives the whole time, it was real bouncy. So we just bounced around in the back dying with laughter and all the serious safari people were glaring at us because you were supposed to be really quite. Then our truck broke down, and an elephant came up to the jeep and started hitting the hood with its trunk. The safari guides were freaking out and trying to get it to go away but we all loved it, and got some great pictures! Once the jeep got back to bouncing condition we saw zebras, rhinos, giraffe, water buffalo, lions, hippos, etc, etc. We all had a blast, it was really cool.
We were all exhausted from the safari, but it wasn’t going to keep us from going out on the town for our last night. We went back to Camp’s Bay for dinner where we went out to sushi, because everyone is having withdrawals, it was excellent!
South Africa went buy in a flash, I felt like I was so busy the entire time!! I can’t wait to go back one day!
Kristin and I during our champagne break on the safari!!
Our safari car broke down, and while we were waiting to get a new car this elephant came up to the car and almost charged. The driver was freaking out, but everyone else thought it was pretty cool, and we all got great pictures!
We got a chance to see the world cup stadium they're building right now for summer 2010 and it's huge! I want to come back and see it finished!! 
The pool gets more packed everyday since the weather is getting nicer and nicer!
Amelia, Kristin, and I with King Neptune and his queen!
Living on the ship is beginning to feel much more natural now that I've gotten the hang of everything; probably helped that I finally bought myself an alarm clock and am now always on time for class and never miss breakfast!Classes are going really well, the eight-day in a row streak was a bit much, but it's well worth it to have 10 days off to explore Africa.The weather is getting warmer and warmer as we cross Southern Hemisphere, and the pool is packed everyday after class!The other day we crossed the equator--no the toilets didn't spin the opposite way Ryan, I know your probably wondering. Anyways, it is a navel tradition to have a ceremony while crossing, so we were woken up at 7:30 for breakfast by the crew, faculty, and staff who were painted green and blue and basically like king Neptune and all the ocean gods running up and down all the halls banging drums, blowing whistles, and ringing bells. After breakfast we were told to go up to the pool deck where the festivities began. So there was some ceremony for those who wanted to be initiated for crossing the equator that luckily didn't involve real fish guts like we had heard. They just poured water with corn starch and blue food dye over our heads then you had to kiss a fish, bow to the fake king Neptune and his queen and jump in the pool, and then afterwards everyone was given the option to shave their heads. (Which I chose not to take part in!!) haha, but a total of 87 people did (including GIRLS!!) Crazy!! After the equator crossing ceremony everyone hung out by the pool all day, what an interesting day!
