Last Day

So today is our last day in Cape Town. We are flying out at 11:35pm Cape Town time, but we are leaving for the airport at 8pm. This means we needed to fill the day with events to keep us busy so we didn't have to sit around and wait. We also had to check out of our rooms at 10am so we have been homeless all day. Our bags are chillin in an extra room right now. We began our day at a normal hour, mostly because we wanted to be tired on the plane. We went to a lovely little cafe for breakfast- le petit tarte. we haven't been there before, but its right up the street. Following this we walked around the city a little, stopped in some last minute shops and then ventured over to a part of downtown we hadn't been to before. Its a walking garden surrounded by some parliament buildings, a library and a couple museums. Quite nice, and when it wasn't drizzling, it was even nicer :-)
We walked around for a while and then went into the South Africa Museum and Planetarium. This museum started off really interesting; south african history and the people throughout time etc. Then they broke out some random current information and then there is a huge 'stuffed' animal part with sea animals, mammals, reptiles, dinosaurs, followed by the largest whale skeleton and a section about Darwin. WHAT?  Sort of a weird museum, but we needed to kill time and it was only R25 to get in. Basically free. That price also included an experience in the planetarium. Now, planetariums are pretty cool, and ours started out quite nice, but then they just started projecting picture of random nebula and celestial clouds and it got real weird real fast. The man who was talking was also not interesting, as we heard him "sigh" multiple times. So after that ended, we walked back, had some food and we are now sitting in the hotel restaurant waiting to go to the airport.

I have pictures of today, but I am on Kelsey's computer because mine will not connect to the internet. Also because the internet in here is sketchy in general. whooo

I will miss Cape Town, but after today and yesterday, I am ready to return home. It's been real fun and I am extremely grateful to have had this experience!!


Cheers!

Jerry is the best tour guide!

Thursday! It's the second to last day here in Cape Town and it's definitely bittersweet. Today we got up early to walk over to the Green Point Stadium (or the main World Cup Stadium). We even looked it up online to avoid any problems and we were absolutely perfect on getting breakfast, stopping by Spar and getting there on time. So it turns out that the "visitor's center is closed for maintenance" WHAT? Sorry, that doesn't make sense, but we still can't go in? Okay great! Add that to the list of odd encounters and timing mistakes for the trip. So then we had some 3/4 hours to kill before our Stellenbosch winelands tour....so we ventured over to Sea Point (a neighborhood on the ocean- shocking I know, that Gary told us "we had to go to!") Well, its not that exciting. Not much going on and it kinda gives a sketchy vibe. So we sat and had coffee and chatted for awhile then walked back to the hotel. Picked up our fresh laundry :-) (now I have all clean, folded clothes to unpack in STL) Best idea ever. 

We ate lunch is Biccci (don't ask how to pronounce that...cause I am not entirely sure) in the Cape Quarter, and it was great! Too bad we didn't find it last week. 

Old soccer stadium

Kelsey was upset

Green Point Stadium

Yea, he posed for me

And then there were three

Next Stop: Jerry and the winelands tour! Our tour guide, as I have mentioned- Jerry, was super awesome. He was hilarious, informative and super nice. So we get in the van and pick up four more people: two older ladies from Australia, one woman from Taiwan and one man from Israel. Good group! Stellenbosch is the second oldest town in South Africa and the oldest and best vineyards are located there. Its about 40 minutes outside of Cape Town. We went to Zevenwacht and Saxenburg vineyards today. Our tour included a wine tasting at each and cheese at one, and a cellar tour at Zevenwacht. Then we drove around the town of Stellenbosch. Vineyards have a sketchy history in South Africa, because the Dutch used some slaves and made bad wine, but then the French moved in a taught them how to make good wine, now South African wines are well know and win awards. There are like 200 vineyards in the area, of varying sizes, and its quite beautiful. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold today so we didn't get many pictures nor did we spend much time outside. I must say, the wine was quite good, as was the cheese. Fun Fact: a South African professor created a new kind of grape by cross breeding two other kinds of grape- the new one is called pinotage. It's a red wine and its kinda smokey, with hints of chocolate and coffee. It was actually quite good, but most people don't really like it, according to Jerry.

literally every building in Stellenbosch is painted bright white, and most are old Dutch style architecture. Really pretty!

thought I'd get artistic with the rain on the window. :-)

To end the day we taxied over to Rondebosch and had dinner with Catherine (she's here til November). It was a great meal, as usual. This town knows how to make some good food, that's for sure. Then we returned to the hotel and began packing. I think I am all packed, minus a few things that I am still using, and I hope my bag isn't to heavy. 

Now it's time for my last night in Cape Town. We are filling the day tomorrow so we don't have to sit around and wait to go to the airport. See you all soon, my darlings. 

my darlings: South African phrase used all the time, its really cute

Other phrases: my pleasure instead of your welcome

robots instead of traffic lights

Other Xhosa terms: sissy and mama (for addressing women), booti (for addressing men, aka "brother") 

Its been fun, and I am bringing back my darlings its fun to say and its precious to hear

The Heart of Cape Town

Wednesday was the last day for most of our group. Now only me, Kelsey and Kathryn are left. In the morning, Colbey, Kelsey and I woke up early to venture off to the Heart of Cape Town museum; where the first heart transplant in the world took place. Awesome? I know.
The museum is located inside an actual hospital, also the real location of that first heart transplant. The surgery was performed by Chris Barnard- a South African surgeon. He was trained in heart transplant research in the US (U of Minnesota), but he did all his other training and cardio work in Cape Town. The man was super talented, but also quite rude. He was an egotistical genius. The first heart transplant was performed in 1967, by Dr. Barnard and 28 members of his team. They transplanted a heart from a young woman who was hit by a car into an older man suffering from terminal heart failure. He survived 18 days post surgery and eventually died from pneumonia (as a result of the anti-rejection medications suppressing his immune system). Barnard also performed the 3rd, 4th, and 6th transplants in the world; each patient lived longer than the last and the 6th patient was the first black woman to receive a heart and she lived 13 years after her surgery!
The museum was really cool, informative and actually kind of creepy because they have wax replicas of both of the surgical theaters used in the first transplant. Fun fact: the human replicas aren't actually wax- they are silicone- because wax would melt here in Africa during the summer! But they are freakily real looking, with real human hair and facial expressions and fake blood on cotton swabs. It was crazy.
The controversy surrounding Barnard's transplant involved competition with US doctors (surprise surprise) and backlash from the community about the holisticness of transplanting organs in general. The museum had letters congratulating him and criticizing his work.
After that we went back to the hotel, packed up Elaina and Colbey, ate lunch and sent them off. Then we rested the afternoon and went to a fairwell dinner for the Clark Atlanta ladies. The three of us that are left went to see a movie last night. We went in anticipation of seeing Crazy Stupid Love, only to find out that is doesn't open for a few weeks. So we stalled at a bar and saw Larry Crowne instead. It was enjoyable.

Chris Barnard (fake...but really realistic)

Louis Washkansky

praise from random child

Just hanging with the surgeons 

Cheering them on! 

I really liked this interpretation 

Green Market Square

Two days left and I will update today (Thursday) later!

"It's all about the buffalo's" (the R100 bills here have water buffalo's on them)

Repeat morning roundup from yesterday. It literally takes us on average 2 hours to wake up, get ready, eat/coffee runs, and organize to call a cab. Our mission for the day? Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town Aquarium, and more shopping.
The botanical garden is almost 100 years old, it's the largest garden in South Africa, located at the bottom of the eastern side of Table Mountain and it is part of a national heritage site (like a national park). Parents: thought of you the whole time :-) It's quite lovely. But it is comprised of many many hills, and feels more like a national park than a 'walking garden'. Today was another extremely nice day, unlike the typical Cape Town winter, it was sunny and warm.

Protea: the National flower of South Africa

Again, National Flower

 I followed a sign to "Skeleton Gorge" cause I thought it would be really cool, but since the gardens are built on a mountain, the sign was really the starting point of quite the lengthy hike through some beautiful scenery. We didn't actually make it to the Skeleton Gorge, which we credited to the name (you never make it, because you wither away and become a skeleton, or something like that), but we did stop at a waterfall. We also lost most of the group; only Elaina, Colbey, Kim and I made it to the waterfall. It was very beautiful, and most of the hike was shaded, so it was bearable, but it was mostly comprised of those "forest steps" that look like they are part of the forest, but are actually man made stairs. Yea, those are kinda rough in large quantities. 

Finally the waterfall!

We met up with the rest of the group for a replenishing snack and then headed out again to go to the Cape Town Aquarium. and just to preface, I quite enjoy Aquariums.

It Was Awesome!! And I don't think I am going to eat fish anymore. 

But, back to the sightseeing. Right when we got there, penguin feeding was taking place, so we literally ran through the building to find them :-)

 Then we re-traced our steps and went through the whole place. There are two HUGE tanks with tons of fish in them. We saw another feeding in one of those. And we touched kelp (which is used in basically everything).  Mostly your typical aquarium, but it was still fun!   

typical, except you can 'swim' with the nemo's!!

We then proceeded to tire ourselves even more and entered a large shopping craft market thing next to the Aquarium. It was kinda cool, but no purchases for me. We taxied home and went to dinner at "Beefcakes". Which is pretty much the cutest place. Lots of burgers (hence the name), but also a yummy veggie burger! It's in the gay district, so it was quite fun. 

Looking forward to tomorrow's festivities! But, a lot of people are leaving and I am not ready for that! Our alternate reality bubble is popping and we must all return home, but it's been so fun getting to know everyone and spending time here, that I don't want it to end. 

Except I am ready to get back to my friends and family. :-)