Feb 17, 2011 So today was the day that we were supposed to get off the ship in Cape Town. A bunch of my friends (I was too lazy) got out of bed super early to watch the sunrise as we pulled into South Africa, but were quickly disappointed to find out that we couldn’t pull in because of the high winds. The port authorities were worried that if we tried to pull in we would smash up against the sides of the dock because of the high waves. So we’re all ready to go and explore around Cape Town at 8 am and we’re told we have to wait a few hours, then a few hours turned into until the evening, and then the evening turned into 1 am, and then overnight, and then finally we were told we could get off the next day, the 18th, at 12:30 pm. So after a day and a half of rolling around with our stabilizers pulled in (so that it was extra rolly) we were finally able to dock in what was clearly our most beautiful port so far. The boat was docked in the heart of the V&A Waterfront, a place that (I’m told) looks exactly like the San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf. It was definitely the most developed place we had seen so far, especially having just come from Ghana. That day we were supposed to have an all day tour of the Stellanbosch Winelands around Cape Town by bike, which we all imagined to be a scene out of a movie. Biking around on beach cruisers with our long dresses and floppy hats, sipping wine and munching on fruit and chocolate, you know the usual. When we arrived (4 hours late) we found that we were completely mistaken. What we discovered were two guides waiting for us in full mountain biking gear- butt pads, cleats and all. One of the guides, Jenny, was the Swedish road biking champion in the summer and in the winter she was a world-class downhill skier. Needless to say, when I told them I hadn’t been on a bike in about 5 years they became super worried, because our supposed relaxing ride through the wine lands was actually a bike trip to a winery that was going to last an hour and involved several small (but challenging) hills. So we suited up, got on our bikes (haha for me, shortest person alive) and started our trip. After about 40 minutes I was completely over it. Thank god for the support van that was following us and another girl who was also over it. So for the rest of the trek we enjoyed the view from an air-conditioned van while everyone else panted their way towards the winery. We beat them to our destination and began to help our driver set up a very picturesque picnic lunch at the base of the foothills of the mountains. When everyone else arrived we enjoyed pasta salad, fresh fruit, and some ginger beer while we made friends with our guides and each other. After lunch, we were told we would only make it to one winery instead of the planned 4 because we had been so late that most of the wineries were closing. The one we went to, Lanzerac, was staying open especially for us. So we all piled into the van and started another beautiful drive towards the vines. We made it there and chose whether or not we wanted to do a chocolate pairing with our wine (duh) and got situated. We sampled 4 different types of wine that is only made at Lanzerac, some of which was delicious and some was not. At the end, our wine specialist surprised us with some delicious honey liquor made only at Lanzerac. It seriously tasted just like honey with vodka in it, and was so delicious. I tried to have some shipped home, along with some wine, but US customs are so harsh on alcohol imports that it was going to cost like 300 smacks just for two bottles of alcohol. After we finished our tasting we went on a tour of the cellar and the production areas, which was really cool. Then we piled back into the van to head home. Our guide, Daniel, felt so bad that our tour had been cut so short so he took us a scenic way home that included a stop at Table View beach, where we watched the sunset with Table Mountain in the background and wind surfers in the foreground. It was beautiful, and we had had such a great day that everyone was in such a good mood, which made it that much better. When we got back, we showered really fast and found a group to go to dinner with. We wandered around on the Waterfront and found a cute pub called Ferryman’s where they served a pretty standard menu of bar foods. I had fish and chips, which was delicious. We had a few shots with some celebratory “WE’RE IN CAPE TOWN!” shouts and toasts before heading out to a club called Fez. U2 was performing that night, and we had heard through a bunch of grapevines that Bono and the whole band was going to Fez after the concert so we paid for VIP access and headed up to the top, feeling like badasses. Of course, he never showed, but it was still really fun. Of course, I made friends with a couple of locals named Rowan and Johnny, and I took a few shots with them. First of all, let me say, when we’re not allowed to drink very much on the ship and then allowed to run free a night, a few shots goes a long way. When we were leaving, I decided it would be a really good idea for us to ride home with my new friends. There’s a video of me saying “Don’t worry guys, I know them, they’re great, they’ll take us home.” So we went with them, 3 SAS guys, 3 SAS girls, and 2 locals in one tiny little vroom vroom car. I don’t know how we squeezed in, but it was a fun ride home. We were all singing at the top of our lungs and the driver was driving like an insane person. So dangerous, but so fun. We made it back, and the two locals walked us all the way to the ship. The whole port is filled with sea lions flopping around, playing and laying in the sun on the little floating docks. On the way back, I really wanted to be friends with them so I started walking down the ramp. Not a good idea, sea lions aren’t actually all that nice, but I got SUPER close to them. The locals convinced me to come back and then we continued to the checkpoint on the ship, where they learned they weren’t gonna be able to come on and see what the ship was like. They were a little peeved because that’s why they had walked all the way from the parking spot, but we just danced through and said tata from afar. When we got back on the ship somehow I ended up wandering around by myself, and I made friends with some guys I had only briefly talked to before, and I found out that Kobe was actually short for Kobena. Kobena is an Ashanti day name, from Ghana, and as you can imagine I was super thrilled with that. I told him about how I lived in Ghana and that my day name was Yaa, and we bonded over that. I talked to him and his friends for like 30 minutes then I headed home to bed.
