The Garden Route, German style!!!

I don't think i really need to tell you what a roadtrip with 8 college kids is like, but when you factor in a mercedes benz, a german at the helm (he kept saying things like "in my country we don't have speed limits" as an excuse for doing 120 in a 60) and when you keep in mind we're driving on the left hand side of the road, while trying to spot baboons... yeah it got wild. but we only drove into oncoming traffic once, and hit nothing. The Garden route is a very famous and picturesque road along the coast of south Africa, picture the amalfi drive but with wildlife parks and instead of crazy italian drivers honking at you for going to slow, it's laid back South Africans honking at you because the crazy german you put in charge keeps trying to pass 3 and 4 tractor trailers at a time. One of the first things we noticed about our adventure was that we gambled wrong, we didn't bring any music thinking that the SA radio was going to be the 8th wonder of the world, full of reggae, crazy drum driven world rock and perhaps some African Hip-hop. Why would anyone ever think that?!?! Soft rock, channel after channel of soft rock, current pop hits that even 6 21 year old college girls couldn't stand. "and here is another mariah carey hit, followed by celine dion and the newest diddy from gloria estefan" and that was when we heard music, most of the time I was just scrolling through static. But when that one Bob Marley song came on, boy did we blast it. It was awesome to be on the road in africa, even if it was a Pop Safari. our first destination was to a town that's claim to fame is that you can ride the ostritches, we pasted hundreds of these farms, offering ostritch rides tours, burgers and weddings (!?!?!?!!???). Unfortunately ostritch riding is a tempermental sport, it had rained one day in the last month and therefore the ground was too slippery to strap a human to a walking bird. So we piled in the bus and continued (soundtrack: softrock and romantic power ballads). We instead went to the zoo, i mean hey, it's no safari but we were desperate to do something, it was very fun, several people actually petted the cheetahs and tiger cubs (i had just eaten a rather large amount of biltong- or South African beef jerky- and thought it best to abstain from getting in a cage with man eating cubs). Then we got back in the car (soundtrack, yanni i think) and headed to the hostel in a town called Wilderness (judging from our night there you probably don't need the -er in the name wildness would be fine) The Hostel was awesome, right on the beach, bar on the hill, family run, there were only two bad things about it, totally disorganized (they overbooked two nights in a row, i slept on the floor twice) and run by a group of guys who seemed to like nothing more than antagonizing one of our travelling buddies (he had never dealt with anti-american sentiment, and he stayed up most of the night sitting round a fire of white South Africans getting lectured about our horrible government, he hates it two, but it gets old when you get tag teamed for several hours). The next day it was bungy jump, the world's highest, I refrained from doing it, something about hanging on my head for 15 minutes after being bounced on my head for 30 seconds. However if I had known that it was going to be 5 hour ordeal I would have, by the time we were out of there and back in the bus the sun was setting and the day was over (soundtrack: annoying techno) we returned to wilderness ate some more ostritch (i had ostritch alfredo... yep you read that right). the next day we had to head back, as bad as the music had been so far, we realized we had made an even bigger blunder it was valentines day, we spent the rest of the ride listening to the most excruciatingly bad music until we landed back in capetown where we all decided, NO MORE LYRICS and turned on the classical channel as we cruised into the townships by accident (that was rather surreal). The trip ended with the most amazing fish and chips on the shore (a staple here) and more classical as we highwayed back to the rent-a-car center.


And that essentially was the end of our vacation, we finally went to school for the first time on friday and today. The classes seem not overly challenging, but not overly easy. We are actually in the university (most of my previous experiences with study abroad have been with teachers piped in just for americans) and although if you happen to be taking a class with the word Africa in it it is most likely Americans, luckily i'm taking astronomy where i seem to be the only american. This weekend we went to two concerts, one of the bands reminded me of jethro tull (must have been the flute). Then yesterday me 1 german and the other American guy climbed Table Mountain, which had been touted as "a nice easy climb, with one tough and steep part at the end" so we decided to go around 9 in the morning, which would have been the perfect time, if the cabby who has been driving cabs for 20 years knew how to get to the number one tourist attraction in capetown, the mountain. Instead he just said "oh we'll just go into the center and ask someone" 1.5 hours later we made it to the base of the mountain. "!##$#$@!!! That's a steep mountain!" 2 hours of rock steps later we made it to the top, there was no joy, I'm a fairly good hiker, I mean hell I walked across spain, but all three of us and the three we met up with were crying by the top, and stopping every 3 minutes. our only joy was joking about the way Arne (the german) called the gorge a "george" and was constantly misinterpretting our talking about the Endorphin rush we would get at the top by asking "hey guys what is this Dolphin rush at the top?" We get to the top, have a meal, only to be informed via text that the group going to that nights concert at a Botanical gardens leaves in an hour and a half. Well only one thing to do as we see the table cloth set (the tablecloth is the cloud cover that naturally appears over the mountain, it really is incredible , a low level cloud flys over the mountain and disappears as it falls off the cliff into the warmer air- or at least it's something scientific like that) "time for us to run down the mountain while it is completely foggy!!" Safe, very safe. we made it though and we were relaxing at the kirstenbosch gardens just an hour later (it might have been the most sophisticated thing i've done to date, I felt that we even lacked one of those woven twig picnic baskets) listening to a Ska reggae band that was absolutely amazing. more when i get it e

It is going to fun!!

okay so where was I?? grilling ostritch and donkey for super bowl i believe. Well this week was mostly orientation and registration, which at the university of cape town is actually a form of torture comparable to water boarding, line waiting. they do not have a computer system here that can handle everyone registering online, so we do it all by hand, in 95 degree rooms, okay so that doesn't sound that bad, it's like they did it in the old days right?? no because they have this great concept of putting everything into the computer system, but only with 3 designated computer people, for a school of around 17000, I literally have spent 4 hours a day for the last week standing in lines. but hey, it's africa time. on friday I finally had finished the registration process, I get home to the compound and on our fridge is a note inviting us to go hiking, it said just a friendly hike, and then a little cave exploring and the last line is written "it is going to fun" which i thought pretty much sealed the deal. me and my roomate tom decided we would go, everyone else was to tired, or hadn't finished registering. we meet up with the group, organized by our landlord, and it's a pretty average group, which reassured tom and I that it wouldn't be a crazy mountain climbing adventure or anything. boy were we wrong, we get there and literally jog up this mountain, only stopping twice eachtime everyone had to much pride to ask for a slower pace, but you could see the pain and agony, then we finally reach the top, the caves. It's not like just walking into the caves, it is contorting your body to fit through crevasses in total darkness (the "guides" forgot flashlights, we were all using our cellphones) tom is clausttraphobic, and i think after that experience I am too. Although I did go on the super tight optional cave, with only about 4 of us willing to do it, but the guides gave us a treat, by singing the south african national anthem in complete darkness (i had suggested koombaiya, but apparently that wasn't appropriate). It was really amazing though, even if my knees were covered with a mix of my own blood and bat guano. when we reached the otherside we were rewarded with an incredible overlook of the ocean and the small fishing towns on the northern cape. there was something else though that should have registered that didn't, the way down was a straight cliff, as our "guides" took off like billy goats jumping down the mountain the rest of us kind of looked at eachother and said "shouldn't we have signed a waiver for this?" "do we need ropes and caribeeners for this" by the time we had scaled our way down to just a regular mountain, the guides were no where to be found. "great i'm lost in africa, !@##$@$%#$!!!!!!" but we did a little bushwhacking (just what you need for open wounds, strange plants that resemble poinson ivy in rubbing against you) and eventually found our way back to the cars. Actually i think that was the most fun i've had in a while, and after the guide took the beleagured americans to a pub on the water for an apology beer, which was nice. And since then "it is going to fun" has become the motto of the house.
Yesterday we hired the "boogie bus" which i'm not sure if i've mentioned is the reggae themed beat up volkswagen that we take around capetown (14 can fit inside, not including the boogie man himself, steve) this time we hired him to take us on a wine tasting tour. the vineyards were as you imagine very beautiful although the area is the heart of Aparthied, so one kind of feels out of place wearing a barak obama t-shirt. But we went to several different vineyards, tried all sorts of wines and cheeses (if we hadn't been travelling in a beat up volkswagen with old cd's covering it, i'd say it was a classy trip, but...) but the highlight was certainly when boogie took us to a lion sanctuary, sure it's no safari, but it was cool none the less (there was something disturbing about going to see the lions after tasting wine all day, especially after what happened in san francisco, but people managed to keep their limbs to themselves.
All this travelling with the boogie man gave us the great idea of renting a bus for ourselves, to drive around the garden route of SA, which is what we did today, we went to avis and rented a van, no problems whatsoever, until the woman looked at my address and said "you do have secure parking for the van right? Observatory is really dangerous" we said of course, and thought no more of it, there are tons of cars all over the streets and for just one night it will be fine. that was our thinking until we saw the van, a brand new mercedes benz 8 person van. horrifying, we can't park that in obs. it'll be gone before we're out of the car. luckily we had the brilliant idea of taking it too the neighboring garage (ironically a benz specialist) we gave them some beers and they agreed to keep the van overnight, not without however saying when they saw us pull up with it "oh man no wonder you want to get this thing off the street, with so much crime around here I always carry a gun" a reassuring start to an adventure. tomorrow we're off. ell

Countdown to Capetown

Well I'm off again this time to Capetown, South Africa. But on my way i decided to go back to florence where i studied before. Even before I left london i felt i was back in italy, I got cut in line by everyone while waiting for the plane, somehow i went from standing about third in line to dead last, and they managed to do it so politely i found myself often helping the older folks cut me, like helping an old lady cross the road. then when we reached italian customs and there was no cutting to be done, all the men started singing in line for the customs people to open another booth. Welcome Back to italia!!
One of the first things i noticed when i got back to florence, was of course my mother was right, she always talks about how when she returned to rome after studying there it was completely different. So was florence, my favorite bars were either empty or clothing stores (apparently the bars i used to frequent weren't as cool as i thought, if they can't make it 4 years), there were no men from senegal offering you fake luis vuitton bags and sunglasses every five feet (apparently the government has combated this by not fining or putting these men in jail, but fining the customer, thereby eliminating their customer base). But the biggest shock of all came when i went to light up that huge celebratory cigar at the one bar that is still there teatro and was told non fuimare!!!!!!!! No smoking?!? what!! que??? you can't smoke anywhere inside anymore! I don't even know how the italians can cope, i'm sitting in a internet cafe and there is no ashtray nearby, no cloud of smoke above me making me nauseaus, it's a very sad day.
it's good to be travelling again, although i'm beginning to think i'm not really any good at it, I've already had several incidents the first occured my first night out in florence, when i returned to the hostel, as i was walking back i was just thinking to myself how funny it would be if i had misread the hostel policy on returning late (i had intentionally booked a hostel that would let me in 24 hours a day, due to some of the incidents levi and i had on the Camino de Santiago, which resulted in street sleeping or angry proprietors) and sure enough when i got to the door, it was locked and said that everyone MUST be in by 2am. &%$&!! %£$"£!!! $%"$"/%!!!! "I'm not doing it again" I thought "I refuse to wake up the hotel, or get yelled at" so i did what was in my mind my only logical choice, took out my money and valuable cards and put them in the sole of my boots and took a seat at a nearby outdoor patio intending to wait for the next 3 hours, perhaps even catch a few winks. Luckily for me some guys were leaving the hostel only like a half hour later and the women on duty let me in, apparently when they say EVERYONE MUST BE IN BY 2AM!!! it only means that if you aren't just ring the bell and i'll let you in. the other incident was less idiotic, but certainly could have been worse, as my friend pickel (she's studying here) and I went to bologna yesterday and just as we were about to get on the train realized that there was a train strike starting at nine that evening, you know right around the time we had intended to come back. so we cut the trip a little short (we still almost missed the last train to florence, when they say 9 they actually mean 8:30, duh) but still had a great meal and I finally got to put a face to the name you hear so often, Mohammed (the bologna cathedral has a fresco in it depicting the prophet Mohammed, which is why the security is rather tight). that's all i have time for, i took the liberty of just adding some people's emails to this list, if you're one of them and you find this horribly boring and not interesting just let me know and i'll cut you from the list. the next one i promise will be sillier, more informative and from south Africa
-ell