My sister, Cassidy visited me this past week, and it felt
like reliving orientation all over again. Since she was only here for a week,
we had completely full days. Trying to fit Cape Town into seven days is pretty
much impossible, but I’m confident I gave her an incredible Cape Town
experience. It was perfect timing for her visit since I was just starting to
feel better, so she didn’t have to watch me lay in bed all week/go to doctors’
appointments.
My boyfriend’s sister gave her a few Cape Town guide books
she had from visiting here last year, so my sister’s spent a lot of time
pouring through those figuring out what she wanted to do with her limited
amount of time. After a 23 hour journey which took her to London and then
finally Cape Town, we ate our first meal at The Fat Cactus, the mediocre
Mexican/Texan restaurant just down the street from here. I’m not exactly proud
the first place I took her for a meal in South Africa was a Mexican restaurant,
but she was exhausted and hungry, and it was just down the road. After that her
first real introduction was attending the Carnival parade in Greenpoint,
followed by a late dinner at Neighborhood.
The next day was definitely my favorite day of her visit. We
took the train to Simon’s Town, somewhere I haven’t been since orientation. I
had seen signs on light poles (definitely the best form of advertising around
here) for a South African Navy Festival at the Navy base there. I figured we
could stop by there on the way to the popular destination, Boulders Beach.
However, much to my surprise the navy fest was incredible. They had ships,
submarines, and a tugboat to tour, as well as airplane/cannon demonstrations, and
tons of incredible and super inexpensive food. We ended up staying there much
longer than anticipated, but it was very interesting to compare the South
African Navy to the United States’ Navy, which I definitely have a lot of
exposure to. Following the festival, we headed over to Boulders Beach to see
the famous African penguins. We went to the part of the beach where you can
actually swim with the penguins. Cassidy and I were sitting on boulders in the
middle of the cove, and penguins were just swimming all around us. At one
point, Cassidy had to move her foot away or a penguin would have swam into her
leg.
On Monday, for St. Patrick’s Day, we headed into the City of
Cape Town to do some souvenir shopping at two very popular markets, St.
George’s Mall and Greenmarket Square. Cassidy had fun bartering for lower
prices for souvenirs, and definitely bought her fair share of giraffe items.
After shopping, we took the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, which gave
us incredible views of the city. We then unfortunately did not eat corned beef
and cabbage, but actually ate at Chai Yo, the Thai restaurant we had our first
meal in Cape Town during orientation.
The following day I returned to my internship at Edith
Stephens for the first time in a few weeks. It was very exciting for me to show
Cassidy where I have been working, and the work I do there. We started out the
day with me giving my first ever tour of Edith Stephens to Cassidy, with the
highlight being a bird watching activity that we frequently do. We were also
fortunate enough to be able to partake in a community visit of Mannenberg with
a few German tourists. We visited a primary school where an after school
program put on a play in Afrikaans for us, and then their instructor who has
the most incredible voice sang a song for us.
On Wednesday we visited Aquila Game Reserve, about two hours
away from Cape Town on the wine route. We saw zebras, lions, elephants,
giraffes, antelope, springbok, hippos, rhinos, ostrich, and I’m sure I’m
missing a few others. A big initiative currently going on in South Africa is to
save the rhinos, since at one point a rhino was being killed every 20 hours for
its horn. If just cut a rhino’s horn can grow back like our fingernails do.
However, if it’s uprooted, the rhino is left defenseless and either dies from a
lack of defenses, or some type of infection. At the reserve if you made a
donation, we received puny shirts that said “Saving Private Rhino.” This
initiative is definitely something I hope to do more with during my remaining
time in Cape Town. On Wednesday night, we ate Nando’s, a popular fast food
chain in South Africa (It’s also in the UK, and one recently opened in
Washington D.C.).
On Thursday, we had a very busy day that began by jumping off
of Signal Hill paragliding. After a few false starts, we made in to Seapoint
after about ten minutes in the air. For lunch on Thursday, we ate at a
traditional African restaurant, Moyo in Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
We also spent a lot of time walking around the gardens, which are absolutely
beautiful. It features 7000 different plant species, and is one of the most
biodiverse places in the world. Thursday evening, we headed to the V & A
Waterfront, and ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Cape Town, Hildebrand,
that has fantastic homemade spinach ravioli. We also saw a movie at the
waterfront theatre, and then took a ride on the Ferris wheel.
Friday we spent the day at the Holi Day Color Festival at
the Grand Parade in the City of Cape Town. This was originally a religious
festival in India, but now it has spread throughout the world. Every hour there
is a power throw, where everyone gathers and throws various different colors of
powder into the air. It went from noon until midnight, but we only stayed until
6 p.m. There’s only so long you can get powder thrown all over you, in your
nose and in your lungs until it gets exhausting. Last night we ate at Burrata
with Emily, which is said to have the best pizza in Cape Town.
Today was unfortunately Cassidy’s last day in Cape Town, but
her flight didn’t leave until 10:40 p.m. so we had another full day. We started
off by eating breakfast at my teacher, Marita’s flat, and then headed to the
University of Cape Town, so I could show her around. We then took the train to
Muizenberg and spent the day at the beach before eating at Lyra’s in
Rondebosch, and then heading to the airport.
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| Cassidy visiting her sister Courtney in Cape Town |
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