Africa Part II

So a little bit more South Africa…The last two days in South Africa were spent exploring the beautiful winelands, climbing a ridiculous large mountain that overlooks Cape Town (Table Mountain), and wandering around downtown one last time. The winelands of South Africa were incredible. It was basically a lot of grapes and flowers with a lovely backdrop of mountains. We tasted all sorts of wines, key word here being tasted, don’t worry mom. We also tasted a few different types of cheese. And for those of you who know me well…this was my favorite part of the experience. The cheese was incredible. I especially loved the spiced cream cheese. So good. After our wine tasting we went to this restaurant called Moyo. This is the place that everyone on Semester at Sea goes to, so chances are, if you are reading this and you know someone else on Semester at Sea, they went here as well and enjoyed it a heck of a whole lot. It is a must. It is basically every childs dream come true. It is a restaurant in a tree. Or for lack of better words, a tree house restaurant. So not only are you eating lunch or dinner in a tree, but you are getting your face painted while they sing for you, in a tree. Ok, so moving right along. The last day in Cape Town Sarah, Megan and I decided that we would attempt to conquer Table Mountain. Everyone that had attempted to climb it earlier in the week had warned us that it was impossible and that we were going to get lost or frustrated and turn back around. Regardless of what everyone had said, we were determined to get up that bad boy. So, we got up at 7:30am and began our hike up Table Mountain. The beginning was easy. No big deal. We are all pretty fit, so we were practically flying up the mountain. Then, we could no longer see the little yellow footprints that guide you up the mountain telling you that yes indeed you are going the right way. We then decided it would be appropriate to make our own path up the mountain rather then give up and go back down. Great I thought, we are going to persevere and get up this thing one way or another. We are super. What a great attitude. Well, we decided the best way to get to the top of the mountain would be to go straight up, basically scaling rocks. Kind of scary and probably not the best idea. We had recognized that this was the wrong way, but decided to keep going regardless. It was only until James, a very nice outdoorsy man from far below, said that we were definitely going the wrong way that we decided to turn around. So we slowly made our way down the treacherous rock that we should have definitely NOT been climbing up. James guided us back to the correct path and we were back on our way to the top. Finally, after 3.5 hrs of hiking and scaling rocks (which should have probably only taken us 1.5- 2 hrs) we made it. We arrived at the top of Table just in time to see the cable car arrive, carrying all of the lazy people to the top who chose not to scale rocks like us. That was fun to see. Especially because they all looked quite refreshed when they arrived while we were in our sports bras, sweating like men, panting, and exhausted. They all looked at us in a confused fashion as if they couldn’t imagine someone to be so idiotic as to actually climb Table. It was all in all another good time. I wouldn’t take back climbing that beast for anything. Later that day, even though being a bit sore, we marched on to visit the District Six Museum. South Africa just has so much intriguing history, how could I, the history nerd, not learn about it? So we educated ourselves about the relocation of the individuals in District Six during the Apartheid. Following the museum we walked around town for a bit and made friends with some guys that worked in a surf store. They educated us in the culture of the South African surfer. Sweet brew. And then it was time to leave and I was sad. South Africa is/was AMAZING and I can’t wait to go back. Yay.