cape town is a paradise

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now that i have reached my goal everything has become divine and wonderful for me. cape town is a paradise of antique book stalls, beautiful cafes, lovely leather couches, fantastic restaurants and comfortable scenarios of every order, all of which are housed in towering and crumbling colonial structures of dutch and british origin, wrapped by delicate brass ornament and painted fading pastel shades with in stone on the facade is marked the original year, 1926, 1895, 1802... or even earlier. the wind comes off the sea and cuts through town fiercely, taking along with it any ill pollution that might otherwise linger. the air is crisp and refreshing. farther west, along the coast towards durban and north from there into the southern most tip of mozambique, going north into the northern most tip and then into the bottom of tanzania, you won't find a scrap of any genuine world culture but what has been left behind at some time by someone who was passing through. it is overwhelming after so long depending on what i can find to now having the entire database of western knowledge lining the street. after being forced to read dan brown because ratty copies of digital fortress can penetrate any depth of jungle anywhere in the world as they are carried by weird tourists and discarded, it is something unbelievable to go into a bookstore in cape town and find exactly the books you need.

it is that! to enjoy any thing you must find yourself in a situation where that thing is entirely out of reach. to truly enjoy the depths of helpless africa you must travel to it from a life of open doors. this is why when you try to explain to a starving african man the reason that africa is so wonderful they cannot understand. helpless africa does not enjoy being helpless but helplessness to those who have is a paradise.

and so, after being broken and dirty, to a degree, on that motorcycle, i appreciate more the life of the west.


cape town!

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