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Published: March 7th 2014
The title of this blog is T.I A.
I stole this acronym from the movie Blood Diamond. A movie that was filmed in South Africa in 2002. At one point in the movie, after about 20 minutes of craziness on the screen, Brad Pitt says to a fellow actor....TIA man...
This Is Africa.
So my family and friends here we are in Africa.....and T.I.A!!!!!
Let me tell you first a little bit about our trip here! First I will tell you it was the longest continuous journey I have ever taken. Rene and I were up at 3:30 am. Our dear son-in-law Kyle, took us to the airport and we arrived at Edmonton International at about 5:00 am. We breezed through customs, and boarded our 2 hour flight to Minneapolis. We had a 2 hour layover in Minneapolis and boarded the next leg of the journey to Amsterdam. This flight was just over 8 hours. In Amsterdam we met up with our traveling partners Dick and Sue.....so good to see them!!
Then the 4 of us boarded the flight for our last leg of our journey. After another LONG 10 hours (I attempted to watch the movie "Frozen"
5 times. I would put the movie on, fall asleep, wake up, put the movie on, fall asleep and on and on.... never did see the whole thing!!!! We finally arrived at our final destination Cape Town South Africa. At the Cape Town Airport we were met by a lovely lady named Thea who brought us to our self-catering flat. We arrived at the flat at midnight. So all in all, Rene and I were in flight for 20 hours and with the waiting times in between.....the trip took us about 35 hours!!!! Oh did I say it was a LONG journey?!?!? Never been so happy to see a nice clean, solid mattress!!!
March 05, 2014
Rene and I finally left that solid mattress at 1:00 pm. As we arose to greet the day, we first were greeted by Dick and Sue who told us they had been up and out into the neighbourhood twice already. Well, I guess we were tired. Once we woke up and got going the LONG journey became nothing but a distant memory and we were ready to explore this new city.
Cape Town is a huge city of 4.5 million people,
made up of many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The coloured people are split into 2 groups. The Cape coloured people and the Blacks. The Blacks migrated and were brought as slaves from Northern Africa. The white men then slept with the Black women and the new ethnic population became the Cape Coloured people group. We are told that these 2 groups when working side by side, one on one get along famously and there are no individual issues. Of course that is not true when talking about politics and how the country is run.
Before we left home Rene did some internet searches for cool and different things to do in Cape Town and found a funky coffee café called the "Truth Café". He even mapquested it from our flat and found out that the café was a 9 minute walk. Dick and Sue patiently waited for Rene and I to get ready for the day and once ready off we went for our 9 minute walk to TRUTH!. After walking about 7.5 minutes we asked a lady on the street about directions.....well it seems that we were headed in the wrong direction and instead of going to
Buitenkant we were headed to Buitengracht.....did we have the right Buiten or did we had the wrong kant???? So we turned around and headed the opposite direction...after a couple more wrong turns, we made it to TRUTH. Our 9 minute walk turned into an hour walk....and allot of teasing for Rene!!!..Good thing he's a jolly fella... TRUTH café was even better than we thought and we had lattes, cappuccinos, and Americanos.
Somewhere along the way, Dick and Rene heard that South Africa and Brazil were playing football (soccer for us Canadians) on this night, so we decided that would be great fun to watch a live game. We found out where we could buy tickets and stood in line for about an hour only to be told that the game was being played not in Cape Town, but in Johannesburg. Oh man!!! another oops, but who really cares, we are on holidays and hanging out with great family!!
After that little episode we found Woolworth's and stopped in to buy some groceries. We don't plan to cook many meals, but probably breaky each day.
Next we met up with Carl and his wife Lindy...They are a couple
who live part time here in South Africa and part time in Cobourg Ontario where Dick and Sue are from. Carl and Lindy suggested we meet them at the Ocean Basket on the V&A Waterfront. Off we went on foot to find the Waterfront. We had a wonderful evening walk and just in time met Carl and Lindy at the Ocean Basket where we had an amazing seafood feast of Angel Fish, Kingklip fish and Queen prawns. WOW!!
Carl and Lindy then walked the waterfront with us and then were so kind as to bring us back to the flat for the night.
Our first day in Cape Town was quite simply WONDERFUL and full of new and exciting people and places.
March 06, 2014
We all have been told by several different people that if the sun is shining brightly when we wake up here in Cape Town, that we need to plan to go up to Table Mountain.
So.....up we got, the sun was shining and off we went to Table Mountain. We took the city bus there and got our first real experience in local transportation. These guys drive like
they are in the Indie!!! Good thing we got to sit. We walked the last 25 minutes up the hill to the gondola. Once at the gondola it was a 5 minute ride to the top of the Mountain.
It is believed that Table Mountain is one of the oldest mountains in the world (really?.....how does one going about proving that one??) Oldest or not, we had a great time exploring the different views looking down this oldest mountain. It is the dry season here now, so not as many flowers blooming as in the summer, but still beautiful none the less. We even got to see a Dassie. (pronounced Daisy) Nice name for a fat rodent! Anyway they look like a fat brown rabbit without the floppy ears.
After about 2 hours exploring the mountain we decided to head back down and back to our flat. Easier said than done on this day!! Into the gondola we went and began our descent back to flat land. We got about half way done and slowly stopped moving. Our "master Captain" came on with an announcement that the whole system had lost power and that we were, where we
were, until someone on the ground could figure it out!! How reassuring!!!! Well now.......we were jammed in this gondola with 65 other people of all races, creeds, colours and religions.....and unfortunately some of those people of different races, creeds, colours and religions don't seem to know what deodorant is for!!! There were all kinds of thoughts going through my mind about all kinds of escape routes.....or not!! To ease some tension our "Master Captain" suggested we find someone with a birthday and to help that person celebrate their day, we should sing Happy Birthday. We found a 71 year old and all together our cable car sang a joyous rendition of Happy Birthday. Well.....the gondola was still not moving!!!! After about 20 minutes of hot uncomfortable togetherness with strangers, we began moving. Not down mind you, rather back up we went!! We were herded off the gondola and supposedly the repairs began!! While we waited the staff were scurrying around bringing all the visitors a bottle of water and reassuring everyone that things would be resolved soon. You know 15 minutes, or 20 minutes, or 1 hour or 2 hours. I asked one of the employees how often this happens
and he replied.....only once EVER that he knew of. Yes that was reassuring!!!!
Finally we were back on the gondola and instead of the ride being the normal 5 minute ride down, because the system was now being run on the emergency generator, the ride was 25 minutes. Yes my friends we were just a little HAPPY to be on solid ground again.
Back on the bus we went and it appears we were just in time for rush hour!!! This time on our rollercoaster bus ride, we were riding at rush hour!!! we had to stand in the crammed bus right near the front and I could almost predict when the crash would happen. Anyway.....no crash!!
Back at the flat we hung out for a bit, watched the "Tablecloth" cover Table Mountain. The locals say that no visit to Cape Town is complete without a glimpse of the mountain's famous tablecloth. A meterorological phenomenon that causes clouds to tumble down the mountain slopes like billowing fabric. Another fantastic site!!
Rene, Sue and I decided we were hungry and out we went to find some grub. We found this great Indian food cafeteria. We had a
great Indian feast for about $4.00 each.
Yet another full and great day here in Cape Town.......
And now my family and friends.....
STAY WELL!!!
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non-member comment
very cool
It looks and sounds great, you gotta have alot of patience, lol.