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Published: April 14th 2006
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Music
Let the fun begin Friday we all got up bright and early so we could be out the door at 8am. It ended up being closer to 9am in the end, for all those reasons that sneak up on you when you least expect it. Nick came over, we picked up Morne, and the five of us were off on a car trip. First stop: McDonalds. This by request of Susie, but of course I didn’t object. There is no McDonalds in Plettenberg Bay, nor any closer than the one we ate at, so it was a special treat. (Weird to think that food I never eat at home for a reason becomes a special treat abroad). We had lunch there at 11am and we all ordered exactly the same enormous meal and proceeded onwards to Oudtshoorn, about an hour away and where the Afrikaans festival was held. To give you some background, Afrikaans is one of the official languages spoken in South Africa - it is derived from Dutch, and the descendents of the original Dutch colonizers are called Afrikaaners. The festival was a lot of music bands and fair foods and rides, and many places set up to buy all kinds of crafts
On the road
Me, Susie, and Nick in the car on the ride there. and trinkets and clothing. Once we got parked we all changed our clothes to put on something warmer - it had been ragingly hot in Oudtshoorn the past week there but once we showed up it was pants and fleece kind of weather, with just a hint of rain. We spent the afternoon walking around and then ended up at the rides. I decided not to go on any - they all went fast and spinning and I’m old enough now not to appreciate that - but Morne convinced me to get on a ride with him and Nick. None of us knew what it did, but it couldn’t be that bad. Wrong - it didn’t do much but what it did was fast and in circles. I kept coming up out of my seat with my legs swinging around like a rag doll. I was laughing the whole time, even though it was a little sickening. It really was funny. After this excitement, the boys spent bunches of money trying to win money on the ring toss, which never came to fruition, as is the case with ring tosses. We then went to a restaurant called Jemimas that Susie
Louis
Louis was always driving... heard was good. Unfortunately, it turned out to be highly expensive as they only had a set menu that week due to the festival, so there was no ordering cheaply. The meal was wonderful - figs wrapped in some kind of meat, duck that was amazing, decadent desserts that we shared all around - but it cost more than my daily budget, more than a meal in Boston outside of a special occasion would have cost me. It wasn’t the right time for such a meal - no one was hungry enough for this size meal - and I tend to get in a bad mood that is hard to erase with such circumstances - but I did what I could and did enjoy the dinner in the end. After dinner we drove out to another town and to Louis’ parents house, where we would all be staying the night. His parents were great and very accommodating. We stayed up chatting for a bit and then hit the hay.
When I got up Saturday morning Louis and his mom prepared a wonderful breakfast of eggs, sausages, bacon, toast…you name it, it was there. First cooked breakfast I can even remember in the last three months. We decided to drive back to Plett after the concerts the same night because Morne had to work early the next morning, and this would prevent us from having to get up at 5am. That decision made we said good-bye to Louis’ folks and drove off to buy tickets to the concerts before they sold out. This was another source of contention as I was told the festival would all be free, and I hadn’t planned to spend money on this. But what can you do? It was no one’s fault and we were going anyway. Nick and I got dropped off so he could get money and then meet everyone by the tickets. Funnily enough, after waiting in line the machine ran out of money just as it was Nick’s turn at the ATM. But someone was already there to refill it so we just had to wait a few minutes more. We met up with everyone else, and went in to the main stage area, where I discovered we needed to pay another dollar to get a wrist band that allowed us to exit and re-enter. Bizarre. We set up our blankets and sarongs in the sun but then moved to an area that was shaded by a tent where we could still see the mainstage. We arrived around noon and the concerts didn’t begin until 4pm, so we took turns walking around in the meantime. I sat a bit by the stuff, enjoying my book. There was a mainstage where the well known bands would play and two side stages in tents nearby that had less well known bands in between the others. There were several good bands and we just spent the night listening to them. Jarrett and Liesje showed up with their friend Robert, and they came to sit with us. The evening ended with a band called (with its English translation) “F@#* off police car”, a nod to the angry youth of today. They were actually moved to be the last band as they were controversial with the conservative Afrikaanerss and this allowed them time to remove themselves and their children before the controversial music began. We stayed for a couple of their songs but then then left near 11pm or so to begin the drive back to Plett. I sat in back with Nick and Morne, the two smokers. I was around smoke so much that weekend, and pretty much consistently ever since Argentina (which is rivaled by South Africa in cigarette consumption) that I already had a raging headache. Luckily it was late enough that not too many cigarettes were alight on the ride home. Got back to Plett about 1:30am.
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