We got a flight from Lanseria airport down to Cape town and rented a car to get there. Now it was Giannina’s turn to ride on the ‘wrong’ side of the road for the first time and also with an automatic car! You bet we had a laugh! But we got there safely and had a great flight down to the coast.
As we arrived only at 10pm in the mother of the cities there were no more buses and the transfer to the hostel would’ve cost us the same amount of money, so there we go, more driving!
The penthouse back packer on long which we booked the first two nights was absolutely stunning, lovely dorms of 6, very clean, friendly personnel and on top of that equipped with a ROOFTOP bar!!!
We decided to do a trip to Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point the next day as we only rented the car for one day and this was the ideal opportunity to get there! The guy at the front desk coincidentally knew about two other girls from Argentina that wanted to do the same trip and didn’t have a car so we were very happy to take them along! I can’t believe how blessed we were with the weather. Cape town had been foggy and rainy for a couple of days before we arrived. But the next day, oh wonder, it seemed like the sun was just waking up turning up behind the clouds and giving us the most beautiful sunshine along the coast! Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point are definitely worth a visit and everyone who gets a chance should go there! You will be impressed, I promise!
In the evening we met an Australian girl that was staying in our dorm so we decided to climb table mountain with her the next morning. Early morning to be precise. We still wanted to go out for dinner and drinks though. So we head down to the street and found this cool restaurant that looked kinda shabby but the food was great! The Australian girl went to another bar and came to fetch (get) us later. We started talking to two other guys from Wales that also wanted to join in for table mountain! We had a really fun night (just look at what some crazy guy did to the McDonald’s advert!), there are so many cool bars on long street and people are much more open-minded and also much more European than what we’re used to in Potchefstroom.
This kinda made us only have 4hours of sleep before getting up really early in the morning to grab a taxi to the mountain. Well…there should’ve been six of us, but in the end only Giannina, the Australian girl and me managed to get up on time! Lucky us we just managed to get up the road where the trail started before they closed it for shooting some film with Denzel Washington! The climb wasn’t too bad, luckily we started early and the sun wasn’t out too much, but still it’s a steep 2hours walk up the mountain! All the pain and sweat is worth it though when you reach the top and can be proud of what you have achieved! The views are spectacular!!! But you do feel quite exhausted so we took the cable car down!
New day, more sunshine! On the 3rd day we walked around in Cape town exploring the city center. We arranged beforehand to go couch surfing (www.couchsurfing.com) for two nights at Ryan’s place, a guy Giannina contacted over the website! It was the first time that I’ve done couch-surfing and I must say I really enjoyed it. It’s just a great opportunity to meet locals and hear about their experience with the country and also have the opportunity to get their tips on what to see. We were very lucky with Ryan, as he rented out his own flat to another girl for two months we stayed at his parent’s home just outside Cape Town. We got our own guest room which was brilliant! As Ryan had arranged for some german guys to go to his parent’s beach house in Hermanus over the weekend and do shark diving, this was the perfect opportunity for us to spend some time at the sea! With 9 other people we ventured out and spent two wonderful days at the beach, swimming, relaxing and just enjoying our free time! We ended up staying two more nights at Ryan, probably just because we weren’t able to say goodbye yet to the beautiful city.
One day we also spent with the two guys from Wales on a wine tour. The only money not spent wisely on this trip! We paid far too much but hey, we got to see the three different wine regions, namely Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek. In the evening we went for Cape Malay food (traditional food from the area) and also out to the bars again.
The next morning the two of us started our trip towards Garden Route in our baby blue Chevrolet Spark! Ryan’s dad had drawn us a map of places we had to visit, so we could just easily follow that without having to make use of our lonely planet! Great! The first night we stayed in Mossel Bay and where you can eat the best sea food!!! Sadly the weather got a bit worse the next day and we weren’t able to do skydiving as planned! I must say the garden route is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited! Nature down there is just breathtaking! Places you definitely don’t want to miss out on along the coast are: Victoria Bay, Wilderness (where we took a trail to the waterfall), Plettenberg bay, Nature’s valley, Stormsriver and if you’re into surfing: Jeffrey’s bay! We found the most amazing back packer in Stormsriver, they even had a rooftop Jacuzzi!!!
Last but not least, I managed to visit my dear friend Eva (who used to be a Flight attendant also and now does an exchange semester in SA) in Port Elizabeth! We had a great time with her and her flatmates, going out, sitting at the beach or in a café overlooking the sea!
I can’t believe how fast time went by, after this amazing trip we took a bus back up north, back to university!
Unbelievable that we have already been here for more than two months, time flies! But I’m enjoying every second of my stay and will keep you guys updated on life here! We’re already planning our next travels!
No comments:
Post a Comment