Day 30 – Table Mountain

Sept 27th

Table Mountain
I rallied Christina and Becca for a hike up Table Mountain in the morning. We got a taxi and per our driver’s suggestion we got dropped off at Platteklip Gorge. It was steeper than expected, but very manageable. I was totally in the zone on the way up and didn’t stop to rest, while Christina and Becca trailed along further back. They kept yelling jokes that my ass was “the little engine that could.” Due to previous rain showers, there were beautiful waterfalls and streams running over the rocks. Christina resisted temptation “to lick the rocks” even though we were all dehydrated from the night before. When we finally made it to the top, the view was a completely amazing panoramic view of Cape Town. You could see down to the southern tip of Cape Point, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans met. The top of the mountain plateau looks remarkably like a regular flat field. To add some fun to our adventure, we shamelessly turned cable car direction signs in the wrong direction. Hopefully, future tourists wont spend too much time walking in circles trying to find the way down. (Regardless, its pretty easy to gaze across the open plain and see where to go.) After some photo ops of us conquering the world, we headed to the café on top of Table Mountain for lunch: hearty beef stew and mango juice. After mentioning La Jolla (California), I found out Christina knows Aunt Indy, who goes to her mom Beata for acupuncture! What a small world? We obviously were thrilled at the discovery. Later, we took the cable cars down so we could check out how the floor spin in a circle while you’re onboard. Phil, our taxi driver, took us back to the harbor and reminded us to “give him a tinkle” if we needed any more transportation.

The Waterfront
Christina, Becca and I hung around the waterfront for a bit. We found Anna, a local tour guide who gave us some advice on where to eat and go out tonight. Then we headed to SanMarta for affortto (double espresso with vanilla ice cream) and a little down time to watch street performers. We warmed up under fleece blankets (Note: Africa can actually be very cold!) and watched a man doing the limbo under a pole of fire. Once we had refueled, we headed to the Victoria Warehouse to shop around. At YDE (like a Forever 21), I got this awesome black, pleather jacket that makes me look so bad ass and will keep me warm in the freezing weather. We stopped by Pick and Pay (supermarket chain) to get newspapers for class, and they made us buy the plastic bag at check out. I guess the green movement is even bigger in South Africa. We thought it was weird they also called chain “silver.”

Primi Plattti and Out
For dinner, we headed to an area called Claremont, which is 15 mins south of the harbor, to this warehouse/retro Italian place called Primi Platti. We all got different dished to share. I was really temped by the chicken liver appetizer, but instead went with Noli, which is tuna, pasta and napoleona sauce. All the pastas were wonderful, except that there was too much food to go around. We were absolutely stuffed. All the waiters there were so excited to meet Americans that they wanted our emails. I’m pretty sure they thought it they knew an American, it would be easier for them to get Visas to move to the States. I tried to break it to them easy that I couldn’t help too much, unless we got married. While we waited for our taxi, we happened into a nearby arcade to play some games. Obviously, I kicked ass at the car racing games. (Please, no jail jokes.) Afterwards, I convinced Brooks to be my bodyguard for the evening while the rest of the bunch headed back to the ship for the night. We headed back to Long Street to check out the scene. The best part of the night was finding a dark staircase that read “OPEN” in neon lights above. What else could we do then walk into this sketchy, dark hallway with music blaring? Once inside, we found round, vinyl beds that you see in the Austin Powers movie and 30 yr-old women and men dressed in 80s gear. It was pretty awkward breaking up their group vibe, but we just hopped in and danced away the night to classics like Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.”

Highs and Lows
My “high” was making it all the way to the top of Table Mountain in about one hour. My “low” was coming upon a crack den up the mysterious dark staircase.