BootsnAll Travel Network



July 6th, 2008 – Cape Town, South Africa

I woke up today after only a few hours sleep, gathered the rest of my stuff I hadn’t packed up the day before and went downstairs and talked to this guy who worked at the hostel.  He got me a taxi to downtown and at around 747am I was on my way.  Time was important as I had to be at the departure point at 8am.  I made it just in time, dropped off my bags, was greeted by a South African gentlemen named Tenus and made my way upstairs.  When I got upstairs I noticed that everyone was speaking German.  I didn’t see many young faces, actually none at all and I started to panic.  For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember last summer I did a last minute tour through South East Asia and was on a trip with all old people.  Maury my roommate was 64 and the rest of the people were in their 40’s and 50’s.  There were only 6 of us total and at times I had issues with that.  So when I got upstairs and saw all older people and no one speaking English I panicked.  I called dad even though it was early in the morning and really went off.  It was either him taking it or one of the people in the shop, so I picked dad and he had to hear me rant for about 4 minutes.

When I got off the phone with him, I went back upstairs and pulled the lady who was in charge aside and explained to her my situation.  I came up with the idea of trying to get on another tour that was not specifically for german translation and family tour which is the one I was booked on.  This time I don’t blame the tour company at all, Detour which is a fantastic travel company located on Long Street in Cape town, because it was just a big miscommunication among everyone.  After some talking, negotiating and moving things around Nomad, the tour operator was able to book me on a tour leaving July 9th, instead of today July 6th.  This meant though that I needed to get a flight home.  Last summer the same thing happened but this time it would come at a much greater price.  I had mom get on the horn with my airline Etihad and basically there were no flights the month of August back to New York at my economy level ticket.  The prices are really inexpensive so they are hard to come by and sell out quick.  Anyway as long as I was on a better tour I was fine and would work out getting a ticket back home tomorrow.

I took a taxi in the pouring rain with all my stuff back to Big Blue and when I returned I said “I’m baaaackk.”  Guido the manager was able to give me my same lower bunk in room 5 and I made myself right back at home.  I like this place, its really homey and cool.  Plus most of my friends here would still be here for a few days so I could enjoy it with them.  After I told about three people my story I got over it and went to this special African Market with David and his girlfriend (who’s name I keep forgetting sorry).  It was only a few minutes away down the hill and make a left near the 2010 Greenpoint World Cup Stadium.  There wasn’t anything that really peeked my interest, especially after Rusty told me that in other countries I will find the same stuff and at cheaper prices.  Funny thing was that we saw our driver that takes people to and from the hostel Peter at the market.  On Sundays when he isn’t driving he has his own stalls.  We looked at them but I didn’t buy much.  I haven’t bought as much as last summer and I am saving it up for the rest of Africa!  After the market we were all hungry so we went across the street because we saw a couple of decent looking restaurants.  We first went to this nice restaurant that was grille and steak place.  I hadn’t had a nice steak in ages so I didn’t mind spending a little for a nice piece of meat.  When we got in the restaurant it was a nice place, white table cloth the whole nine.  We asked to see the menu and then said that we wanted a table for the three.  The host/waiter came back and said “sorry there are no tables available today, maybe tomorrow.”  Clearly we had just been rejected from this restaurant because two thirds of the place was empty!  When we left I went to David and his girlfriend “did we just get rejected from that place?”  I think we were all in awe as to what had happened.  I mean we weren’t dressed to impress but it was early in the day like lunch time 1230 or 1PM and they basically told us to get lost.  We started laughing about it after a few minutes and then found a completely empty Japanese restaurant that looked really good.  It had a solid menu and I ordered some chicken dumplings and a combination of Tuna and Salmon sushi.  Since we are on the coast and the restaurant looked pretty local in terms of who was running it, I was willing to trust the sushi.  I was very happy with my meal and afterwards I picked up some water and soda and made my way back to the hostel.

The rest of the day was really quiet.  I watched some tv, a movie or two and then in the evening Rusty and I went to pick up groceries.  I wanted to get some bread, peanut butter, cheese, juice and whatever else.  You know the basic essentials you need while traveling, stuff that was not easy to find in India.  I ended up getting some lamb chops, fresh mushrooms, gouda cheese, loaf of really good hearty grain whole wheat bread, and a cartoon of apple juice.  When I got back home I made my chops, seasoned them and then used balsamic vinegar to get up all the lamb juices and sauteed my mushrooms in that base, oh and added a little water.  It was delicious!  Gourmet meal.  Afterwards I watched parts of the Wimbledon Tennis Final between Federer and Nadal.  In the end I fell asleep at the rain delay and ended up going to sleep before 10pm.  I had been up so early and up late the night before that I couldn’t make it any longer.  It was nice to get to bed early but yet again I would have to be up early as I was going on a Township tour of Cape Town, South Afrika



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