I arrived at Cape Town toward the end of April and planned to stay for about a month since I was looking forward to remaining in one place for a little while after so much continuous traveling. Once Paul picked me up at the train station we drove to my hostel so I could get myself checked in. The hostel was on the main road across from the beach in the neighborhood of Greenpoint. It was only mid-afternoon by that point so after I dropped off my bags, Paul and I walked down the promenade along the water for a while toward the area where he lives in the neighborhood of Seapoint. We hadn't seen each other in person since we first met in Korea nearly three years before so it was really nice to catch up and talk about all the changes that had happened in our lives in that time. After walking a ways we turned around and headed back toward Greenpoint where we went to the Taste of Cape Town and tried dishes from a bunch of different local restaurants for dinner.
The following day was a Sunday so Paul was off from work again. We met for breakfast and then climbed up Lion's Head, which is one of the three main hills surrounding downtown Cape Town. It was a beautiful day, if slightly windy at the top, and there were amazing views of Table Mountain and the ocean spread out down below. It was a pretty short hike so once we made it back to the bottom we walked around downtown for a bit past the National Gallery, the South African Museum, Parliament, St. George's Cathedral and the Company Gardens.
In the late afternoon, Paul dropped me off at my hostel with plans to pick me up a few hours later to have dinner with some friends. Throughout the day, I had noticed that my arms were covered with some sort of itchy bug bites that seemed to get more plentiful as the afternoon went on. The German girls staying in my dorm room with me had the same small bumps all over themselves as well. Since we all had similar symptoms and were staying in the same room, I started to fear it was bed bugs. Then, just as I was going to get ready to meet Paul, I checked my e-mail and found out that my mom was in the hospital with a frightening, though temporary, condition. When I got in Paul's car I was so stressed out that I just broke down crying. I think he felt bad, but didn't really know what to do so he said that we didn't have to go meet his friends if I wasn't feeling up for it. In spite of everything, I couldn't bear the thought of just sitting in my hostel alone so I said I still wanted to go. Unfortunately, I don't think I made that great of an impression, coming across as a sullen, quiet, crazy girl who just couldn't stop scratching.
After dinner, Paul tried to drive me to a pharmacy to pick up something for the itching, but all the places we stopped at were already closed for the night. I knew he had to get up early for work in the morning so I told him to just drop me off and I'd take care of it the next day. Then when I got up to my room and started to undressing I noticed that in addition to my arms, I also had huge welts all over my neck and back. I started to panic so I immediately called Paul and helplessly whimpered that I needed to get some medicine. Even though it was already really late, he came all the way back and brought me to a late night pharmacy downtown. I bought some oral antihistamines, a topical ointment and a small jar of Zam-Buk, which Paul swore was a cure for all ailments from mosquito bites to cancer. By this point, I was convinced my hostel room was infested with bed bugs so on the way back to the hostel I told Paul I just didn't think I could stay there any longer. He graciously offered to let me stay on his couch so I made arrangements to check out the next day. The hostel owner seemed understanding and spent the day trying to fumigate the room. In retrospect, I don't know if it was actually bed bugs or rather hives from some sort of allergic reaction perhaps to the bed sheet detergent. Either way, the bumps and itchiness had mostly gone away within a few days of being at Paul's.
During that following week the weather was kind of touch-and-go with some days that were rainy and chilly. I mostly took it easy, going for runs in the morning along the promenade and taking care of some shopping I needed to do since my clothing was starting to fall apart. I did make it downtown a few times and went into an exhibit in St. George's Cathedral on the church's role in the fall of apartheid and the Slave Lodge Museum, where the Dutch East India Company housed their slaves between 1679 and 1911. The Slave Lodge has exhibits on the history and impact of the slave trade in the Western Cape as well as displays on the general history of Cape Town. I had to actually go back twice since I didn't get all the way through the first time around. Even still, I didn't even see everything on my second attempt.
The nice thing was that the Friday of that week was a public holiday for Freedom Day so Paul had a long weekend. We were able to head out of town and check out the surrounding area.
I'll continue the tale in Part 2 of the Cape Town chronicles...
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