Cape Town Concludes

During the rest of my second week in Cape Town at the beginning of May, I went back to the Slave Lodge to try to get through the rest of the museum that I hadn't had time to see before and I still didn't get all the way through the second floor.  I also visited the South African National Gallery Art Museum in the Company Gardens.  The art museum had a really cool video installation by an artist named Candice Brietz who juxtaposed individual interviews with sets of twins that were then edited together into virtual conversations.  The same artist also had another exhibition where she conspicuously inserted herself into different scenes of the popular South African soap opera Generations.  Another exhibition by the South African artist Barbara Tyrrell showcased her visual recordings of traditional southern African costumes.  I hadn't quite made it through exhibit when the museum closed for the day.

On Friday night, Paul and I went into the city center where we ended up at a bar with an African burlesque show playing.  We got there about midway through, but that didn't save me from a moment of utter embarrassment at the end of the night.  The performers had started a conga line around the room and were picking people to join them along the way.  Unfortunately, I was one of the "lucky" chosen ones so I got pulled up on stage to dance.  I had no idea what I was doing and it didn't help much that my shoes kept slipping off.  Of course Paul tried to take pictures with my phone, but fortunately it was locked and he couldn't remember the password.  I did get a picture (without me in it) after the fact just for illustration p]]]p.

The next day Paul was busy at a workshop all day so I went over to Clifton to meet up with my friend, Hamzeh, who I had originally met in Jordan.  Hamzeh is going to school in Cape Town so he showed me around his new neighborhood.  We walked over to Camps Bays and then stopped to get something to eat at a coffee shop across from the beach.  Afterwards Hamzeh had to head home to do some schoolwork so I went to go sit on the beach for a while and then started wandering back to Sea Point.  I stopped along the way at a rock outcropping looking over the water and got some amazing photos of the waves crashing up against the cliffs.  I had taken a minibus over to Clifton in the morning, but since I didn't have any other plans for the afternoon, I leisurely walked all the way back over to Paul's apartment.

On Sunday, I had booked tickets for us to go out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were held for decades during the apartheid era.  I had been planning to go by myself during the week, but Paul had never actually been so he decided to come with me over the weekend.  The whole island complex is so huge that we had to stick with a tour group that brought us around on a bus.  Then when we got to the main prison building, a former inmate actually showed us around and told us about his experiences.  We got to see the tiny cell where Mandela spent 27 years of his life and learn about how the inmates continued to work toward the cause even while they were stuck behind bars.  It really made me step back and realize how much these men had sacrificed in the name of freedom.

That night was the night of the so-called "supermoon" so as it started to get dark, Paul and I drove up Signal Hill to watch the sun set and see the full moon rise.  It was really pretty to see the sun go down over the water near Green Point, but the moonrise was honestly a bit of a letdown.  Sure, it was cool, but since I was imagining something massively enormous that only wound up being slightly bigger and brighter than normal, it didn't quite live up to expectations.  I'm still glad that we (and the other hundreds of people up on the hill with us) decided to check it out.

During the following week, I went back to the National Gallery to finish going through the Barbara Tyrrell exhibit and check out the prints on display by contemporary South African artist, Peter Clarke.  Clarke is a linocut and woodblock print-maker whose pieces reflect the societal upheavals of the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.  It was interesting to see his work, not just from an artistic standpoint, but also from an historic one.  One day that week Paul was out sick from work with a bad cold so we just went around town running errands and then made delicious homemade chicken soup for dinner.  Then on Wednesday night, we joined some of Paul's friends for a Cape Town Opera performance of Puccini's La Boheme.  It was really unique to see a nearly all-black cast in the popular Italian opera.  It was really good, but I do think my running commentary that, "This is exactly like Rent!" started to get old to everyone else after the fourth or fifth time that I said it.

On Saturday, one of Paul's friends was hosting a birthday braai (barbecue) at his house overlooking the water.  The house was really nice and even had a pool, but it was obviously too cold to actually go in.  We got there pretty early, but in spite of Paul's best efforts to move things along by getting the charcoal going, we had to leave before any meat was actually put on the grill.  Luckily I had loaded up on chips and dip so I didn't leave the party hungry.  We had to head out before the food was ready because another group of friends was having a potluck dinner that night.  I helped Paul to make his mother's famous apple crumble before we headed over to Constania, a suburb south of Cape Town.  The dinner was nice and I was the only person who had no one guess my lie in the game of "Two Truths, One Lie."  Everyone thought that I was lying about nearly falling off a chairlift to my death when I was a child, but that was actually the truth (long story.)  In reality I was lying about traveling to more than 50 countries throughout my lifetime because I've really only been to about 45.

The following day, Paul and I set out to conquer the third and final peak in our Cape Town Challenge.  The one that remained was Devil's Peak just to the northeast of Table Mountain.  As with the other three mountains, the primary vegetation is scrub and fynbos so hikers are above the treeline the whole way up.  Before driving to the base, we swung by Clifton where a Japanese fishing boat had beached itself during heavy fog the night before.  Luckily no one had gotten hurt, but the ship was still stuck on the sand so I was able to get some pretty cool photos.  We then drove back through the mountains, parked and headed up the trail.  Since the first part of the trail is the same as the way up Table Mountain, we got a few pick-up shots for our iPhone film along the way. 

The mountain was nearly empty aside from a few other small groups so we had the trail pretty much all to ourselves.  When we got to the top it was so windy and cold that I couldn't take it for too long.  I felt like I was going to get blown right off the summit and when Paul went off exploring I couldn't even watch for fear he was going to go over the side.  As we finally starting heading back down the peak, we could see a string of dark, foreboding clouds off in the distance.  Paul began to get a bit worried because he knew how quickly the weather could change and that hikers sometimes get stuck.  We tried to move as fast as we could, but on the way down we passed others still on their way up.  When a large group went by us, Paul warned one of the guys that he would need to put on more layers, but didn't suggest not going any further.  We did tell another couple they might not want to try it, but Paul kept kicking himself that he didn't also warn the first group.  In the end it was their decision to continue so there wasn't much we could do.  Luckily, we made it back down the road just as the rain started to fall.

The next week was my final one in Cape Town so I spent some more time wandering around downtown and picking up last minutes things that I needed.  I also visited the Castle of Good Hope, which is a 17th century fort built by the Dutch East India Company.  I learned more about the history of the early Dutch and English settlements in Cape Town and their battles against one another.  Wednesday was my last night in town so Paul and I joined Hamzeh and some of his friends at a quiz night fundraiser.  It was hosted by a drag queen named Princess Pop so it was definitely quite a fun time.  It was also really nice to get a chance to see Hamzeh one final time before I left.

On Thursday afternoon, Paul left work early and came by the apartment to pick me up for my flight.  He brought me to the airport and saw me off as I left for yet another continent and the last phase of my adventure.