Cape Town, South Africa Day 5 & 6

Day 5:

So I decided that instead of going to a SAS trip for the day, I decided to go to Table Mountain but the trip there was well worth it! I went with one of my good friends Hannah and we took a taxi all the way up to the cable cars to go up to the top of Table mountain. It was extremely cloudy on the mountain with risks that we might not be able to go up there but we did make it there and we hiked around the mountain area. It was amazing to take pictures that would literally scare me but it was awesome to see everything.

We stayed up there around three hours before heading back to the ship and that night I went to dinner on my own for some relaxing time and had some sushi. (Forgot to take pictures of it sorry) It was my second time going to this place because I liked the food and finally asked the waiter why they put mayo and caviar on top the rolls and he told me that for those who dislike the fishy taste, it removes that part of it allowing the individual to enjoy the sushi more. I had to admit, he was right. The sushi tasted really good with mayo and caviar mixed together on top not to mention that having a Sapporo with it was just divine. I was relaxed that night.

Day 6

Today I went to Warwick Wine Estates for a tour, a wine tasting session and a picnic. It was amazing to go through the winery and check out how the process works but most of the time, the wines are usually in a fermenting stage within the winery. The grapes that go into making the wines are so good to eat! To make the white wines, they use just the grape juice and to get the red wine they use both the grape juice and the skin of the grapes to get the color. They outsource only the barrels and the bottling because it is too much to actually produce the bottles and barrels as well for the company.

 The wine tasting was interesting though I did not care for most of the wines. Here is what we tasted:

Professor Black Sauvignon Blanc

Chardonnay

The First Lady Chardonnay

The First Lady Cabernet Sauvignon

Old Bush Vines Pinotage

Three Cape Ladies

Trilogy

After all of that, we still had a picnic and the food was so good!! I loved the food and I enjoyed the experience of having my first wine tasting session in South Africa on February 29^th 2012. It was so much fun and a few guys in our group got a bit drunk. (Ok they shared about 6 wine bottles together on the bus before we got back to the ship so they were pretty much drunk at around 3pm in Cape Town. Nothing wrong with that right? I thought they were hilarious as they were drinking.

Cape Town, South Africa Day 4

Today I went to the Amy Biehl Foundation for a Service visit done by Semester at Sea. Amy Biehl was stoned to death in 1993 in South Africa during the time that the issues of Apartheid were going on. It was amazing of the transformation that her parents went through from not only forgiving her killers that they came face to face with but they also pushed to have the killers released from prison and gave them chances at the better life and these individuals currently work for the foundation as coaches and teachers. It was amazing to see the strength of her mother and father in the films that we watched. This was where she was stoned to death at and a memorial was erected in her honor

 It must've taken so much to be able to not just forgive someone for murdering a loved one but to also give them a second chance at making a better life for themselves. After learning of her story we went to some of the sites that the foundation focuses on.

 

The foundation helps students in the poorer regions of Cape Town which are called Townships, start going to school more by not only getting the students to go but to motivate the parents to play an active role in the student's lives. They have assisted especially in creating the afterschool programs that run during the week and on Saturdays.

The children can participate in all sorts of things such as dancing, musical instruments, sports, and other recreational/non recreational clubs. I have some amazing videos that I will put up at the end of the voyage of performances at two of the schools that we went to. I had a fantastic time with the children and learned about how much different it was to be in a welcoming school environment instead of being out in the streets wandering. The foundation also helps the students with vocational trading skills and job skills that will be useful to them as they enter the workforce to be successful further in life. The foundation is wonderful and the staff that work at the office are just amazing but I think the most important thing are the children that are being affected and changed by the work that is done by this foundation.

Cape Town, South Africa Day 1 to 3

Well I didn't do anything completely special for the first day but I have some awesome pictures that I took when we came into port. They were just so spectacular and amazing that I had to take them.

 I spent most of the day just shopping at the Victoria Waterfront mall with friends and taking in the feeling that is South Africa. South Africa, especially Cape Town is very European.

This mall had just about every western store that was European and American not to mention McDonalds which I will eat at tomorrow and probably some Gelatto. Tonight I also went the theatre house located next the University of Cape Town and I am thrilled to have been able to go there and have a blast. I have to admit that the actors there were extremely hot sexy guys! (There was no denying it) That was some serious eye candy to watch while we were watching a formerly banned play from the 1980s about the Apartheid in South Africa and what it did to many white who were forced in the army and the blacks in the communities. It was a very powerful story and completely live as I did get ill after the performance from all the cigarettes that were used by the actors in the play. This play however is not for little kids whatsoever but I would recommend it for those who want to really get a good feel for what the Apartheid was like. Cameras were not really allowed in the theatre area but I also had forgotten my camera because a certain individual called my room to tell me that my bus was about to leave without me (which was never the case. I actually had 20 minutes because the bus hadn't shown up) moving on, a few friends of mine are going to give me some of their pictures to share with you later. I will put a new post up later with the pictures.

The second and third day were spent at the water front doing somemore shopping for food and basic supplies for my cabin while getting to meet some local people which was more amazing than going out to see anything because I got a sense of how other visitors from European countries and even those who lived in the area think. I met a couple of guys from Estonia who joined me on my amazing helicopter ride around cape town area. (videos will be posted in May)

They talked about how expensive Cape Town is and how they think Cape Town has changed and from the conversation that I got, they seemed to have liked the changes that taken place since the apartheid and think that South Africa is truly amazing to visit. Some of the locals have a little bit of a different point of view in that they think that the government could have done more to make the economic gap smaller and done  something about the townships to make them more incorporated into the city life. Most of them however were Caucasian so I decided to pursue some other points of view and got one actually on the fourth day from the school principal in the townships who told us that the current government is not exactly always literate in the fields that they try to work in because many who are voted in often times to keep the diversity may not always know what they are doing and he said that over time as the blacks get more educated and people in the government become smarter at what they are doing then they will be able to do more. Anyways, I meant to mention that on the second day I went star gazing until around midnight at this hotel with SAS and it was amazing. We actually saw Andromeda and it was so spectacular. Just wow! Hoping to get the pictures from Brian soon so I can post them up. (He took all the night pictures with a special camera) I managed to make 4 wishes on 4 shooting stars that night and had a blast with my friends. I also had a lot of time to reflect while lost in the stars and I discovered that this was the most amount of peace I felt in one night because I just had my thoughts only to myself a beautiful view to really get lost in.

The third day was crazy with me deciding to go to a few places. First off was the ferris wheel where I got some really nice pictures and the helicopter ride which I mentioned above.

 I also went to the aquarium and got to watch the shark feeding and look at all the fishes. It was an awesome day and I relaxed so much just from this. I always had SAS trips planned in the three days that took up the entire day but it felt so nice to have just evening SAS trips that weren't stressful and then the entire day to myself to do whatever I wanted to do in Cape Town. It gave me some time to go out with friends and have a couple drinks together or to have dinner with a group or even for that point shopping but I also got to do my own thing and meet people from around the world. I met quite a few Chinese as well as a couple from India. It was interesting just to have a small conversation with them about just how the day was going and how they were enjoying their vacations.