The Wonderful South Africa

There was a consistent theme in South Africa of waking up way before the sun and usually sleeping in a non-horizontal position. But South Africa has been my favorite port by far.  And mommy, beware I did drink a little bit of alcohol in this port, which livened things up a bit, but I was always safe…

So on the first day I woke up for the beautiful sunrise, which rose just North of Table Mountain . It was absolutely stunning. Then we slowly made our way into port seeing the new football stadium that was nearing completion for the World Cup.

We then got off the ship, exchanged some traveller’s cheques that my Grandma Felicia graciously gave to me, went to a gift shop to buy some souveniors at the waterfront. Which by the way is absolutely amazing. I felt back at home on the waterfront, there was a mall and restaurants, it was an extreme contrast to Ghana.

After getting some souvineers, we got a small bite to eat at a pub before my noon FDP. I had French fries (first time in what seems like forever), chicken wings, and the best pint of beer I honestly think I have ever had. It was brewed in South Africa, somewhere near-by possibly on-site and it was called Milk and Honey. As one may have noticed, I stopped talking about alcohol on my blog after Spain, but this beer was just too good, that I just had to mention it.

Plus, at noon I got on the bus to go on my FDP (required field trip) to two wineries to do some wine tasting. We learned the process of making wine, which is way to complex for me to even want to explain, then we got to taste some of the wine. My palate was a very happy camper , so happy that it bought a bottle of wine for 45 Rand. That was like less than $7 for some really good South African red wine. Well, atleast I thought it was really good, especially for $7. We then went to a more environmentally sustainable winery where we tasted some more wine and some brandy. I also know how to taste brandy the professional way. And ya this was basically part of school.

So you take the shot of brandy, but keep it in the front of your mouth, tilt your head forward, literally chew the brandy with your mouth closed so that it does not go out of your mouth. Then swosh it around the middle of your tounge to get the nice, but not too strong aroma and then push it to the back of your mouth with your tounge and swallow.

Wine tasting and looking at sustainable wine productions was the best field trip that I have ever taken for a class. I then went to go see a play called “Careful”. I didn’t really want to go, but since my mom convinced me to pay $50 to go see this thing, I didn’t really have a choise.

So here is a little excerpt from my journal.
“We take the bus to the theatre to have ordourves in the lobby, meanwhile I still have my nalgene bottle filled with wine and it leaks redness every nw and then, especially when I open it up. So I am in a classy theatre, have a stain on my polo and technically smuggling wine right now. Life is great”

Well, life was great I watched the pleasantly comedic play right next to the dean of students and went back to the ship. But on my way back, some of my friends were leaving the ship and they convinced me to go eat dinner with them, especially since I had yet to have anything substantial to eat.
It is now 10pm and I have been off the ship for 12 hours, but anywho we walk to a restaurant on the waterfront and I order a milkshake, cheeseburger and French fries. When my food came out, I literally almost cried, OKOK my eyes were watering. I honestly do not think I had ever been so happy to see a cheeseburger in my life, which a milkshake and French fries.

After the great meal, I went back to the ship for 15 minutes where security took the really cool candle I bought for my mom. I was pissed but I trudged on. I put all of my stuff down, changed my clothes and went back out with some of the people I had dinner with.  It was pretty cool I didn’t really know any of them so I could kind of do whatever I wanted.

The plan was to go to Long Street and go to some of the clubs, but the taxi driver convinced the girls in the first car to that we should go to Tiger Tiger because that’s where all of the local college kids go. Well, the 50 Rand taxi to Long Street turned into a 200 Rand taxi to Tiger Tiger.

So we get to Tiger Tiger and there is a cover charge, and the girls do not want pay for a cover charge, so we go to the club across the street and one of the stupid girls forgets to bring her driver’s licenses or copy of her passport, so even though she is well over 18 years old we can’t all go to that club. So we find this one club that will let us in with only showing our shipboard ID. We get in there and they are playing 90’s music. I was furious, but we obviously weren’t going anywhere else so I made the most of it. We ended up staying at this club dancing the night away well past 3 o’clock. I get back to the ship at 4, giving me enough time to pack for my 5am departure.