I remember pretty distinctly the moment I found out the world was round. I was a little kid with my mind blown. I went to my mom and asked her again and again whether or not it was possible that if we could see the people in the Southern hemisphere, they would be upside-down.
This is my first time in the Southern hemisphere and I keep waiting to fall off the earth head first into space, but it hasn't happened yet. Not even so much as a head rush from being upside-down so long.
It took a long time to get to South Africa. The journey was about 24 hours door-to-door, but I left on a Monday and arrived on a Wednesday. Go figure.
I'm traveling here with two other grad students from USC: a half-Irish, half-Japanese, American-born but raised-in-the-Philippines, public diplomacy student named Shannon, and a shaggy-haired, Minnesota native, fellow journalist named Graham. We've turned out to be a pretty compatible travel team.
Our first few days were jam packed with sightseeing activities. Normally, I might resent this uber-touristy approach to acquainting oneself with a city, but it turned out to be a good crash course in Cape Town history and culture, and I'm going to have to start working in journalism in this city very soon, so any knowledge of the place that I can have under my belt will be helpful.
We started our first day with a walking tour led by an older woman named Ursula who pointed out all of the city's historical landmarks, and all of the buildings which she found to be ugly. "Here's the beautiful old city hall building. And would you look at that ugly apartment building beside it!"
The next day we took a hop-on-hop-off bus tour with a recorded audio guide that, interestingly also pointed out the eyesores along with the important stuff, so maybe this is just a Cape Town thing? One building, which creeps into the dramatic silhouette of Table Mountain, the rather snarky recorded narrator referred to as "an act of architectural terrorism," another, he mentioned was "built in the 1970s, not surprisingly."
In any case, we sped past Cape Town's beautiful and ugly buildings to our first hop-off, which was the city's "castle" which is really a fort. Old military uniforms and 19th century kitchen tools abound within. Outside, the yellowy walls looked beautiful against the blue sky.
After a near-death jay-walk to try to hop-on again, we rode up to the Table Mountain cable car. The little gondola takes you right up to the top of the mountain. We took in the spectacular views, then honored the moment by putting away a bottle of table mountain wine.
The next day Shannon and I opted for a horseback riding excursion on a lovely beach south of the city. Shannon took many years of horseback riding lessons and is a graceful expert on a horse. I have ridden horses only a handful of times throughout my life and was less graceful, though I managed to stay upright atop Chelsea, a bitchy mare having a terrible morning who was irritated by my presence and the presence of the other horses on the trail ride. Nevertheless, I got some nice photos. And after our butt-bruising morning we had a delicious leisurely lunch at the little farmers market/craft village/petting zoo farm place where the horses live.
Today, we made our way to Robben Island, the high-security-prison-turned-museum where Nelson Mandela spent many years mining limestone. There is lots of interesting (and amazingly recent) history to be learned there. Our guide, a former prisoner, had spent years there after being arrested for partaking in the Soweto uprising.
The island is obviously a little bleak, but the ferry ride to get out there is quite pretty. From the boat I saw seals, dolphins, and AFRICAN PENGUINS! I didn't catch a picture of any of the marine life, but the views of the Cape Town skyline weren't too bad.
Tomorrow, I'll start my internship.
This is my first time in the Southern hemisphere and I keep waiting to fall off the earth head first into space, but it hasn't happened yet. Not even so much as a head rush from being upside-down so long.
It took a long time to get to South Africa. The journey was about 24 hours door-to-door, but I left on a Monday and arrived on a Wednesday. Go figure.
I'm traveling here with two other grad students from USC: a half-Irish, half-Japanese, American-born but raised-in-the-Philippines, public diplomacy student named Shannon, and a shaggy-haired, Minnesota native, fellow journalist named Graham. We've turned out to be a pretty compatible travel team.
Our first few days were jam packed with sightseeing activities. Normally, I might resent this uber-touristy approach to acquainting oneself with a city, but it turned out to be a good crash course in Cape Town history and culture, and I'm going to have to start working in journalism in this city very soon, so any knowledge of the place that I can have under my belt will be helpful.
We started our first day with a walking tour led by an older woman named Ursula who pointed out all of the city's historical landmarks, and all of the buildings which she found to be ugly. "Here's the beautiful old city hall building. And would you look at that ugly apartment building beside it!"
The next day we took a hop-on-hop-off bus tour with a recorded audio guide that, interestingly also pointed out the eyesores along with the important stuff, so maybe this is just a Cape Town thing? One building, which creeps into the dramatic silhouette of Table Mountain, the rather snarky recorded narrator referred to as "an act of architectural terrorism," another, he mentioned was "built in the 1970s, not surprisingly."
In any case, we sped past Cape Town's beautiful and ugly buildings to our first hop-off, which was the city's "castle" which is really a fort. Old military uniforms and 19th century kitchen tools abound within. Outside, the yellowy walls looked beautiful against the blue sky.
After a near-death jay-walk to try to hop-on again, we rode up to the Table Mountain cable car. The little gondola takes you right up to the top of the mountain. We took in the spectacular views, then honored the moment by putting away a bottle of table mountain wine.
The next day Shannon and I opted for a horseback riding excursion on a lovely beach south of the city. Shannon took many years of horseback riding lessons and is a graceful expert on a horse. I have ridden horses only a handful of times throughout my life and was less graceful, though I managed to stay upright atop Chelsea, a bitchy mare having a terrible morning who was irritated by my presence and the presence of the other horses on the trail ride. Nevertheless, I got some nice photos. And after our butt-bruising morning we had a delicious leisurely lunch at the little farmers market/craft village/petting zoo farm place where the horses live.
Today, we made our way to Robben Island, the high-security-prison-turned-museum where Nelson Mandela spent many years mining limestone. There is lots of interesting (and amazingly recent) history to be learned there. Our guide, a former prisoner, had spent years there after being arrested for partaking in the Soweto uprising.
The island is obviously a little bleak, but the ferry ride to get out there is quite pretty. From the boat I saw seals, dolphins, and AFRICAN PENGUINS! I didn't catch a picture of any of the marine life, but the views of the Cape Town skyline weren't too bad.
Tomorrow, I'll start my internship.
I like that your horse was named Chelsea.
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