Saturday, April 3, 2010

Damn Easter Saturday

Not much accomplished today since the bulk of Cape Town seemed to be closed due to Easter Saturday (80% of the country is Christian and people have been wishing me a happy Easter since I arrived). I just walked and walked and walked some more. It was also cloudy, so was really lucky I did Table Mountain and Robben Island when it was nice.

Maybe it was a good thing everything was closed since the $2 glasses of SA red wine added up last night (drinking a $1 beer now- it's great!)? Met a nice group (1 each: American, French Canadian, Dutch and South African) that I joined for dinner last night and sampled my first Springbok, which I guess is like an antelope (not bad).

After a late start to the day, I went to the Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town's oldest building which is 344 years old, where I happened upon a tour and cannon fire at noon- how random and LOUD! (see picture). The Castle is also across the street from City Hall, the site of Nelson Mandela's first public speech after being released from prison.

After that i wandered around some more on a self-guided walking tour to various (closed) sites including the site of the former Slave Tree and Slave Lodge, a couple of churches, the Muslim quarter and the Dutch East India Company's Garden which was lovely with a rose garden that smelled incredible!

Now that I have walked a good chunk of the city, it really reminds me a lot of San Fran- fog (which they call the "tablecloth"), hills and all.

Tomorrow I am headed to hike and bike along the Cape of Good Hope, so expect a lot of pics of penguins, seals, etc.!

Also, in case you didn't notice, on the right hand side of the blog there is a Flickr link- I've posted 30+ pictures already if you want to see more.

1 comment:

  1. Happy to hear that you're safe and having a great time.

    Keep the pictures coming!

    ReplyDelete