Allen in South Africa: "A Mountain...Oh Wow, That's What's Up!"
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:11 Written by Allen Linton Monday, 18 January 2010 22:49
Friday night consisted of all the right things: my sobriety (an unbelievable feat in this day and age), my drunk friends (the most necessary component of any hilarious evening, alcohol (the glue to the operation), and music/dancing clubs. Our resident mentor, Jesse (who is the female, South African version of me), loves describing American dance music as “trashy and slutty…it’s wonderful.”
(BREAKING NEWS @ 10:17pm: Residents of the guesthouse pulled me away from this blog posting to give an analysis on a spider they thought was a Black Widow. Now of ALL the people in the world to do this, they chose me – notable author of a "cockroach darn near pee-ed my pants" post and resident I do not do spiders advocate. What did I do? I calmly got up, walked over to it, looked at it and told them it was not a Black Widow and walked away. OHHH, JUST DOMINATED THAT SITUATION! I watch lots of nature shows on National Geographic Explorer and can tell quite quickly. Also the secret that Black Widows do not exist in South Africa helps. I looked this up when I compiled the “Things That Could Kill Me List.”)
Anyway, we ventured to the backpackers lodge for under $1 shots and my lemonade. Played pool and lost to a guy who drank and clearly got lucky. Pool here is interesting because the balls are smaller than the in the States (immature people please hold back inappropriate jokes). I actually enjoyed spending time around the pool table: cigarette smoke everywhere, people with drinks trying to talk to girls who had no interest in them, awkward shot angles, and everything else a great game needs. But I still lost and did not like it…so moving right along we headed to Zula Bar. When we came in, live music graced the stage with a somewhat captive crowd partially nodding to the tunes. The lead singer reminded me of a poor man’s Bon Jovi. Afterwards, dancing and uneasy dancing took the dance floor. Let me make a plug for an underrated aspect of being a non-drinker: the options at bars for non-alcoholic drinks are amazing! The bartender mixed orange juice with strawberry juice to make a guava tasting juice that blew away 90% of the other drinks in there in terms of taste. Consider asking the bartender for non-alcoholic options because you maybe surprised at what can happen when the juices hit the bar instead of the tequila shot. (Not that I’ve had one, but all that work to get flavor seems too much. Salt, shot, lime sucking? Why not juggle too?) All this ended up with me coming in at 4:00am to sleep until leaving for a 9:00am hike (I had to wake up at 8 to get breakfast).
I never enjoyed the pleasure of hiking before but this experience instantly leaped into top 10 moments in my life. The entire hike took around 3-3.5 hours with a minor break for lunch. By the way, we ate lunch at about 250 meters above Cape Town. Simply put, the experience of being that high up and the peaceful vibes coming from the situation supersede most things within normal altitudes. We also found a cave along the way and explored briefly because we did not bring flashlights. Being inside a cave for around 5 minutes without my own light (I used the light emitted from someone else) cannot be described. The structures underneath the Earth’s surface redefine complexity and natural power/beauty. I will post pictures when I can afford the megabytes.
Separate from the actual hike, the experience of riding the Cape Town train is second to none. First, the trains sound like they were modeled after original CTA trains from the 1950s. The inside of the cars are usually wide with decent seats but the features we take for granted provided the most interest. Doors that do not open automatically! When the train stops, you must open the door to get on or get off. If not, then the doors stay closed and you keep on moving. Conversely, the doors close automatically but do not close with much force so one can EASILY stand in the doors and keep them open with one hand. The result? The train leaving the station with someone running for it, jumping, and coming on board. Definitely the most unsafe thing I have ever seen but equally amazing. You can imagine someone has face-planted trying to do that with awful consequences. The other interesting situation involves the windows, which can be lowered. The result you ask? People sticking their hands, heads, and sometimes bags out the window as the train zoomed along. Why would they do this? Maybe people were hot or their bags needed the wind…but wow. Great days.
Tomorrow: Cricket! The sport that is, not the insect.
ALL II
P.S: Under 1000 words…yeah yeah!
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