1 post tagged “south africa”
We arrived in Cape Town (a flight from Blantyre) in the middle of a South African holiday. The 16th December is celebrated as the start of the Christmas period (which usually starts in October in the UK!). The streets were filled with people of all ages, races and colours watching youth bands (consisting of drums, trombones and trumpets) who made up a huge carnival marching through the city. It made for such a vibrant atmosphere, with much excitement in the air.
Cape Town was a massive contrast to our life over the last month and a half. There were more white people than we’ve seen in one place for a long time. Women wear fashionable clothes, in contrast to beautiful, printed material wrapped round their waists. There are amazing, historical buildings. Table mountain is beautiful, the clouds tumble over the top. Long Street (backpacker street) is full of young trendies, alternative shops, restaurants, clubs and bars.
We spent one day looking around the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. The docks are still very much a place of work, but this has been combined with rejuvenated buildings, tourist shops, restaurants, shopping malls and very swanky marinas, expensive apartments and luxury hotels. There were groups doing street performance – African singing, drumming and circus skills – and all made for a holiday atmosphere.
Sadly, we experienced the darker side of life in Cape Town on the way home. Ben had all his paper money stolen from him when a guy threatened him with a knife. Thankfully the guy didn’t try and take anything else, Ben was very level-headed and I, just a few yards away, had no idea what was going on. We then spent an interesting couple of hours trying to report it to the police!
