06/07/2010 - 17:20

I am in Cape Town riding in a bus with 7 new friends. so it goes with my style of traveling and let me recount how I got here...
My flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg was brutal. I had a window seat (did not get into business class) but I sat next to a HUGE (as in tall) German man who is part of a group that is kicking a soccer ball from Munich to Johannesburg. his particular group is doing the Durban to Johannesburg leg. There was about 20 of them on the plane in matching jackets.
The flight was nearly 12 hours long and I was once again unable to get a good sleep. I dozed in and out of consciousness and was really beginning to need a shower. When I finally touched down in Johannesburg I was so travel zombied out that I was really unable to do much but shuffle around and try to sleep wherever I could.
The Johannesburg airport was alive with World Cup fever. Signs and banners all over the place, flags flying, and they even had special immigration lines for FIFA delegates and athletes. I passed immigration easily though and took my bag from the carousel, which took a long time and I was starting to freak out because I thought maybe my bag was lost... turns out it was just last. When I exited customs, the scene was crazy. People everywhere! I could only see an exit and arrival info but saw nowhere that would lead me to the ticketing counter which is where I needed to be so I could get onto my flight to Cape Town. A man must have saw my obvious lack of direction, his shirt said "porter" but he very well may have been a homeless guy. I really didn't want to be bothered but I asked him where ticketing was anyway and he grabbed my bag and said to follow him. When I got there I gave him a 1 euro coin and he said "I can't take this, the currency exchange won't accept coins, please give me a paper bill." This is where I should have said "too bad" and been on my way, but instead, like an idiot, asked him if he could give me change for a 5 euro bill. He said he could and when I pulled it out he snatched it from my hand and ran off. I was pretty annoyed with my own naivety and resolved to be more cautious from now on.
I got my boarding pass and went to the gate realizing that I had 3 hours before my flight. I slept on some chairs but they were oddly shaped and it was cold and I had no jacket. I was hungry so I decided to get a bite to eat at a little burger place called "Wimpys". The food wasn't amazing and the ketchup in all of South Africa is called tomato paste and is too sweet. gross. The real problem was that i had no Rand (South African currency). The waitress said I could pay in dollars but she couldn't give me change. My bill was converted and came out to $9. I gave her $15 because I didn't want to tip just $1, and all I had was a $10 and a $5. She was very pleased with her tip, I thought she was gonna hug me haha. It turns out in South Africa a 10% tip is normal so the lone $10 would have actually been just fine... but at least I made her day.
Finally my flight departed and the 2 hours in the air were the most difficult of all my flights. I was so fatigued from being awake for almost 36 hours straight and from traveling that my stomach constantly hurt. no position was comfortable. My legs were cramped and sore. I faded in and out until finally arriving in Cape Town.
When I got to the baggage area I converted all my cash to Rand, which I should have done in Johannesburg. My bag was once again one of the last ones out. I got it though and proceeded to the exit where I was greeted by an old YWAM friend, Joanna. It was so nice to see an old familiar face after all that traveling. She drove me to Buzzy's house after a little confusion with the directions. Buzzy is a friend of my friend Cassy and was very kind to let me stay with him. I said thanks and goodbye to Joanna and was then officially at the start of my adventure.
Buzzy and I hung out for a bit and got acquainted. He is a screenplay writer and his apartment is an old converted mental asylum that has been turned into an artists community. It is pretty cool and not at all as scary as it sounds. Buzzy drove me down to Long street which is sort of the Bourbon st. of Cape Town. We sat in an Irish pub and I had a couple Guinness. It only cost about $3.50 each (26 rand), which is the cheapest Guinness I've ever had. All food and drink here seems to be about 30% cheaper then it is in the USA.
When we left the pub I had my first encounter with a car guard. They are usually homeless people in yellow vests. They will come out after you return from your car and insist on payment for "watching your car", which was parked in a free space on the street. Cassy suggested I just pay them a bit to get them off my case, but Buzzy is pretty insistent about not paying them. It's pretty funny, he just jumps in the car and drives off with them still standing there blank faced.
When we got back to the apartment I was pretty tired to say the least. Buzzy heated me up a curry dish known as "bunny chow". I went to sleep on the couch shortly after.
The next morning I was up at 7:30am and Buzzy was off to work. I have a scooter which was dropped off for me from a rental company. Buzzy gave me directions from his house to the hotel where the wine tour was to pick me up but I was pretty nervous about getting lost as well as driving on the left side of the road. I had to be picked up at 9:00am and the hotel was only like 20 minutes away so I left at 8:00am just to be safe. The left side driving wasn't so bad. I remember it being really difficult when Ed and I rented scooters in Thailand, but now for some reason it is easier. I did get lost though. I exited the highway too early (yes, I've been driving the scooter on the highway here, apparently it is normal in South Africa to do that), and ended up all turned around. I wandered the streets of Cape Town, studying the map and asking directions several times. Finally I made it, frustrated and angry, and 15 minutes late. I asked the concierge if a tour group had been through and he said they had but that they already left. I used the front desk phone to call the tour guide and he turned around to pick me up. I felt bad but really didn't want to miss the tour.
The tour guide was friendly enough and the other 9 passengers were quiet at first but eventually we all got along really well. A brother and sister from Brooklyn, 3 friends from San Francisco, a father and son from Brazil, and two friends - one from Germany and one from Switzerland.
We drove out of Cape Town about 30 minutes into the wine country town of Stellenbosch. our first winery was Zevenwacht. It is a whole estate that has guest houses and hosts many functions like weddings. The winery gave us a tour and we got to see how the wine is made and processed. We then had a tasting of 4 wines and 4 cheeses. It was all really good. The best of the whole tour actually. The guy who did the tasting was this really theatrical and flamboyant British man. Very knowledgeable but we all agreed he was slightly over the top.
I purchased a wine called "The Tin Mine" which is part Sauvignon Blanc, part Chardonnay, and part Viognier. I also purchased a bottle of Syrah. There were also two girls, Tara and Alba, who were on a different tour but doing the same tasting as us. They are twin sisters from London and we ended up chatting a bit. They were at the next winery too so we continued the conversation there. This second winery was a more African themed estate called Saxenburg. They had zebras, peacocks, springboks, llamas, and ostriches in the fields surrounding as well as large flower gardens. The wine tasting was rushed and really not very informative. I still liked some of the wines though and ended up leaving with a Pinotage and a Cabernet Sauvignon. When we left we parted with Alba and Tara but I got Alba's email address because she keeps her Blackberry on at all times since her work will pay the bill anyway (crazy!). So we agreed I would email them to meet up on Wednesday or Tuesday after my shark diving tour.
We left that winery and drove into the actual town of Stellenbosch. It was pretty quaint and had a little bazaar where one could purchase small knick knacks and hand carved animals and rugs and paintings and stuff. I'm not really into those places because it is usually cheap, mass produced junk that is being pawned off as "hand made" and authentic. I've been to enough markets in Istanbul and Bangkok to know the deal. After about 30 minutes we loaded back up, except the Brazilians who got on a different bus which went back to Cape Town since they only booked a half day tour. The rest of us drove further into wine country and stopped at the town of Paarl, which means pearl in Afrikaans. We at lunch at a "French" restaurant although there was nothing French about it at all. The menu included gemsbok steaks as well as Ostrich sandwiches. I sort of regret not ordering one of those. I settled on the bobotti, which is a delicious South African dish of lamb curry with sweet spices like cinnamon and raisins over yellow rice. We all shared a couple bottles of wine that the San Francisco guys bought at Zevenwacht and had some beer, so we were all pretty chatty on the way to our final tasting.
We stopped at the Fairview winery in Paarl, which is famous for it's "Goats Do Roam" brand of wine. The estate had 3 large goats that were very friendly and entertaining. They also had a wide range of products from wine to cheese to bread and pastries to olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We did a full tasting which included 6 wines and 12 cheeses. Here I also picked up a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of Sweet Red, which is a dessert wine made with brandy. So 6 bottles in all for the day!
The scenery in wine country is amazing. It was cloudy all day and even rained a bit but still the mountains were very cool. Sharp peaks that seem to rise up out of nowhere. Bare peaks with scattered African trees that have tall trunks with umbrella like leaf formations on top. The hillsides are lined with vineyards as far as the eye can see.
On the way back everyone was a lot more sleepy and less talkative. Here I am now, and I think I might get a few winks in before I'm dropped off at the hotel and have to figure out how to get back to Buzzy's house without getting lost. More to come...