The Town of Capes

So, the bad new about Cape Town: I have yet to see any capes at all. With a name like that, this place should be crawling with superheroes, right? But no. None. Unless there are superheroes and capes have simply gone out of fashion. Either way, huge disappointment.

The good news: That's really the only disappointment I have so far. :p

In all seriousness, these first 24 hours have been absolutely awesome. I had one of the most painless international flights over ever. A window seat with NO ONE ELSE IN MY ROW!!  I got to lay down (yay being little!) had three pillows and blankets to myself, and got to binge on movies and red wine. :D

I got into Capetown pretty late, but found my way to a hostel and crashed. Today was absolutely beautiful, so I made the most of it (even though I was pretty dead on my feet from the jetlag) and spent the day strolling through the Company Gardens, the Capitol Bowl district and then took the cable car up to Table Mountain. I had called ahead, because the cable car doesn't always run in the winter depending on the weather, and the answering machine said that it was running but that the weather was "very cold". So, like the good little Michigander that I am becoming, I heard "very cold" and packed up a scarf, hat, gloves, hoody, hat, jacket.....yeah, it was like 69 degrees. Needless to say, I was carrying around armfuls of clothing, and at one point just piled it all on a rock because it was too hard to hike through some of the steep sections with all of it. Oh, South Africans. You don't know the meaning of the word 'cold'. And/or perhaps the word 'very'. But I am not complaining. Both Table Mountain and the weather were breathtaking. People around here are claiming that its one of the 7 wonders...but I don't know if that's true. Or which of the 7 wonders it is? Is it just me, or are there about 17 '7 wonders of the world' ? And in which case, wouldn't it be more fair to call it the 119 wonders? Anyway, it was beautiful. The day was clear and sunny, which apparently is a rarity at the mountain. And I spent a good 3 hours hiking and taking pictures right up till sunset.

Afterwards, I headed out to "Long St" the bar/restaurant district, where I had the best Ostrich burger EVER, and walked around for a bit before heading back to my hostel.

I am now going to crash because I have to....I mean *get to* go to my conference in the morning, which is going to require checking out of this hostel and catching a 1:30 hour train to Stellenbosch. I will be there through Saturday, staying at the Stumble Inn (best name for a small guesthouse in wine country ever).

After that, who knows, I really want to come back to Cape Town because one day just doesn't do it justice....but on the other...I've got a long way up the coast if I'm going to make my flight out of Jo'berg in a couple weeks.

p.s. My favorite thing about the language out here so far is the use of the phrase 'the lady'. Seriously, people have said this to me like 3-4 times today. "A check for the lady please" "And what would the lady like?" For some reason, it makes me giggle and feel both flattered and ridiculous. As if I am wearing a giant purple sunhat.