Waking up sunday morning, the status screen said we only had about 3 hours and 30min until our arrival in Atlanta. Sweet! That means I slept about 9 hours of the 15 hour, 30min flight!
Landing in Atlanta, clearing customs was a breeze (the jerky made it through!) and then we finally boarded our flight home to Boston after a 90min delay. So as I type this on our ATL-BOS flight, we left our hotel in Cape Town about 28 hours ago and we both cannot wait to get home...
Stuff to do when we get home:
1 - Shower
2 - Upload the rest of the pictures - we still haven't had a chance to upload all of them from the US-Algeria match or any days after.
3 - Watch the DVD they took of us diving with sharks! And also develop the pictures from the disposable underwater camera we bought.
4 - Relax, unpack, and watch the rest of the world cup. Maybe even go to work tomorrow too. :-)
5- Call our mom's!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
June 26, 2010: Last day in South Africa
After breakfast we strategically packed our two bags in order to pad all the wine bottles and also hide the various flavors of jerky I was smuggling home. Springbok, Kudu, and Ostrich were my 3 favorites. I hope everyone knows what an Ostrich is but the others are:
Kudu:
Springbok is the south african national animal, also mascot of the world champion rugby team:
All three are very good!
After packing our bags we headed off to the V & A Waterfront to walk around seeing we have about 3 hours until our ride to the airport would arrive. We found some more souvenirs and then were searching for some of the local music we had been hearing at the fan parks and in the stadiums. Every pre-match playlist followed the same order of songs including Bob Marley's "could you be loved" and a bunch of african artists. Freshlygound is one with a style called "afro-pop" (almost any song by them is good) and K'naan the other (his song "Wavin' Flag" seems to be the world cup anthem here). I highly recommend both if they are available in the US anytime soon. This was the 6th music store we had gone to during our trip but it seemed the entire country was sold out of K'naan's album. We spoke with one of the store employees who told us they were expecting a new shipment any day now. When we told him we were heading to the airport in an hour for our flight home he offered to sell us his personal copy! Which we bought, for what amounts to around $28 (we gave him an extra few $ for being so kind).
People in south africa are too nice, everywhere we have been. The whole country is beautiful and everyone will say hi to you and ask about where you are from, what it is like back in the US, how we like South Africa, which team we support, and on and on. Made the whole trip so enjoyable!
After the waterfront it was time to head back to our hotel (Protea Hotel Victoria Junction) for the trip to the airport. By the way, we learned at Kirstenbosch that a Protea is a type of flower with many varieties.
On to the airport leaving picturesque Cape Town behind. Our flight to Johannesburg left at 3:50pm (9:50am EST on the 26th). Arriving in Johannesburg we had to collect our bags at baggage claim and hurry over to the international terminal and check-in for our Delta flight to Atlanta. Turns out my bag was a few kilograms overweight with the souvenirs at the waterfront so we had to quick shuffle some stuff around between our 2 bags - thank goodness I had the hand-held scale my mom gave me! Made it much easier to figure out when my bag was under the proper weight rather than guessing before going back to the counter again.
It was a little chaotic getting to johannesburg, getting our luggage from British Airways (which took FOREVER), checking-in with Delta, returning my Vodacom SIM card rental, and getting to our gate, but we managed to make it! We finally settled into our seats after 4 of 5 different security screenings. 3 seats across with me at the window and Sarah next to me and a nice woman from Oregon on the aisle. The nice thing about international flights is the food is quite good (chicken and mushrooms for dinner and then an omelette for breakfast) and they come by with free drinks and such at various intervals. We watched "Inglorious Basterds" at the same time on our in-seat tv's so it was like watching at home. Good movie. All the while the pilot was providing updates on the US-Ghana round of 16 match that kicked off just as the flight left the ground. Sad to hear the US lost in extra time, but they had a good run. Then it was time to take my ambien and get comfortable...
Kudu:
Springbok is the south african national animal, also mascot of the world champion rugby team:
All three are very good!
After packing our bags we headed off to the V & A Waterfront to walk around seeing we have about 3 hours until our ride to the airport would arrive. We found some more souvenirs and then were searching for some of the local music we had been hearing at the fan parks and in the stadiums. Every pre-match playlist followed the same order of songs including Bob Marley's "could you be loved" and a bunch of african artists. Freshlygound is one with a style called "afro-pop" (almost any song by them is good) and K'naan the other (his song "Wavin' Flag" seems to be the world cup anthem here). I highly recommend both if they are available in the US anytime soon. This was the 6th music store we had gone to during our trip but it seemed the entire country was sold out of K'naan's album. We spoke with one of the store employees who told us they were expecting a new shipment any day now. When we told him we were heading to the airport in an hour for our flight home he offered to sell us his personal copy! Which we bought, for what amounts to around $28 (we gave him an extra few $ for being so kind).
People in south africa are too nice, everywhere we have been. The whole country is beautiful and everyone will say hi to you and ask about where you are from, what it is like back in the US, how we like South Africa, which team we support, and on and on. Made the whole trip so enjoyable!
After the waterfront it was time to head back to our hotel (Protea Hotel Victoria Junction) for the trip to the airport. By the way, we learned at Kirstenbosch that a Protea is a type of flower with many varieties.
On to the airport leaving picturesque Cape Town behind. Our flight to Johannesburg left at 3:50pm (9:50am EST on the 26th). Arriving in Johannesburg we had to collect our bags at baggage claim and hurry over to the international terminal and check-in for our Delta flight to Atlanta. Turns out my bag was a few kilograms overweight with the souvenirs at the waterfront so we had to quick shuffle some stuff around between our 2 bags - thank goodness I had the hand-held scale my mom gave me! Made it much easier to figure out when my bag was under the proper weight rather than guessing before going back to the counter again.
It was a little chaotic getting to johannesburg, getting our luggage from British Airways (which took FOREVER), checking-in with Delta, returning my Vodacom SIM card rental, and getting to our gate, but we managed to make it! We finally settled into our seats after 4 of 5 different security screenings. 3 seats across with me at the window and Sarah next to me and a nice woman from Oregon on the aisle. The nice thing about international flights is the food is quite good (chicken and mushrooms for dinner and then an omelette for breakfast) and they come by with free drinks and such at various intervals. We watched "Inglorious Basterds" at the same time on our in-seat tv's so it was like watching at home. Good movie. All the while the pilot was providing updates on the US-Ghana round of 16 match that kicked off just as the flight left the ground. Sad to hear the US lost in extra time, but they had a good run. Then it was time to take my ambien and get comfortable...
June 25, 2010: Cape Point
Up early yet again - what happened to vacation? I think we slept in past 9am once on this whole 18 day trip...
Breakfast at 7:20am followed by meeting Simpiwe (or "Sim") in the lobby for our full day tour of various Cape Town area attractions. In our van were 2 other couples, one from China and one from Holland. Both were very nice to spend the day with.
We started in Hout Bay harbor where we saw some seals. Next we headed up Chapman's Peak Drive. The morning was very foggy so instead of seeing the ocean on Chapman's Peak Drive we mostly saw clouds and bits of ocean here and there. Following Chapman's Peak we entered Cape Point which is some 7,500 hectares and part of Table Mountain National Park. We drove down to the edge of the African continent at the Cape of Good Hope and got our tourist picture at the southern-most point of Africa next to the big sign with map coordinates on it. Along the way we also got to see a group of wild Ostrich wandering the park and staring at us as we stopped to take some photos.
Next stop was the Cape Point lighthouse, on arrival to the base we couldn't see the lighthouse at the top of the mountain as the thick fog was obscuring it completely. We hiked the 15min up to the top anyways and within 10min the fog had lifted and it was a clear day up there. When we got to the top we could see a thick layer of fog covering the ocean but we were above that so created some impressive views.
After Cape Point we headed into Simon's Town, also home to the South African navy. We stopped at Boulders Beach, where a colony of about 2500 african penguins made their home starting with 2 penguins back in 1982. We walked around there for a bit then headed to lunch with the rest of our tour group. We ate at a sseafood restaurant where I had tasty lobster bisque and a local pizza. Sarah had the seafood curry.
Following lunch we drove to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, which is famous around the world for its flowers and various plants. It was located in a valley surrounded by mountains which made for some great scenery.
After leaving Kirstenbosch we headed back to our hotel, driving by the presidential house currently lived in by South African president Jacob Zuma. After arriving back at our hotel we went out for a walk around Cape Town near our hotel and then watched some World Cup matches.
Tonight we met up with my friend Ben again who lives in Cape Town and works at a township school. He recommended Mitchell's Brewhouse down at the waterfront as a good spot to watch the game so he picked us up in the VW and we headed over to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. There we had a few local beers and watched Spain-Chile on one set of tv's and Honduras-Switzerland on another set of tv's. Then back to our hotel for the night. Sadly our last night in South Africa. :-(
Breakfast at 7:20am followed by meeting Simpiwe (or "Sim") in the lobby for our full day tour of various Cape Town area attractions. In our van were 2 other couples, one from China and one from Holland. Both were very nice to spend the day with.
We started in Hout Bay harbor where we saw some seals. Next we headed up Chapman's Peak Drive. The morning was very foggy so instead of seeing the ocean on Chapman's Peak Drive we mostly saw clouds and bits of ocean here and there. Following Chapman's Peak we entered Cape Point which is some 7,500 hectares and part of Table Mountain National Park. We drove down to the edge of the African continent at the Cape of Good Hope and got our tourist picture at the southern-most point of Africa next to the big sign with map coordinates on it. Along the way we also got to see a group of wild Ostrich wandering the park and staring at us as we stopped to take some photos.
Next stop was the Cape Point lighthouse, on arrival to the base we couldn't see the lighthouse at the top of the mountain as the thick fog was obscuring it completely. We hiked the 15min up to the top anyways and within 10min the fog had lifted and it was a clear day up there. When we got to the top we could see a thick layer of fog covering the ocean but we were above that so created some impressive views.
After Cape Point we headed into Simon's Town, also home to the South African navy. We stopped at Boulders Beach, where a colony of about 2500 african penguins made their home starting with 2 penguins back in 1982. We walked around there for a bit then headed to lunch with the rest of our tour group. We ate at a sseafood restaurant where I had tasty lobster bisque and a local pizza. Sarah had the seafood curry.
Following lunch we drove to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, which is famous around the world for its flowers and various plants. It was located in a valley surrounded by mountains which made for some great scenery.
After leaving Kirstenbosch we headed back to our hotel, driving by the presidential house currently lived in by South African president Jacob Zuma. After arriving back at our hotel we went out for a walk around Cape Town near our hotel and then watched some World Cup matches.
Tonight we met up with my friend Ben again who lives in Cape Town and works at a township school. He recommended Mitchell's Brewhouse down at the waterfront as a good spot to watch the game so he picked us up in the VW and we headed over to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. There we had a few local beers and watched Spain-Chile on one set of tv's and Honduras-Switzerland on another set of tv's. Then back to our hotel for the night. Sadly our last night in South Africa. :-(
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