Glacier Goodness

http://migrate08.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/glacier-goodness/

Winter Wonderland

So in the midst of an otherwise very tropical year of travels, I got a big taste of winter: a glacier hike on Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast of New Zealand's south island. This glacier is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world and ends in a temperate rainforest--pretty unique. A joint post to come soon on Migrate '08, but here are just a few pictures in the meantime...

Milford Sound Check

http://migrate08.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/milford-sound-check/

Hey there, Delilah

http://migrate08.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/hey-there-delilah/

Platkins: One team, One dream, One blog- Laura rejoins the first world

***Note: For the next month, I will be posting the link to Rachel & Greg's blog (Migrate '08) as we have merged our blogs for convenience's sake:
www.migrate08.wordpress.com. Enjoy!***

Soooo, although we have been trying to be as inconspicuous as possible in an effort to avoid the American stereotype (one day after getting yelled at by an angry Austrian, we even contemplated sewing those silly maple leaf patches onto our backpacks), there finally came a day that we were able to walk down the street, bursting with American pride: Superbowl Monday. After managing to find every other American in Sydney by 10 am at a little known bar called “Cheers” (featuring drunken study abroad students screaming “I miss Americaaaaaaaaa!” every 5 minutes) we watched with pride, Budweisers in hand…until the Patriots lost. We then drowned our sorrows in platefuls of noodles in nearby Chinatown, and went directly back to the hostel to nap off the bitter taste of loss, and too much MSG.

We rose early the next day, determined to forget the blurry, smug look on Eli Manning’s face, and hopped on bus 381 to Bondi Beach. The misery of the day before quickly faded as we spent two glorious days sunning ourselves, and drinking green tea smoothies on the beach. After the sun decided that Greg’s skin wasn’t already charred enough, we made our way back to Sydney to meet Laura, who had just arrived fresh off of the African continent. Worried that the third world may have changed Laura in many ways, it was comforting to see that some things really don’t change, as our first order of business was celebrating with two rounds of roo steaks and sausages. It wasn’t long before the first bottle of South African wine was opened, for there was much catching up to do. After many stories and many laughs, we gave Laura a brief moonlit tour of our favorite Sydney harbour and scoped out where we would be dining the following night- our last night in Sydney. As it turned out, the prices at McDonald’s were unrivaled.

After waking Laura up from her jetlag coma, we were out and about in an attempt to finally see the Harbour Bridge before another rainy day began. We were lucky that the overcast skies held out, and after a nice stroll to the bridge (of course after a delicious and cheap breakfast as Hungry Jacks/Subway—the first of many healthy meals of the day), we were able to walk across the bridge and climb of the Pylon Tower.

The view was spectacular and of course, we took far too many pictures. We then said farewell to the Opera House and the Royal Botanical Gardens. After climbing the 200+ stairs to the bridge, we were in dire need of sustenance, so we reprised our noodle run in Chinatown. We capped off our evening at Scubar, with a small taste of Australian nightlife, and a big pitchers of Victoria Bitter.

In the spirit of recently formed team Platkins, from this point forward there will be a merging of the blogs- Muzungulo will be on hiatus for a month, as all of our experiences will live on Migrate08 (or “Our great 08”??). We are off to N Zed tomorrow to hopefully rent a campervan to aid us in our search for Hobbits. As none of us have ever achieved the trifecta of driving a manual campervan on the opposite of the road, the next two weeks should prove to be quite the adventure!

I Heart Cape Town

I really do. Wow, where to begin, I’ve been doing so much here. It’s been so nice not only just to have Alika and Talita’s company, but also of course the added bonus that they know their way around the city. They’ve both been fabulous tour guides of sorts. So after our jam-packed day driving around the Cape of Good Hope on Thursday, I had a bit of lovely beach time on Friday late morning, and then Alika and her friend Shaianne picked me up to take me to the Waterfront, a lively area of shops, restaurants, live music, tourist attractions situated around the harbor. First we stopped at a favorite local café, Vida e Caffe, for excellent coffee and the biggest, most delicious muffins I’ve ever had. Then we wandered around, went into the Apartheid museum, which while interesting of course, I was told used to have a much better display. But I was able to book a ticket for a tour on Robben Island for Sunday afternoon, which when I had called about when I first arrived in town was sold out for the following two weeks! We did a bit of window shopping in the big, beautiful mall (I know, I can’t believe I just wrote “beautiful” and “mall” in the same sentence, but the mall really is beautiful, and coming from East Africa, I do now have a smidge of appreciation for just well built structures!), then went to buy tickets for a 5pm catamaran cruise with unlimited champagne! Talita was racing to join us and literally and frustratingly just missed the boat! But the weather was beautiful and we had lots of bubbly and took in the view of the city from the harbor and beyond, as the wind splashed larger waves all over us.

Afterward, we met Talita who was having a head shaved—what an amazing girl. We headed to Clifton beach to meet up with Alika’s dad who had all the fixings for an excellent sunset picnic on the beach. Some life, huh? But just when you’re thinking, okay, you’re making this up, things are going to well for you now! In the midst of our revelry on the beach, somehow the rental car keys went missing. Oy vey. It was completely dark by the time we realized this, and though Alika and Shaianne made a valiant attempt to search the wide beach with a cell phone flashlight, it was a lost cause. We called the rental company and headed back to wait at Talita’s apartment. Our Friday night plans had gone up in smoke, although as coincidence would have it, so had everyone else’s: the whole of the city centre had a power outage. Camp’s Bay was eerily dark and quiet—the same place that was noisy and vibrant the night before. We took a stroll to pick up some snacks, the rental company brought a new car, and after some more wine on the terrace, headed to bed—a mother nature intended! Especially because we had a big day ahead: Wine Country!

After an early morning run along the beach (and fall, I must admit, not so gracefully!), Talita dropped us off at Alika’s dad’s apartment where I would be staying as T had her boyfriend and friend coming to visit. Then we drive off to pick up her mom in the suburbs and head off for the winelands. First we visited Backsberg, a vineyard estate with lovely gardens, excellent wines, a rustic feel, and a divine chocolate shop. For a mere 10 rand, we had 6 wine tastings. The next stop was a scenic view at Verde en Lust vineyard, before hitting up Graham Beck, a modern, sophisticated vineyard with a tasting room of dark wood overlooking the bottling and boxing area of the wine factory. After a (free!) tasting of 5 wines, we piled back into the card to head for Haute Gabriel, a very upscale winery, where we managed to just miss their 3:30 closing time, but instead of having to pay they gave me a tasting of their excellent sparkling rose and pinot noir. Then we headed to the main street of adorable Franschoek for a late lunch and a delicious cheese plate—ah, how I’ve missed good cheese! Then Alika’s parents dropped us off at University of Stellenbosch in, you guessed it, Stellenbosch, another wineland town. I wandered around town a bit, which was teeming with students as it was their big, start of the year party weekend. Brought me back to good ole time in Charlottesville! Yes, that’s right, at 25 I got to party like an Afrikaans college student. Ah, yes, I forgot to mention this: Alika and Talita speak Afrikaans as their first language. So much of the time I have no idea what they’re saying. They speak English perfectly mind you, but just in their day to day conversation, Afrikaans is the norm. Thus I’m often out of it, but I actually really like listening to it (and having a chance to zone out!). But at the University of Stellenbosch, an Afrikaans school, many of Alika’s friends did not really speak English very much at all, so that definitely added to the experience—as did being a random 25 year old American at an Afrikaans university party—ahh, travelling, gotta love it! But what a great, unique experience, and the late night mushroom and cheese pies (and McDonald’s French fries, I must admit to) were extremely good too.

The next day, Alika’s mom picked us up and we went for what may have been the best two hours of my whole time here: a wine and cheese tasting at Fairview Vineyard. As we walked up to the pretty building, we were greeted by the Goat Tower, where the farm’s goats reside and get exercise, very cute! It was 10:30 am and we had not had breakfast, unless you count the pies from 3am, so after just the first couple of wine tastings I could feel myself starting to babble and giggle. We shared our wine tastings so we could sample more of them, which only led to more confusion. Clearly the breakfast of champions as our pourer commented. Clearly, in bad need of something solid in our tummies, we headed around the corner to the cheese tasting sections. HEAVEN. There were seven different platters heaped with cheese cubes, like some Whole Foods on steroids. There were goat's and cow's milk cheeses, along with olives, preserves, pickles, and more to complement each cheese. I went back 3 times! Gross, I know, but it was SO good. Meanwhile, Alika and her mom were compiling a huge basket of cheese purchases for our dinner that night. After we finally tore ourselves away from the cheese room, we walked down to the restaurant for some coffee and croissants. That’s when my first rainstorm in South Africa commenced, we ran for the car with our wines and cheeses, and headed for another stop on our way back to the city: Butterfly World. Now, the only time I’ve ever been to a butterfly place was when I was much younger and on a family trip in Florida or something, but it was too cold and the butterflies just sat there—very disappointing as you can imagine. Not so this time: butterflies were fluttering everywhere above our heads through the dense flowering plants and green foliage of the greenhouse. It was really quite spectacular. In the back room, there were spiders and snakes in cages—um, until the woman in charge there brought out a small coral colored snake and placed it in Alika’s hand. I was panicking at the sight! That is until the woman brought out a humongous snake with a fat body and green patches along its long scaly body. Then terror set it. But I knew I had to hold it, or I’d be disappointed in myself. So I did, giving out sighs of fear all the time. So the question is: Do I look how I felt??

There were also some cute monkey-like creatures, an iguana, parrots, and small antelope like creatures called dikdiks. All it all, it really was a terrific place, as could be seen from how crowded it was with South African locals. After a morning of indulgence and adrenaline rushes, we drove back into the city, where they dropped me off for my Robben Island trip. The trip included a 40 minute boat ride there and back on somewhat choppy waters, which felt a bit long, although the view was nice. Once at the Island, our guide, a former inmate, lead us through the old prison where he and hundreds of other political prisoners including its most famous, Nelson Mandela were kept. We saw Mandela’s former cell, before being taken on a bus ride around park of the 13 sq km island. While it was interesting, there was not enough time to wander around on our own, because we were shuttled back on to the last ferry. Alika and her mom picked me up, and we headed to her dad’s apartment for our second wine and cheese feast of the day. You can imagine I slept well that night!

Today was time for some sightseeing in the city centre. Alika and I took a combi (the local name for a shared mini taxi) into town and made our first stop at the Castle of Good Hope. We looked at the military museum, and then made our way to the inner courtyard where a staged mini cannon was ceremoniously set off at noon that was impressively loud. A guided tour followed which explained the history of the fort and the Dutch-British skirmishes. Our next stop was the District Six Museum, but not until we shared the most enormous and disgusting (and surprisingly good) chip roll that is a local “delicacy”: a sub roll filled with chips and ketchup. Healthy I know. The museum is housed along a main road in current District Six, but one that bares little resemblance to the District Six of old. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, when apartheid was becoming more and more rigid, District Six, the last remaining bastion of a multiracial community within the city center was disbanded. Black and colored inhabitants were forced to leave and their houses were bulldozed to the ground, forcing many of them to move out to the townships on the outskirts of the city. The small museum filled with numerous photos, street signs, and stories of old inhabitants is very moving and thought-provoking. We spent about an hour taking in as much information as possible, and then went back out into the sunshine and wandered down to stroll through the company gardens. Then it was time to race to Talita’s apartment to meet her and her friend Chrissie to drive out to Chapman’s Peak again for horseback riding on Long Beach at Noordhoek. Crazy I know, and even more crazy because I seriously hadn’t been on a horse in over a decade. But it was a lot of fun, despite almost getting bucked off a couple of times. After Nutmeg tried to throw me I finally climbed on Cognac and had no problems. Much better. We rode along the perfectly white sand beaches to the water’s edge and then through the wetlands back to the stables. Then we went back to Talita’s apartment and got dressed up (so clearly I had to borrow clothes since I have five shirts with me right now!) and headed out for some fancier dining at the Waterfront—sushi and drinks and then more food at a nice restaurant called Balducci's. Clearly an excellent couple of days.

Today is my last day in Cape Town. I went with Alika, her mom, and one of her colleagues to see a couple of townships. These were not apartheid specific townships, but similar in many of the problems. Alika’s mom works in the city planning office and much of her work involves getting the funding to put through better housing developments and maintain current ones. While the poor housing and improper living conditions (blocked sewers caused by people trying to flush even blankets, rewire electric wires along the ground unsafely) is always a sad sight to see, I must say that coming from the slums I was working with in Kampala the housing was significantly better. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting side of Cape Town to see, away from the beauty and prosperity that I’ve encountered until now. After some last minute (and last time) shopping the Africa craft market in Greenmarket Square near Long Street, I’m going to pack up tonight, bid Cape Town a found farewell, and be in Sydney in hopefully not too long!

Cape Town: Back to the First World

It’s funny the things one can grow so accustomed to that when they disappear from one’s life, even if somewhat unpleasant, that void is felt very fully. I felt just such a void as my bus travelled into South Africa and I realized I had truly left the third world of my past four months experience several 1000 km behind. Botswana is remarkably successfully, but with such a huge country and a relatively tiny population (8 million—the number of inhabitants in NYC alone!), Gaborone is somewhat of a makeshift capital and felt more first world than not but also quite empty. Not to mention I was being pampered by Kim and Luke and didn’t have to find my way around in any kind of matatu. But the bus park was still quite chaotic, and thus I still felt “at home” there! Ha. But upon my arrival in Johannesburg, which I had done my best to avoid going to (not possible, all buses run through Jo'burg—I did thorough research with Kim’s aid driving around and talking to everyone in the bus park), I saw it as a huge functioning city. Not pretty, mind you, but it had a cohesiveness that I didn’t feel in Kampala often or Dar for example.
I can’t really explain it well unfortunately, but it was just a gut feeling that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore. The best illustration of this gut feeling was a conversation I had on bus #2 of the day which I boarded around 4pm due to arrive in Cape Town the following morning (this after a 6:30 departure that morning from Gabs!). An Afrikaans woman was sitting behind me and a black South African business man to my right as we sped along in our double-decker luxury bus. I can’t remember how the conversation was started, but the woman got to asking me where I was going and thus where I was coming from. I explained my overland travels down from Tanzania, and expressed how nice our current bus was compared with the buses I’d rode up north. “Really?!” she asked surprised. Oh my goodness yes I tried to explain—there are usually chickens all over the bus—up in the luggage rack, under the seats. Both the woman and the business man found this absurd and hysterical, and I silly me, had a pang of nostalgia! Too funny.

As I’ve said before, my bus riding skills have really improved and I passed the next 20 hours looking out the window at the beautiful fields, then sleeping stretched out across the isle for nine hours of sleep on my hard as a rock backpack (laptop within) that I awoke from several times with panic as to where my backpack was, until I realized it was the very uncomfortable lump under my head and went back to sleep! In the early morning the scenery became breath taking mountains and then merged into the wine country for which the Cape Town region is so famous. I actually don’t really like when the bus is pulling into it’s final destination because then it means I have to figure out what I’m going to do next, which in my case involved collecting my bags (still there, yay!), avoiding taxi hawkers, and walking too many kilometers to check out one backpackers hostel, although I did get to stroll through some lovely city gardens, albeit with my enormous backpack on! Always, the comparison shopper, I set out from hostel number one to check out the hostels on Long Street—the lively, young area in the heart of the city. But the day was getting on, so I decided to stick with my original choice, despite the 10rand price difference (about $1.50) and do an actual activity.
The woman at the backpackers place suggested Table Mountain, the looming backdrop of the city, because it was subject to close often at short notice for high winds, and had been shut for the past few days. So I collected my cameras and high-tailed it in a rikki (a slightly unreliable taxi resembling a London black cab) and bought my cableway ticket up the mountain, only for one way as I was hoping to hike down. The cable ride is in a revolving car (in theory so everyone gets a view, although being human everyone rushes to the view with the sea stretching out below, cameras poised). When we arrived at the top, I walked out onto the first path of the Table Mt National Park and took in the scenery—low shrubbery and bright flora scattered all over the rocky top strewn with large boulders, with sweeping views on all sides over the deep blue and turquoise waters, craggy mountains, and city buildings and houses strewn across the lower hills of Lion’s Head and Lion’s Rump, two mountains in the heart of Cape Town. I then proceeded to wander the top of the mountain from 3pm until 6pm. I asked about hiking down (in my flip flops no less) and got many a strange look, so instead, I decided to go have a beer, a Foundry cider, at the restaurant terrace that looked south towards Cape Point, and wait for the sunset—I mean, what else did I have to do?? I was feeling a bit lonely and down: here I had just come from the comfortable surroundings of my friend’s home and company in Gaborone and had a week to wander Cape Town by myself. I know, I know, everyone sitting at their cubicle or desk is thinking, aw, poor baby, tough life. But in those moments, alone with a new unknown city, everything feelings 9 parts daunting, one part exciting.

But that’s often when luck strikes, when you’re feeling most down—a silver-lining shall I say? ;) As I was sitting drinking my beer, trying to give myself an internal pep talk about how lovely the view was, how lucky I was to be doing this, blah blah blah, two girls came and sat at the picnic table next to me. They were obviously celebrating something and scarfing a big boer roll (traditional Dutch sausage roll) and toasting with champagne. The main cable station kept making these irritating announcements: “Ding dang dong, the sunset will be at 7 minutes to 8!” every five minutes, and talking about some sunset special. I turned to the girls bewildered after one announcement and asked, “What’s the sunset special?” And with that simple question, we got to talking, Alika and Talita introduced themselves. Alika who’s 18, grew up in Cape Town and was leaving in two weeks to begin job training in the UK, had met Talita who’s 27 and from Jo’burg on a catamaran cruise in Cape Town Bay in December. Talita is in Cape Town for treatment for stomach and esophagus cancer, and had just had a chemo appointment that morning, and so Alika was taking her out for a fun afternoon to brighten her day. That in and of itself was a pretty inspiring reminder of one of those “I’m so lucky” moments. But then came the really incredible stroke of good luck: they asked what I was doing after this. Um, nothing! Going back to the backpackers place somehow. No, I must join them for drinks, or dinner, or at the very least they would give me a ride back in Talita’s rental car, and actually I should just stay at the apartment Talita was renting—business class to my economy class hostel! We ended up heading back to my backpacker place to get some of my stuff, and after going out for a couple drinks on Long Street, heading back to her apartment which is in the Camp’s Bay section of Cape Town, almost on the beach. She was right: definitely business class—a gorgeous 3 bedroom apartment with a huge terrace overlooking the beach and the Twelve Apostles mountain range in the background, truly stunning. We had some red wine from Stellenboch (local wine country) out on the terrace, and then I happily crashed in the guest bedroom, grateful mostly to just not be sleeping on a bus!

The next day, I checked out of my backpackers hostel (I was to stay with Talita instead of staying at a silly hostel), Alika made us breakfast at her dad’s apartment (another lovely ocean view perched on a steep hill—very San Fran like!), and we headed off in the rental car for a tour of Cape Point. We stopped in Fishenhoek for soft serve ice cream cones and some beach time—i.e. a dip in the freezing cold waters (much warmer than on the western side of the cape I was informed by the locals!)—before heading off on a drive along Chapman’s Peak down towards Cape Point. We stopped in Boulders Bay to see the most adorable penguins (once known as Jackass penguins, poor guys). We avoided going into the paying section of the park (thanks to my brother for the good advice), and instead got to clamber over the boulders at the sea’s edge as the penguins waddled around us, leaned in and even tried to nip us with their beaks. I took far too many pictures, but here’s just a sampling!

Then it was off to Houts Bay to wander the harbor, watch the seals play in the water near the boats, and then indulge in fresh fish and chips of the Snoek and Hake varieties. We ate the crispy fish and chips, wrapped in paper, dosed in vinegar, ketchup, tarter sauce with our finger—simply delicious! We drove back for more stellar views along Chapman’s Peak (Talita is a fearless driver!) and back to her place to meet up with Alika’s dad and friend Shaianne to go out for drinks along Camp’s Bay—very reminiscent of the scene at Miami Beach actually with small trendy cafes spilling onto the sidewalk, and big beautiful palm trees lining the beach across the street. So I must say my first two days in Cape Town have been quite magnificent and filled with good fortune. It’s just so refreshing to meet such fun and generous people halfway around the world from where you live. Not sure what’s on for today yet, but I’m heading to the beach for now!