South Africa, day 8: Hello Cape Town!

I love it here! I never got a good feel for Johannesburg; I was in one part of the suburbs for the conference and another suburb for the workshop and never anywhere near the city center.

But I am staying in the heart of Cape Town (Bo-Kaap) and loving it. It's such a beautiful city and a relief to be able to walk around (within reason--during the day.)

I arrived about 3:30 pm and got my things settled. My first trip was to buy groceries for the next several days. Then I took a nice walk around downtown, to the Parliament building and through the big gardens nearby.

I must really stick out since I had several people asking me for money and harassing me when I didn't give them something. For one of them I just pretended I didn't speak English and I only spoke back to in French. I'm not sure what the best thing to do is here for panhandlers because they are so darn persistent!

I ran into a group of French tourists in the gardens and listened in for a few minutes before chatting with one of them.

I REALLY want to go hiking! Look at Table Mountain in the background. It's calling to me.

 

The only problem is that my free "day" is not entirely free--I fly out in the late afternoon and I have my luggage with me after my 10 am checkout. But maybe someone at the workshop also likes hiking and would want to do something with me.

I went out to dinner with three wonderful midwives, all attending tomorrow. Great conversation and delicious food. It's been a great day overall.

Well, I have just a few short minutes left before we lose power and internet. Early start tomorrow so it's probably good that the lights are going off.