Cape Town Part Deux

June 12-14

After another 21 hour bus ride, we finally arrived back in Cape Town. This time we stayed in a seaside hostel in the suburban area of Muizenberg.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Chris Ong Tone, Dan and Dora; along with cloudy skies and cold, rainy weather.

Our first afternoon was rather uneventful, but the evening was another story. We made our way to the Cape Town Fanfest: an event organized by FIFA to allow those who don't have tickets to still enjoy the atmosphere of the World Cup.

With the boisterous crowds dancing, the vuvuzelas blaring and every country coming together, the atmosphere can't be beat.

We capped our evening with some plastic cup soccer and some animated drinking games (fives and the beerfest game) at neighbourhood lounge.

The following day it was too cloudy to go to Cape point and Cape of Good Hope, so we decided to climb Table Mountain instead. The climb took 2.5 hours and was actually more challenging than I had anticipated. A warm up for Kilimanjaro? Probably not.

I would like to say that the views were stunning, but visibility was so poor you could only see 10 feet in front of you.

Rather than taking the vernacular down to the foot of the mountain, Chris M. and I decided to descend on foot. The cloud line we had passed on the way up was much lower than we had remembered. Around halfway down, the skies opened up and it started to rain. Actually, it poured. Wearing our only warm clothing, we were now completely soaked.

To add insult to injury, I crushed my ankle after slipping on some wet rocks. Needless to say, but we really should have paid the 10 dollars Canadian it would have cost us to take the vernacular down (My ankle is fine now though).

On our last day in Cape Town we were once again confronted by poor weather and had to face the reality that we were not going to visit Cape Point. Instead we settled for the best seafood I have ever had at the Brass Bell restaurant.

That same night we went to see the defending World Cup champions Italy, or the Azzurri as they are affectionately known, face Paraguay. To be honest, neither team showed much ambition and with the rain and the cold, the fans were relatively reserved. The match itself ended anticlimactically in a draw of 1-1.

Unfortunately, I have to say that our second visit to Cape Town also ended anticlimactically, with some of our plans and nights out being cancelled due to the terrible weather.