Friday night: We took a city-to-city bus to Port Elizabeth and spent the night on a girl's floor that my friend Jess knew from a study abroad experience in high school. She had no extra pillows or blankets, and one of her walls was a sliding glass door. Aka: we were FREEZING. none of us slept very much at all.
Saturday: we took a bus called the Baz Bus which is a hop-on, hop-off van thing that goes from hostel to hostel. Its very convenient and safe. So we were on that until about noon when we got to Plettenberg bay. We checked in to our hostel, hung out for an hour, then drove to Bloukrans Bridge, which is the home to the tallest bungee jump in the WORLD (216m). So I did a zipline out to the actual site, and jumped off a bridge. Which, I have to say, puts a lot of things into perspective. I was feeling pretty down in the dumps, and nothing will renew a person's will to live like jumping off of a really tall bridge. For dinner we bought some pre-made hamburger patties and "braai"ed them (aka: bbq) with some salt, pepper, and ketchup. They were probably the best burgers I have EVER tasted. Ever. We went to bed early that night and I think its safe to say I slept for about 11 hours.
Sunday: We woke up, went to the beach and walked around, then caught the Baz Bus to Cape Town. There we met this crazy 18-year old englishman named Rob (we called him 'Puffin'). More stories to come on Puffin. We stayed with Jess's other friends from study abroad, named Jessica and James (they're bro and sis). That night we went to a pool bar and I saw some people from my dining hall which was cool.
Monday: It rained ALL DAY. ALLLLLL DAY. So we went bowling. And ate these really amazing chicken fingers. That night we went out to a club called Mercury and invited Puffin along. Can I just say he was a TERRIBLE dancer and had a penchant for cheek-kissing and ass-grabbing. But he also had one for drink-buying so we were willing to overlook his creepyness. It was a pretty fun night.
Tuesday: we took a day-long cape tour. We got to see the Jackass penguins, the beautiful cape, and all the landscape, etc. It rained all morning when we actually had outdoor activities, which was actually hilarious. We had tons of fun and took some funny pictures. That night we ate dinner at Jess's distant relative's BEAUTIFUL home/b&b. We made a delicious chicken pasta w/ white wine and garlic sauce. DELICIOUS. I pretty much JIMPed.
Wednesday: The two girls from WU and myself went with Jessica to explore Cape Town. we really wanted to go to Robben Island and Table Mountain, but both were closed due to the shit weather we'd had up until that point. We ended up going to the District 6 museum, still cool, and a lookout point. We kinda just hung out for the rest of the evening, and made nachos for dinner (w/ doritos: not as good as the real thing.) We went out for a little while that night.
Thursday: Katie's birthday celebration day. We started the day on a wine tasting tour, and had some amazing wine and cheese. And a little chocolate. It was TONS of fun. After dinner we played kings cup, a little beer pong, and then went out to a club. Lots of drama went down later with club-hopping and not having ID, we ended up finally getting into a club for free b/c i'm from Hawaii (hells yes) and dancing there for a few hours. I got to see my friend Mikey from my dining hall, which was awesome, and everyone was finally having a good time. When we came back we put katie straight to bed, but she threw up on the pillow where I was supposed to sleep, so we had to clean her up. I ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag on a chair in the living room. It was not a great night for sleeping. On the bright side: before katie threw up I enjoyed some toast w/ melted feta on it. DELICIOUS.
Friday: we take a city-to-city bus to Mossel Bay. We were staying in a hostel that was converted from a train, which was pretty awesome, and it was like 300 yars from the beach. Epic. We didn't get in until after 9 pm and we were all STARVING. So once we checked in we dropped our bags off and bee-lined it for the restaurant. I got a bacon and egg sandwich with a side of onion rings and it was possibly one of the best decisions i've ever made. We went to bed shortly thereafter.Fast forward to 2 AM: A bunch of asshole drunk Germans who were staying in the dorm area (where we were) bust in and start singing loudly, flickering the lights, and making obnoxious comments about how they were on a train. F that S. So we didn't get to actually sleep until like....3. And then apparently one of them peed on the floor, but I wasn't awake for that so I'm gonna go ahead and pretend it didn't happen because my bag was definitely on the floor.
Saturday: Beach day. Amazing. For dinner we went out for seafood since it was ACTUALLY Katie's birthday. I got this platter with prawns, mussels, fish and calamari, paired with a glass of white wine. It was AMAZING. I was so happy. We came back and bought a brownie each and sang to Katie. I ended up falling asleep at 7:30. Nothing like a good food coma.
Sunday (aka today): we were on a bus for like....8 hours. And when we got off of it we were (SURPRISE!) starving. So we went to this place called Scott's and ordered nachos. Foodgasm. It was delicious. And now I'm here writing this.
Since there are so many pictures (230+) I'm gonna post those on facebook. So if you don't have one of those...tough. If you do: enjoy. When I actually get around to posting them.
My favorite part of the trip was the amount of time I spent laughing. Most vacations I've been on are fun but by the end of it I'm kinda done with the people I spent it with. For some reason by the end of this vacation I feel refreshed, much closer to the girls I went with, and totally up for hanging out with them some more. We only let drama get to us once, when we were buying the hamburger after the bungy jump. Other than that stuff just slid off our backs. I'm really happy with how things went; I needed a week like that to get pumped back up. The only downside: I've been looking forward to this trip since we started planning it. Now I Dont' have any more $$ to travel. So it looks like it is going to be a slow downward slide to the finishline. Woopee.
Peace
Ashley
Sounds awesome! Nothing like a good getaway to cheer you up. I know that my trip this past weekend definitely helped my spirits and attitude about Ecuador.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the line about the creepy guy but how it´s slightly more ok if he buys you drinks. Hehe, that made me giggle outloud.
Also, your bungee jumping and pictures and stuff are AWESOME. So jealous!!!! Oh man, I don´t know if I could do that but damn girl, that´s sweet!
Fourthly, major props for pullign the Hawaii card. I shall have to try that sometime. Also, that made me want to pump my fists and laugh loudly but I´m in my universidad´s computer lab, so not as acceptable, unfortunately.
I´m glad you had such a good trip! I´ll check out your photos a little later. Hope you´re doing well! love and besitos from Quito!!