Cape Town Chronicles - Part 1It is said that every journey begins with a step. Mine actually began with an
Anchor™Porter BEFORE stepping on to a SFO -> NYC red-eye that started the trip. 22 hours of flight time, and an additional 7 hours of combined layovers later (spanning 3 calendar days), I stepped foot onto
Cape Town, South Africa. You may remember that it hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The locals here are also the people that presented the world with the
Vuvuzela. For those of you that do not know, Cape Town is a historical and vibrant port city on the Southern tip of the African continent and is flanked by the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Indian Ocean on the other.
From the airplane's window on our descent, I was reminded of a city that was an odd mishmash of Honolulu and the Monument Valley. It's port has a natural breakwater that the Dutch took full advantage of when securing a route from Europe to the East Indies for their spice trade. Above Cape Town the incredibly steep Table Mountain looms. It's an amazing testament to the power of the volcanic upheaval that formed this amazing spectacle..
Upon checking into the awesome
Mandela Rhodes Hotel in the heart of the downtown, I quickly discovered 2 things that were lacking: water pressure, and ease of internet access. The lack of water pressure may be due to the fancy-ass shower head that gently "rains" on the user, and the internet issue can only be blamed on a company that prides itself on wireless "Anywhere On" internet access, but doesn't really have it's shit together. Daily connectivity is fraught with challenges. Also, though I don't have a rental car, I noticed that gas is somewhere around $9/ gallon. Who knew?
Though I'm steeped in work, a quick stroll of the area surrounding the hotel one morning reveled all kinds of 17th century Dutch style buildings, which lead to some beautiful 18th century British Parliamentary buildings, lush gardens, and well planned museums. At least I think that it was British. I saw a statue of that lady that's on the
Bobmbay™ Gin bottle, and that's British, so i figured that this place was alright.
My daily routine starts with an elevator ride to the open-air rooftop restaurant for a continental breakfast selection that includes an array of the following: various dry cereals including Wheatabix™ (for the Canadians), an array of sliced fresh fruit, a cheese patter with all kinds of stinky cheeses (the French), an assortment of breads and sliced cold deli meats (Germans), and steam trays filled with all kinds of cooked sausages, bacon and compulsory scrambled eggs. The distinct lack of pickled herring leads me to believe that Norwegians don't necessarily travel here for vacation.
Since it's Summer here, the weather has generally been around 85 degrees, though Tuesday's high temperature hit 96. Normally I can handle this, but the 6th floor office that I'm working in doesn't have air conditioning. The ceiling fan also leaves something to be desired. Yesterday morning, as I headed into the office for a 5:30am location scout, I was pleasantly greeted by a city blanked in a marine layer of fog, and a light, wet, cool breeze that reminded me of San Francisco in June. If I'm not mistaken, the temperature is going to jet back up today.
To be continued….
Linkey-Loo Robot -
AJC
Suggest a link.
