Cape Town

Hello all

Here I am in Africa, for the second time. Although it really feels like I am here for the first time, since everything is so different than my last experience.

The flight to London went well, I sat in the Emergency Exit row next to a lovely woman and her daughter. I wasn't, however, able to get a wink of sleep. That was not too fun since it was basically a red-eye. Once arrived in London I headed to my hotel for a shower & blissful 4.5 hours sleep before heading back to Heathrow. Another red-eye to Cape Town. The gentleman sitting next to me was pleasant enough, although his English was difficult to understand sometimes (he was German), and he was rather large and sometimes unmeaningly encroached on my personal space.

The flight to Cape Town was pretty good, actually. I watched some TV, and saw some movies (Invictus, of course), and this time I took a sleeping pill to get some rest. Worked great. Even the food on South African Airways was the best I'd had yet (sorry, Air Canada). I did find it strange that there were anti-smoking advisories everywhere but there were still cigarette ashtrays installed. And in the bathroom, the toilet paper was embossed with puppies. You had to look closely but yes, puppies on the toilet paper.

Soon I was all landed and they were happy to let me in. :) I was picked up at the airport by a man with a white piece of paper with my name handwritten on it. That was kind of cool. Um, sortof. I made sure that he was legit before I went anywhere with him, and we had a lovely conversation all the way to my hotel. I find that the English here takes some getting used to; both myself and everyone I talk to has to repeat themselves every other sentence or so. The driver, whose name was Nevr, would not respond to things with "oh?" or "oh ya?" -- he would instead say "is it?" Kinda threw me off a bit, heh.

So I had a nap once I got in here to the hotel, and now I am waiting for Shawna to arrive; she should be here sometime in the next 3-4 hours I think. It's 6:20pm S.A. time, so that's not too long to wait. I already had dinner which involved me venturing out on my own (gasp!) down to the end of the block. The guy at the front desk said twice, to hold onto my camera because I look a lot like a tourist, and somebody could swipe it. Probably a purse with a camera in it would be better. I would be lost without my camera!

There were some people yelling in the street so I just went in the first cafe I could find and it turned out to be sushi. Well, we are on the coast here, so it should be good, right? I ordered a couple of things and when she brought two of everything she explained that it was 2 for 1 until 5pm. Sheesh! No stranger to a lot of sushi at home, but do I want to be eating twice as much of it here? Who knows. Hopefully it sits well. Probably not my best choice for my first Cape Town meal.

The internet here is sketchy and keeping cutting out. Hopefully you get this!
Hope all is well,
xo
E!