Differences

Today is Sunday. Since most of the shops and restaurants are closed throughout the city, the street life was pretty quiet and there were lots of people hanging out at the hostel. I did get out down Long Street again, mostly just wandering down toward Strand Street. My tentative plan for tomorrow is to get to the Bo Kaap neighborhood, a traditionally Cape Malay (Muslim) area. There's a museum there I plan to get to, as well as wandering around the neighborhood. It's only about a 10-15 minute walk from my hostel. Then on Tuesday, my goal is to get over to the District Six area that I mentioned in some of my previous posts.

Tonight at the hostel, they're serving a free vegetarian potjie, or traditional South African stew. The hostel workers (who are are SUPER friendly - I'm impressed) were starting to prepare it as I was leaving just a bit ago and it smelled amazing! Though I hear it's really delicious, just like the braai, a big part of the potjie is the preparation and cooking. People sit around the fire and chat and have a few beers. If you want more information, check out the Wikipedia page. I'm looking forward to it.

Something interesting I've heard from multiple people that is common here is that when you park your car in a lot or on the street, often a local will come up to your car and put a little sticker under your windshield wiper. This claims your car as "theirs" - they say things like "If you park here, your car will be safe." Then while you're away from your vehicle they "watch" it and prevent people from messing with it. When you return, they expect you to tip them a few Rand (less than $1).

I've also been impressed by the number of city workers present here on Long Street. They have LOTS of city cleaners, just sweeping up and bagging garbage all throughout the day. The streets are thus very free of garbage - better than in Minneapolis! There are also lots of "public safety" workers - I think similar to a police officer but not officially one. I think Long Street is different from other areas of town in this regard. I'm sure part of it is that it's a somewhat touristy area so the city wants visitors to feel comfortable. See picture of public safety workers below.



But I also wonder how much it has been affected by the BEE (black economic empowerment) program which seems similar to affirmative action in the States. The government wants to be sure the employed demographics match those of the general population, in other words, that Africans make up ~80% of the workforce. It's really controversial because many white people have lost their jobs, and in many cases, the white people have more education/skills that would be applicable to jobs but cannot find work. Interesting how all that also relates to the recent xenophobic events, where black South Africans have been staging attacks on other African immigrants, claiming they are taking their jobs (see one of my earlier blog posts). Let's hope the US economy stays strong...

Last night I had dinner with Lotta, a girl from Holland who is staying at the hostel. She's my age and also traveling on her own. We talked a lot about differences between life in the US and that in Holland. Perhaps I will get into that another time. Anyway, she's very friendly, like literally every other person I've met here. But talking with her just brings to mind the fact that by traveling here I'm not only learning the South African way of life, but I also get to trade experiences/insight with people from other countries. I've only met one other person here who actually still lives in the US (two others were from there but not living there anymore).

Most people here are surprised to learn I'm staying Cape Town for 6 weeks. I think mostly that has to do with the fact that I'm staying at a hostel - most people are only there for a week max. But so many people I've met here are either traveling throughout SA or even all throughout Africa. I think it's just the European way of life; so many of them are used to traveling to other countries because things are so close for them.

One of the other things that has been confusing for me is the street layout. Some of it is gridded, but a lot of it is not. I was talking to one of the Europeans here and she is much more used to streets not being on the grid, but it's new for me being used to the Public Land Survey System in the US, haha. Even where it is gridded, the blocks vary in size/length, usually much smaller than blocks in the US. And also the street signs here vary from being in English on one block to being in Afrikaans on the next. And street names vary from one block to the next in some places, not only from English to Afrikaans, but completely different names even if they're both in English. So it has taken some getting used to. Finally, the maps are just different and more hard to read for me than ones I've seen in the States.

Well I think that's it for now, gotta go get some of that potjie at the hostel. :) Pictures below! And as always, thanks for reading!




Some amazing aerial views from the plane of the Cape. :)


A view of my room at the hostel. Mine is the lower left bed.


Metropolitan Methodist Church.


The part of the city I'm staying in is known as the City Bowl because it's really surrounded by Table Mountain (you can see some of it in the background here) and Lion's Head and Rump. :)


Looking down Strand Street, one of the bigger thoroughfares in this part of town. Note the development on the mountainside in the background.


Long Street again.


Many of the streets are really narrow here.


Nice! Love it.


I love how the mountain can always be seen peeking out amongst the buildings. This is Wale Street.


Sunset from the balcony of my hostel, over the Lion's Rump. :) Only complaint is that it happens too early - 6:00pm - since it's winter here in the southern hemisphere.