I knew this point would come some time…the point where I would get so busy that I’d stop writing for my blog! I’m sorry to my readers (if there are any)…but it was really busy on the ship during our stay in Cape Town & of course during my free time I had to play tourists! So this is my attempt at a catch up post, won’t be so many details…mostly pictures.
Girls night out...plus two guys, in Durban
The East Crew :)
Sailing into Cape Town
I’m now sitting in the Cape Town airport at my new favorite coffee shop-Mug&Bean. Yes, I now drink coffee…can you believe that?? I guess that’s what ship life will do to you. They have this hot chocolate/coconut/capaccino thing here that is amazing!! And I’m having an omelet for dinner after this, can you tell how excited I am? Haha
My adventures aboard The World are now over and well, it was more than amazing…more than words can really even describe. I left the boat today and I was actually sad to go-imagine that, from the girl who cried her eyes out the first week, I am now the girl who cried when I left. I was fine-until Vera, my cabin mate started crying-then I couldn’t help it. We shared so much in our 8X8 room haha…late nights, early mornings, long days, girls nights, dinners out, Christmas…new years. We became such great friends and like sisters on the ship because we were always together-“the intern twins”.
Cape Town was amazing, a very beautiful city with lots of things to do & see. It’s summer time here now so there are loads of tourists and locals around on vacation. The ship was docked at The Victoria Wharf Waterfront which is apparently famous in Cape Town. In between & after work I managed to get a few things in ;)
A ride up to Table Mountain-the views weren’t too bad ;)
On our way up Table Mountain
Just so you can see how high it was...
Camps Bay-one of the most beautiful beaches in the world-so they say
Yes-my all time favorite, the jumping pic
Yeah-this is how it really looked, I think Vera was a little scared
An encounter with the Cheetahs at a Cheetah conservatory park.
Just saying hi..
Sleeping Cheetah
Yawning Cheetah
Jumping Cheetah (I know-great descriptions lol)
A visit to the Glen Carlou Winery where we got to have a tour and educational lesson about the vineyards followed by a tasting of all their wines-this was pretty cool.
The Glen Carlou Winery
In between time, there were shopping malls and amazing restaurants within walking distance from the ship. Vera and I shared a South African Christmas lunch together on the waterfront which was amazing! A few nights of sushi….mmmm J A famous Indian Restaurant-nights out on the town.
Christmas and New Years were great-I thought I would miss my family more (I did miss them-don’t get me wrong) but I found it very hard to get too sad because I was surrounded by somewhat of a new family, and spending Christmas in Cape Town for goodness sake, how can you be sad about that!? I just felt so grateful honestly, I felt grateful to have a family that was worth missing, and worth feeling sad about. I felt grateful for all the new friends I’d made who were going through similar emotions that I was…but instead of being sad, I just embraced them and embraced the new idea of Christmas on the ship. They made it very nice for us…I must say, we even got to sit on Santas lap! We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner in the crew mess & were all given digital photo frames and chocolate for Christmas. On top of that we had a Christmas party in the O’Bar where I ended up dancing with all the South African Musicians haha-I guess I got a little rhythm in me ;) They were an acapella singing group for Durban that came onboard to perform on the night of the Christmas Tree lighting. The night the group performed, crew were allowed to watch from the deck above.
Their voices were beautiful-you know, that African melody that you can find nowhere else in the world. They performed one of my favorites Amazing Grace. It reminds me of my Grandad when I was a little girl. I remember when it played at his funeral and I was sitting there in my velvet dress next to Daddy (most likely)-It was a sad-but happy moment as well because I suddenly had these extremely clear visions of myself as a little girl sitting on his lap and him telling me not to slam the door. He was such a sweet & loving man-so much like my Daddy. And again, even though it made me sad for a moment because he is no longer with us, it makes me happy that I was able to know him-that I had the chance to make these memories with him. To me, it was like a gift from heaven-and that he was watching over me in some way while I was on the ship.
Santa!
Christmas Eve Dinner...Table Mountain in the background, if you were wondering about the name...now you can see why it's called that
christmas lunch
Sunbathing seals
New Years was extremely busy…all F&B Crew worked until about 1:30 a.m… We all stopped service from 11;45-12:00 to have a champagne toast and watch the fire works from the bridge. Again, yes it would have been nice to have a little new years thing-but it was just as fun working on the floor & celebrating with people that I actually know-instead of being in some overcrowded hot club or bar. I much rather be in the comfort of my own home with my own people-which, in this case was the ship.
That’s about it folks…I know this post lacked a little detail, and I pretty much summed up the whole 10 days in Cape Town, but I really hope you enjoyed. I enjoyed writing it…it’s like a form of therapy, and release for my thoughts. So, off I go back to my Auburn loves to figure out my next step in this amazing journey called life. I love you all & thanks for reading!
