The Beginning

So after a 12 hour flight I have arrived

I am in Cape Town.

A strangely calm town on January 1st, but as much of the world it is a bank holiday, many shops, restaurants, bars, museums are closed on this day.

I arrived in the early hours, immigration was smooth and luggage was efficient. I soon met my transfer, a lovely chatty guy. I am just staring out of the window taking everything in. No word of a lie there are stark differences between the have and the have nots. Even just coming into the town you can notice the differences.

My hostel is the BackPack hostel on New Church Street, perfectly located on a main road which makes it easy to navigate in and out of the city. I checked in, and was introduce to a whole swathe of people, we are called interns here, such a nice term. Everyone is so helpful already, and so comforting. I depoisited my stuff in the luggage room, as I am in one dorm room for 1 night and then being moved to another before being allowed into the intern room on Sunday as there is a girl already in one of the rooms. A bit of crossover but that is the nature of the business. It is a labrynth of a hostel, ups and downs, rooms with three entrances and exits.

I had a cup of coffee with Lee and some of the others, a shower to refreshen up before sitting in the lobby for a while contemplating. I chatted to mum a bit, first days are always the hardest to figure everything out. I chatted to Lee about the rotas and the shifts and how it works. Seems quite relaxed. 5 hours a day, week rotations through each department, seems like you can get the shifts in advance but I am sure that will be learnt along the way.

I finally got up the courage to go out for one of the free walking tours, it seemed like the perfect thing to get my bearings in the city.

If you are in Cape Town, you must do a walking tour, they are great. Glen was our guide for a historic guide around Cape Town. He was enthusiastic, informative. It was great. It was lovely to understand a bit more about the history of the city. From the Portuguese to the Dutch to the British – it was very odd being the old Brit on one of these tours…. Guilty and proud at the same time is all I can say.

We saw the Old Slave lodges, parliament buildings, castle, town halls, squares. Monuments to the history that has come before. So much information, I can barely remember it all, so much of the brick is from Bath or from Britain in generally, we have left our mark on this country. Statues of monarchs are in different places over the City. Just such a perfect start to my stay here in the Mother Country.

Now for a rest – travelling sure does take it out of you.