Our First Few Days in Cape Town

After a week of traveling across the country we finally made it to Cape Town! Here are a few quick facts about Cape Town:

-About 3.5 million people live in Cape Town

-Cape Town has a climate similar to that of California & the Mediterranean 

-Cape Town was officially founded in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company (based in the Netherlands) arrived to set up a halfway point for ships travelling to the East. 

-The world's first heart transplant was performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town in 1967

-The city's mottos is "Spes Bona" which is Latin for "good hope"

-Cape Town is the only city in the world to be located on both the Indian & Atlantic Ocean 

Upon arriving in Cape Town we drove to our backpacker, Anzac to settle in. Driving down the road we were met with cop cars lining the street. We saw that our backpacker was on top of a nightclub and that it used to be a strip club... We were curious to say the least. 

After returning our car, we decided to head down to the waterfront and walk around the mall and waterfront. It was so weird to walk around a mall. Needless to say you never realize how much you miss something until you see it again. 

Waterfront-- you can see the shadow of the World Cup stadium! 

The mall with table mountain in the background. 

We decided to have a night on the town!

The next day we were joined by some of our American friends from Rhodes, Jenna, Kate, and Kara. We spent the day walking around our backpacker and making plans for the rest of our week in Cape Town. That night, Alex (one of the BC girls) and her parents invited myself, Lauren, Rachel & Manale to dinner. We ended up having this beautiful dinner right on the waterfront. Needless to say it was a treat to be taken out to dinner by my friends parents. 

Thursday we decided to take one of the double decker tour busses around town to learn more about the city. Needless to say, we couldn't look more like tourists if we tried.

Cool kids take notes...

World Cup Stadium!