From Europe to AFRICA!

After 16 hours of travel (14 flying and 2 transferring) I am now at the bottom of Africa.  It is easy to quantify the travel time by hours but I like to use real measurements, so to me the trip took four movies, a long conversation with a nice guy from London, five meals (four of which contained way to much curry), three attempts at napping, five babies crying, and 732 jabs in my ribs from my seat neighbor.  Oh, yes, and a nice tour of the Dubai International Airport.  So here I am in Cape Town, South Africa.

At the advice of a bloke I met who lives in Cape Town I rented a car.  This sounded like a great idea at the time.  I would have freedom to move about, the ability to cover vast amounts of space, and I would not be reliant on Cape Town's not so great public transport system.  This was before I realized that South Africa drives on the wrong side of the road.  South African's would say the "left" side of the road, but it just feels so wrong.  I picked up my Hyundai at the airport and off I went.  I told the guy who walked me to my car that I was from the States and he just laughed, said "good luck", laughed some more (it was an ominous "you're in deep shit" laugh), then waved goodbye as I shifted into second gear with my left hand.

I am fairly confident in my driving ability, hell I have driven a race car, a motorcycle, and a mini-van, so I have a little experience, but it is all useless since all of my experience is from driving on the left side of the car while on the right side of the road.  The whole 15 minute drive from the airport to the hostel I didn't blink once.  I was hyper-freaking-vigilant and freaking out.  The highway isn't bad, it's the streets that I have to tell myself "ok, inch out, ok, remember now, go to the left side of the center divider, SHIT! Ok, you're ok, turn the wheel, and we're there, oh shit roundabout, shit!  Looks like we'll have to make a few circles until I figure out where I'm going and how to get out…"  You get the point.

Besides me trying to re-learn 10 years of driving experience, having a car is an unbelievable way to see Cape Town.  I took a drive today around the coast of the Cape and it is absolutely beautiful.  At times it reminded of the Pacific Coast Highway, but then along the side of the road there are families of baboons, trees that look like they're out of the Lion King, and other glaringly African features.  Plus, as far as I know, there are no turn-offs in California where you can see penguins or road signs that say "Watch for Baboons."

I will post pictures when I find a free internet spot, but my accommodations while here charge by the megabyte for internet usage and it is not cheap.  I can't wait to put the pictures up because the scenery here is just ridiculous.