Week Five and Six in Cape Town

I must first say that I am sorry for not having posted a blog in the last couple weeks. I have been incredibly busy at work as well as with exploring this beautiful city, therefore I have decided to combine the last two weeks into one to get back on track.

The week after garden route was fairly uneventful. However, in my case uneventful is all relative, especially comparing it to my last couple of weeks here, which have been so busy. I finished up several different grants and continued to do daily screening of the refugees. Selfishly I was yearning for the following week when my boyfriend would be coming to visit me for ten days. I was getting anxious at the idea of having the freedom to explore the city and do all the things I had not had time to do yet.

On Friday of that week we had the pleasure of going beer tasting (side note: Capetownians LOVE their craft beers) where I got to  discover and sample some very interesting hand crafted beers. I got to learn how this beer was made through a detailed explanation of the process. It was a wonderful way to end my week.

Ian arrived on Sunday where upon arrival we quickly hurried off into City Center where I got to play tour guide and show him all my favorite places in town. That entire week was filled with different activities that I had been longing to do: shark cage diving, hiking table mountain, visiting the famous Robben Island…

I had been so excited to share my experience here with someone and Ian was the perfect person to be able to do that with. Shark cage diving was definitely one of my favorite activities. It was a perfect blend of adrenaline and excitement all in one morning. It was rather funny actually, I had given the captain of a the boat a fair warning of how I am prone to getting sea sick and his response was nothing but a loud chuckle followed with "oh darling, I can assure you will not be the only one".

I am not sure if that was his attempt at calming me down or hoping that would help in some sense, but assuring me that I was not alone in the harsh and violent act of getting sea sick definitely did not soothe my stomach. About an hour, in around 50% of that passengers were bent over the side of the boat. It was quite a site. I would be lying if I were to tell you I wasn't amongst them. Besides this unfortunate event that you all have had the pleasure of now hearing, once in the cage in the water I felt much better... That is until a shark came face first in our direction nearly knocking into the cage all together. Ian was beyond stoked and completely lost amidst the excitement. 
Later in the week Ian and I decided to it would be a good idea to tackle the mighty Table  Mountain. Not sure what delusional state we were in to think it would be a good idea to do that, but there we were, three hours later and about 10 minutes into the hike realizing we had made a terrible mistake. Our first mistake was bringing a single water bottle and no sunscreen. I had also thought, being the athletes we were it would be no problem getting up, but boy were we proven wrong. After a torturous 2 hours of hiking and scaling rocks, we arrived at the top. And even after everything, I am beyond happy we decided to do it. The view was gorgeous. The satisfaction of it all was surreal. 

All in all, my week with Ian was truly incredible. I got to explore and see even more of the city I didn't know existed, all while getting to share it with the most incredible person!