"At the beginning... "

...We were strangers, starting out on a journey, never dreaming what we'd have to go through, now here we are and I'm suddenly standing, at the beginning with you..." -Richard Marx

After an early morning departure from Chattanooga and a 26 hour flight from Atlanta to DC to Johannesburg to Cape Town I finally found my way to Cape Town Backpackers Hostel in heart of downtown Cape Town late into the night on the 17th. Within moments of my arrival, Rachel came bounding down the steps of the hostel screaming my name… I must say it was the best welcome to Cape Town I could have ever imagined! The next morning we rented a car bright and early and left for the infamous Garden Route up the Eastern Cape.

It took a little time to get used to driving on the left side of the road and on the right side of the car... but the most difficult part was simply keeping track of where the windshield wipers and turn blinkers lived and getting around all the round-abouts on the left side of the road. We had doubled in size and by late that evening the four of us (Rach, Molly, Ian and I) had made our way past Mossel Bay, George, and Plettenberg Bay, and into Storms River… our final destination for the evening. We just barely made it inside the hostel when the South African rains began to pound down from the heavens

The next afternoon, we made our way to Tsitsikamma National Park for a day of hiking and beach exploring after a morning of bungee jumping (for the two brave ones). Then after a quick drive through St. Francis Bay we made our way into Jeffrey’s Bay to Island Vibe hostel for the evening. Two lazy, relaxing, long days of cold windy hammock time by the beach later, we began our way back home again. On Saturday we peeled ourselves away from Jeffrey's Bay and wound our way back down to Cape Town along the ever changing Garden Route. Sometimes the road looked more like a slice right out of Ireland… nothing like what you would ever begin to picture from a field in South Africa. The two lane roads curled up and down through mountain cliffs along the ocean and then past rolling green fields filled with yellow flower patches so large you could get lost in them. But of course... just when I was begining to doubt that I had actually made it back to South Africa … a few monster baboons decided to run across the highway… and I realized once and for all that I had actually made it back to the wonderful  and wacky world of South Africa!

After returning to Cape Town it was wine tour time. One very long day, lots of new found friends from around the globe, and four famous South African vineyards later we were filled to the brim with wine, cheese, olives and chocolate... can you ask for a better gluten free day? I think not!!

My life here in Cape Town thus far has consisted of big adventures, lots of new faces and lots of new places. My days have been filled with neverending bubbles with my new friends at the hospital, settling into my new home, napping in my new cozy bed, sleeping in the sun at the  Kirstenbosch Gardens, eating late night braai’s (cook-outs) with new friends, hiking around Table Mountain and Lions head, sitting on the beach at Camps Bay, watching lots of sunsets and rising moons… and of course eating LOTS of earth shatteringly-deliciously-divine food!!