Cape Town - first impressions

Our flight to Cape Town is going according to plan. At the airport, we are immediately impressed by the many helpful and friendly people who ensure that everything goes quickly, and we easily find the rental car. The South African women radiate so much positivity, and some even hum to themselves without it being disruptive.

As we pass the pharmacy, we decide to buy a bottle of nasal spray. Since it seems that only seawater spray is available in the front section of the pharmacy, I ask at the slightly formal-looking counter in the back. The lady retrieves the appropriate product, then asks for my first and last name as well as my date of birth. She then packages the spray in a neutral bag, labels it with my information, and places the package in a small metal cage that could also be used to take a guinea pig to the vet, securing it with a cable tie.

Now I have to walk about four meters to the actual checkout, where everything is unpacked and I can pay for the product.

Different countries, different customs... 😂

Our enthusiasm for the city is somewhat dampened as we drive toward our accommodation. We pass by townships and informal settlements for a long time. Entire streets consist of poor and broken shacks, and garbage piles up in large areas. We see only black South Africans there. At the intersections, people try to sell tomatoes or drinks to those waiting in their cars.

It makes me sad, and after a short impulse to capture this impression with my camera, I let my phone drop again. I feel voyeuristic. The footage from the airplane is enough.

When we arrive at our accommodation after about 20 kilometers, the area looks solid. Around the corner, we find a restaurant with an appealing menu. The atmosphere is vibrant, and it’s well attended. The fact that you can basically distinguish staff and guests by skin color still irritates me. Apartheid has been history for over 30 years—but its effects are clearly not yet a thing of the past.

In the lodge, we are greeted by the porter dressed warmly, as it is winter here in July and August, and the entrance area is correspondingly cool. After days in a tent and nighttime temperatures around 10 degrees, I’m already afraid that I will be cold in Africa for a long time.

But when he opens our room door, I can already hear the heating humming.

And the best part we discover only later:

The bed has a mattress heater. 🤩