Cape Town!

For my 1 week vacation for IHP, I went with 7 friends to Cape Town - which I can now most definitely say is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen! Having come from Bushbuckridge, I felt a sense of culture shock as I entered an area of South Africa that was not predominantly Black, but rather filled with Whites and Coloured people. We stayed at a hostel called Long Street Backpackers on Long Street in the city's center. Here we met people from all over the world and were really close to shops, the beach, great restaurants and mountains. Here are some highlights:

1. Green Market: filled with amazing jewelery, clothing and crafts! I went there almost everyday, and to my luck it was only a few minutes walk from the hostel.

2. Beaches: the beaches were absolutely gorgeous, the blues of blue waters and surrounded by mountains. Even though the water was typical Atlantic Ocean cold, i loved laying on the beach, and one night I watched the sun set at the beach!

3. Table Top Mountain: We hiked the famous Table Top Mountain and enjoyed seeing views of the whole city.

4. Old Biscuit Mill Market: The most gourmet and mouth-watering specialty food market held every Saturday - amazing!!

5. Food: the food in general in CT was so great! Especially coming from BBR, I was so excited to eat so much fresh and healthy hearty and relatively inexpensive meals!

6. Night life: I had so much fun relaxing and dancing at many of the city's bars, clubs, and karyoke bars. We had 3 birthday in our group with in the 7 days, so we did a lot of celebrating!

7. Full Moon: on the night of the full moon, we joined locals and some others staying at the hostel to go to a remote rock area about a 15-minute hike off a beach to enjoy the full moon with crashing waves all around us. We made a fire and brought music with us, and just enjoyed the starts and company through late hours of the night (night life in CT starts past midnight and goes until 4am)

8. Jewish community: I went to the Jewish/Holocaust Museum and saw one of the first synagogues in the CT area, CT Hebrew Congregation and spoke to a nice grandpa for over an hour about the history of the Jewish community here.

9. New Friends: In addition to all of the people I met along the way, I met up with a few friends who I was put in touch with, Avdah, Ellie, Carley, and Izzy - so fun!

In conclusion, CT was amazinggggg! So much delicious food, kind people, great culture, incredible beaches, mountains, and adventure activities - that I now know, I have to come back!

My 5 weeks in South Africa were incredible. I saw two extremes of the country and will definitely keep these memories for ever.