SO. A couple of weeks ago, after my first two finals, and before the third one, 10 of my fave roommates and I decided to take a little trip to Durban. Durban is in the north of SA and Taryn’s parents lived there for a month, and we had heard a lot about it, so we thought it would be fun. The morning we left we were all a hot mess because it was our roommate Ari’s 22nd birthday the night before, and needless to say we were all a little dysfunctional in the morning. But that morning will be one of my fondest memories because it was just too funny with people trying to pack last minute, and me packing my entire wardrobe for a 4 day vacation, it was hilarious. Then to top it off someone had organized something called the boogie bus to take us to the airport. It is this decked out van, the ceiling was covered with Cds and there were US license plates all around the van and the guy was blasting music, it was a fabulous way to get to the airport. Once we arrived, we all checked in and hung out until our flight.
When we stepped off of the plane the warm breeze blew around us and we all could not keep the smiles off of our faces at being in warm weather again!
Cape Town is a total microclimate and its winter is cold and wet, while Durban’s is mild and warm. We waited for a while to get a cab to our hostel, and then ended up at the Surf N’ Dreams hostel in town. Durban is a beautiful city and the cab driver drove us around so that we could get a feel for the city and also see the stadium. Their stadium is AWESOME, and you were originally able to bungee jump off of the top of it but because it was so close to the world cup beginning, Fifa had taken it over and you could no longer bungee. Anyways, the Durban stadium is meant to be a focal point of the city, and Cape Town’s was meant to not take away from the majestic table mountain in the background…kind of cool.
So for the afternoon, we just chilled, and then decided to get some dinner later, at a Chinese restaurant which was clearly where we should not have gone because Durban has a huge Indian population, so Chinese food was not the answer and we paid for it because it was really really gross, haha. Then we just ended up at a hookah bar hanging out and having a few beers before we headed back to the hostel. Between birthdays and finals, it has been a tiring few weeks. The next morning we decided to go to Durban’s version of Sea World essentially. It was called the Ushaka marine world and we couldn’t have chosen a worse day to go. It was blustery and cold and windy, and an R80 cab ride from our hostel, so once we got there there was really no turning back. So we sucked it up. At least we got to touch the warm Indian ocean. We tried to enjoy what we could there, and the best part of the day was going to Moyo for lunch. Moyo is a well known restaurant in Stellenbosch but has a sister restaurant in Durban and I hadn’t been so that was great, and had a nice Indian influence.
Later in the afternoon we finally decided it was time to leave, after some brave roommates got on the water slides and such. That was interesting because that day was a trial run for the world cup in terms of shutting down streets to see how the traffic would work. It failed, it took us an hour and a half and R250 to get home, hot showers and relaxing were definitely in order after that. Some of us needed to save money so we made dinner at the hostel, which was nice. The funny thing about this hostel was that the people who ran it were not nice. They were very inhospitable, and it was more of a guest house than a hostel. We felt like we were walking on egg shells the entire time, and it felt as if we were unwelcome, not like any hostel I have stayed in ever. So one night we tried to get out of it and move, but because there were 10 of us, it was too much and no hostels had enough room, so we ended up staying. Anyways, we made dinner, chilled, and then decided to go out to the bars on Florida Rd, which is where things are happenin down in Durban. We went to a bar called Taco Zulu and it was great, nightlight in Durban was very fun.
The next day was much nicer than the first so we decided to go to the beach. There is a big casino in Durban and food court and movie theaters right on the water and a beautiful beach, so we spent the day there enjoying the sun. It wasn’t as warm as we had wanted it to be, but it was still enjoyable. That day we were walking through this big mall thing, and saw that Sex and the City 2 was playing at the theaters and us girls got pretty excited and went immediately to go see it. It was great, though after that I started to feel really badly and got a random fever. So we went back to the hostel, and met up with all the roomies, I was freezing so I immediately got in bed and took Dayquil, then they all went to dinner and out for the night while I napped, ate, and took Nyquil then slept some more. It was not that much fun, but the next day I rallied and just had to deal with a nasty cough for the next week or so.
The next day we wanted to check out this market in Durban called Victoria market, which is a big Indian marketplace and that was really cool. I got some spices for my parents and bracelets as gifts as well, and then we ate some deliciously awesome authentic Indian food, from a little hole in the wall restaurant.
The big Indian dish here is called bunny chows and they are basically like half a loaf of bread scooped out and filled with curried veggies or meat or whatever. And they are delicious. Then we headed back to the beach. This day was not as warm as the first so we again sought refuge in the movie theater that I slept through, haha. But movies there cost R25, which is about $3 so it was not a big loss, haha. That night we all just hung out and relaxed because Shawn, Sam and I had a 6am flight, so we just got up early and headed to the airport, back to Cape Town and happy to be there :)
No comments:
Post a Comment