Tourist in my own country

So as it turns out, I am a terrible blogger! I guess its just a busy time for me at the moment, because I find myself away from my Mac most of the time, but maybe when I get back to Uni, I will be able to blog more regularly.

Since I am holiday at the moment, I have been enjoying my city and what it has to offer. With the World Cup celebrations, and so many tourists here celebrating out culture, it is easy to see how great Cape Town is. Just today I enjoyed a wonderful morning picnic in our botanical gardens, Kirstenbosch, overlooking the city and under the comfort of the mountain. It was fantastic. The gardens are filled with birds and rivers and rolling lawns, and its quiet, aside from the occasional few tourists chattering and children laughing. It’s quite a treat to feel like a tourist in your own city.

Speaking of that, I rode the train to town for the first time last week. Now some may think this is strange, but in Cape Town, public transport is not as great as it that of the more developed cities of London and D.C. The South African taxis are either rather dodgy or rather expensive; the buses are not very convenient and the trains are impractical as they only run on one line, from one coast to the other. Those who do use the public transport, do so out of necessity for the fact that they have no other choice.

However, the transport infrastructure has been updated for the World Cup and there is more security for the tourists. Consequently my family and I braved the train from our nearest station to the city centre, which felt sort of like being in a different country rather than our own. We had a great day wondering around the city, knowing that we were very safe, sharing a pavement with people of all races and nationalities. It was fantastic to see the excitement that everyone was sharing. It is sort of like our country has transformed into another country completely just for this month.

I have to be honest, I quite like this South Africa, it has all the beauty of the real one but without the imperfections. Maybe, just maybe, we will find a South Africa somewhere in the middle: A beautiful country, free from racial tension and crime, but still full of the little imperfections that give South Africa its culture and charm.