Last day in South Africa. I could not stomach the idea of breakfast on the ship, even though that's where everyone always eats breakfast for some unfathomable reason. And it was pretty early and no one was actually up yet. So I ventured over to the Waterfront on my own in search of a place to eat. The only place that was open was a little coffee shop in the mall. I ordered an omelet and tea for the equivalent of 8 USD, and what arrived was the largest, fluffiest omelet I have ever seen, accompanied by toast and jam and an entire traditional British tea set up with the entire teapot of brewed roobius, complete with cream and sugar. It was marvelous.
After breakfast I made my way back to the tourism office to call the paragliding pilot to see how the weather conditions were. Sadly it was too windy, and seeing as I had to leave that evening, the lady just refunded me.
From there I went to explore the aquarium. The aquarium there is pretty well known, and as South Africa lies on two different oceans, I expected its displays would be pretty spectacular. I was actually surprised though because it wasn't any bit more impressive than Denver's aquarium. In fact the predator tank at the end was home to a mere five ragged tooth sharks and some manta rays. Our aquarium back home has dozens of sharks of all different kinds. What they did have though were the penguins that have the giant yellow eyebrows. Those were fun to see.
I wandered over to the markets and ran into my friend, Lizzie. The two of use decided to go downtown for the afternoon and explore Green Market. So we found a cab and had him drop us off at the market square. I love African markets. They are so much fun to explore and offer every foreign delight imaginable. Two things that are really common in South Africa are carved ostrich eggs, and also intricate beaded sculptures. Oh and I nearly forgot the giraffes! They have these amazing wood giraffe sculptures that range from a foot tall to ten feet tall. I really wanted to get one but had no idea how I would ever get him home and so had to restrain myself. I found a few souvenirs and gifts and some really awesome clothes. From the market we found a little cafe and sat down for smoothies. We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around downtown before finally taking the cab back to the Waterfront where we found the ridiculously long line to get back onto the ship.
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