COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Jackass penguins

We visited the Jackass penguins! Yes, that's their actual name cuz they sound like donkeys when they talk, which I can confirm cuz I heard them 😄.

The penguins arrived a couple decades ago on this beach & never left. It's a rare occurrence of wildlife kicking out the humans rather than the other way around (meaning, once they arrived & didn't leave, the people decided to protect them and are no longer allowed on the beach where the penguins reside).

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Table Mountain

Like i mentioned in a previous post, Table Mountain can be seen from many different places and angles in Cape Town. Here are a few:

Observatory

Minibus station

Minibus station

On a walking bridge

Waterfront 

Waterfront

Waterfront

Bo-Kaap Free Walking Tour

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Free Walking Tour: District 6

So, these posts are a bit out of order...Stacy and i are blogging together for the first time since starting this blog, so we're a work in progress :op. 

That said, this is on the plane from Jo'burg to Cape Town (the previous post we're already in Cape Town...opa!). Notice the happy smiling faces before they die in a firey &/or drowning crash. Pleasant.

Our first glimpse of Cape Town! YAY! :oD

This is the building where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after being released from prison.

Cool street art. It represents the decades from the sixties thru the nineties of how South Africa looked politically during those decades. Our Free Walking Tour guide, Ken, said there are plans to paint over it soon with something more up-to-date.

More great street art. Like the statue in Jo'burg, this also represents the women that protested apartheid together...notice the baby on the back.

This is St. Mark's church which stood its ground and refused to relocate during apartheid so a college could be built there in it's place (because it's prime property for the area). The church was offered to be moved stone by stone and rebuilt exactly the same in another area and $1 million. They refused. Then they were offered $2 million and the "hassle-free" move. They refused. So, the college built around the church...and the church stands there til this day as a functioning church, surrounded by a college campus.

Table Mountain can be seen from many different angles in Cape Town, and in many different places there are these big yellow frames framing Table Mountain behind it. I liked the Nelson Mandela art in the frame with Table Mountain behind it.

This is world-famous Charly's Bakery...world-famous for it's cupcakes and quiches! So of course we had to go! Even the building is super adorable!! :o]

The cupcakes did not disappoint. On the left is the lemon meringue cupcake (my fave of the 2) and on the right is the vanilla w/chocolate fudgey center topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with peppermint (Stacy's fave). They were expectedly delicious!

Notice anything unusual about this photo?

There's just a random statue of a cow standing inbetween 2 buildings. Interesant.

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Observatory District

We stayed at a hostel in the Observatory District of Cape Town. We loved it there! The neighborhood was really cute and everything we needed, from good food to a grocery store was right there. It was also really close to the main road where it was easy to catch minibus taxis to the city.

The hostel (33 South) had great wi-fi and even gave us a quick tour of the neighborhood. 

The food here was amazing. This is the best veggie burger we have ever had. It was from a place called A Touch of Madness. It was so good we had to go back a few days later and order it again. 

The next day we had the Wrath Burger at a place called Jerry's, and we agreed it was the best beef burger we had ever had. So basically, if you like burgers you need to visit Observatory. No pics of this one because we ate it too fast!

There was lots of public art here in Obs.

And everywhere you went you could see Table Mountain. Gorgeous.

COS!

I completed my Peace Corps service and am now officially Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV)! In Moldova, the tradition is to ring the COS bell on the day of COSing.

Me, Elvira (my awesome program manager!!), & Aana (who COS'd with me).

COS trippn'

And we're off! Our plan is to visit Southern Africa, Greece, and Eastern Europe. We're hoping to travel a couple months, but we'll see how it goes.

This was us back in July. Leaving Malawi, on a jet plane. Don't know when we'll be back again...

We packed light for this trip. Especially compared to what we brought with us to PC over two years ago. We've learned we need a lot less to survive then we used to think.

We'll try to post when we can. Wi-fi isn't as ever present as in America, but we'll be playing catch up once we get to Europe.

COS trippn' 1st stop: Jo'burg

The first stop on our trip was a brief stay in Johannesburg, South Africa.

We stayed at Brown Sugar Backpackers. The hostel was really nice. It used to be a mafia mansion. Now it's a really comfy place to sleep and eat and use wi-fi. The free breakfasts were so good too. Scrambled eggs, shredded cheese and real milk-- where are we right now?!?!

I went from summer in the Northern Hemisphere (temps in upper 30°C/80°-90°F) to winter in the Southern Hemisphere (temps in teens C/40°-50°F)...I was coooold & not really prepared for that, so I had to layer in pretty much all my clothes.

We did a free walking tour of the city centre. We learned a little about the city and got to see some of the local sites.

South African flag painted on the side of a building.

One of many office buildings turned into squatter apartments after apartheid ended & all the white people fled cuz they were scared. So a lot of black people moved into the area & squatted in the abandoned office buildings, which is how it remains to this day.

A massive pile of garbage just on the sidewalk.

This statue represents the women that marched in protest of apartheid. She's supposedly holding a "candle" & not a bomb...

Statue comes complete with a baby tied to her back (Stacy pointed it out), which is the traditional way women carry their babies in Africa.

A pretty cool world map celebrating leaders against apartheid (Nelson Mandela, O.R.Tambo).

Statue of Nelson Mandela (he wanted to be a boxer, but God had other plans). The building behind him was his & O.R.Tambo's law office.

Abortion stickers were EVERYWHERE.

As we were leaving, we found a coffee place at the airport with a really delicious dirty chai and they gave you a free piece of dark chocolate with it. We decided this was the best part of our trip to Joburg.