The first day of our honeymoon got off to a bit of a rocky start, from a timing standpoint. Initially, our plan was to clean up the wedding reception site (which was required of us by 'Almost Heaven'), load up our clothes and excess wedding materials, drop off my tux and then drive from Gatlinburg, TN to Atlanta, GA before our 7pm flight. Thankfully, our friends were kind enough to hang around the wedding after the reception and helped us clean up that night. I really can't say enough about them doing that. With that already accomplished, we needed only to pack, make a quick drop off and head out. The first two went off without a hitch and the drive would have been smooth sailing, but there happened to be a wreck between Gatlinburg and Knoxville. As a result we moved down the interstate at a crawl for the first 45 minutes of our drive.
Before we were stuck in traffic, Jillian had the foresight to top off her gas tank and then make a stop at a pizza shop attached to a Best Western for a few slices. Being full of pizza made the near standstill much more bearable. Once past the wreck, it was smooth sailing; though we no longer had time to make any pit stops for fear of missing our flight. Jillian developed a soar throat halfway to Atlanta and had to tough it out without drinks or lozenges. Enough about the boring drive. We made it to the airport with time to spare and Jillian bought an Arby's milkshake inside the airport to take care of that soar throat issue.
Sitting at our terminal, my happiness about being done with a 4 hour drive was quickly overshadowed by my dread of sitting in an economy class seat for 16 hours. My longest flight prior to this one had been 12 hours and it was just about as much as I could take. For a tall person, it's a killer on the knees. It didn't help that I was fully aware that I was in a middle seat. No stretching in the aisle. No looking out the window. All asking to step over a stranger to get to a bathroom.
The flight to Johannesburg wasn't as bad as I had imagined. I think Delta's in-seat, on-demand selection of new movies streaming from the headrest in front of me kept me distracted for half of those long hours. The other ones, I thought about how much I regretted not accepting Jillian's offer to give me an Ambien. For some reason, when I traveled to London from Atlanta, I had this mental block that kept me from asking the person in the aisle seat to move so I could walk around or use the restroom. I didn't have that issue this time around. We even had 'clothes changing breaks' and a last hour bathroom stop to do our morning teeth brushing routine before touchdown. Finally getting off that plane was a great feeling, but it was only followed by getting to another terminal, waiting three hours and then sitting another two on our flight to Cape Town.
Backing up a bit, we had been warned prior to leaving that the Johannesburg airport wasn't a bastion of safety or honesty. "Keep your friends close and your personal belongings closer" should be the airport's motto. Not even the employees were to be trusted. It's the first airport I've seen that offers cellophane wrapping of baggage you plan to check to prevent theft from the same staff you just paid to protect it. It's a Chicago Mob style business model. In addition to that, we were told to avoid accepting help from anyone. This was good advice b/c there were tons of people walking around the airport offering to help you to your next terminal for a tip. Most of them not associated with the airport in any way. Thanks to the advice, we managed to make it through Johannesburg the first time without incident.
Flying into Cape Town at night was an enjoyable experience. I probably would have rather seen the view during the day b/c of the mountain ranges, but seeing the moving lights of cars on the interstate and checkered pattern of office lights on skyscrapers has an appeal of its own. After we touched down, we quickly made our way to Avis and our rental car; the stylish Honda Jazz. A few signed pieces of paper and we were off. Jillian declined the opportunity to drive on the left side of the road so, having experience in that department, I monopolized all the fun on asphalt.
Our first destination was a B&B aptly named Ocean View House. Though we didn't see it at 11pm when we arrived, there was basically an unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean from our room. A quick tour of the premises, an even quicker job of unpacking and our very long day came to an end.
Day 1:
Having done plenty of reading about Cape Town before we arrived, we knew that if the weather was appropriate, the first thing we should do is go to the top of Table Mountain and get a great view of the city. As we found out later in the trip, that was very accurate advice. We woke up early, just missing the sunrise and took the car the the base of the mountain as quickly as we could. Though a little cold, the day was more or less perfect; only the occasional cloud. We grabbed what we thought was a good parking spot as we pulled up, gave the unofficial parking attendant a 5 Rand coin to watch our car, grabbed our backpacks and started walking toward the "Aerial Cableway" entrance. It was a nice little walk and it wasn't until we reached the entrance that we realized we could have parked past the entrance at a much more reasonable distance. I guess you can only learn some things from experience.
The view from the top was stellar. I'd like to say that we were up there, roaming around for at least half an hour before we began leaving the designated walking paths in search of better photo opportunities. We found them and even had a few chances to exchange cameras with other tourists for 'couple' photos.
Our first meal, apart from our continental breakfast, was exactly what we had hoped for. It was an open air restaurant, just off the strip that runs adjacent to Camps Bay's coast; right across from their public beach, in fact. Even though it was a place with white table clothes, the food was VERY inexpensive. Jillian had some kind of chicken sandwich. I had a 'tuscan burger' (bbq). We both had an adult beverage and I believe the total was twenty-five dollars with tip.
Being so close to the water, and our car being safely parked in a guarded garage, we decided to take a stroll out on the beach. The weather wasn't really right for a swim or even shorts, but there were still plenty of people out there sunbathing or sitting around and chatting (one guy even smoking pot). Despite being away from the main streets, we couldn't completely avoid the panhandlers and beggars that are very common in the area. Not to sound like a jerk, but they messed up a couple of our videos and pictures walking up to us while we had our cameras to our faces. We did get a few nice ones before we left though.
Once we got back to our B&B, we didn't have the energy to do much other than get ready for dinner. After little debate, we had decided to go with the most highly rated steakhouse in the area; Hussar Grill. It turned out to be the right choice. Although our fried calamari appetizer was a complete bust, Jillian's steak and my lamb chops were excellent. Throw in a bottle of champagne and some kind of chocolate shot for desert and our night was made. Thankfully the drive back to our room was a very short one. The evening view was pretty nice as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment