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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
A Tale of Two Cities -- The contrast between Cape Town's rich and poor is startling, depressing, astounding, and appalling. Soon after you leave the airport, you pass miles of black and colored townships - most of which consist of squatter camps. After 10 years of democracy, things are still VERY segregated. In the wealthy coastal areas of Clifton, Seapoint, and Signal Hill you have to look hard to find a person of color that wasn't working in the service industry. And of course the only white faces you saw in and around the townships were tourists or an occasional missionary or NGO worker.
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When we arrived at the airport - it was the cleanest airport I've been to. It didn't seem like we landed in 'Africa,' it seemed like we landed somewhere in Northern Europe. When we were in line at customs, there were only 4 people of color in line and 2 of them were me and my cousin. Ha ha ha interesting! Anyway, the weather was gorgeous! There wasn't a cloud in the sky (apparently we missed a storm the week before) and seeing Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, and Lion's Head hovering over the city was quite a sight. 
We arrived in Cape Town at 8am, so no rest for us - we had the whole day to spend sightseeing. After visiting 
Then we circled around and went through city center and waterfront area. While driving through the city center, I said to Lisa, "Hey! Black people!" I mean we had only seen a handful all day and I kept having to remind myself that I was actually in Africa. Anyway, the city center & Long Street areas were pretty integrated. The bus ride was a nice intro to the city and helped us get oriented to where our hostel was in comparison to everything else. 
