Diana's birthday, Tina arrives, and more fun

There are three of us now. I (Diana) am way into blogging so I will chronicle our journeys the past few days, and the others can add if they wish:

At midnight on March 23 Steph and I went to the Dubliners, an Irish bar, to ring in my birthday. A Bon Jovi lookalike sang decent covers as tourists danced. A few Kellogg kids showed up, of course, but overall a nice time.

In the morning, when Steph went to prison, Tina, our third musketeer, arrived! We ran errands and went to the botanical gardens where a Canadian commercial was being shot. It was one of many commericals we have since seen, since people apparently fly from all over the world to bask in the glow of Cape Town. Then guess who found us? YES, Steph and my stalker from the first day. This makes four times he has found us. I was quite terse.

At night, for my birthday dinner the three of us went for delicious Kurdish food. There were high school boys smoking hookah next to us, and we felt old. I also danced with a belly dancer.

We then went clubbing on Long Street. This was the first time we went OUT out on our lovely street, and we were not super-impressed. While I enjoyed the birthday drinks of course, the crowd was quite touristy/highschooly. We went to one cool club "The Waiting Room" where we had a view of the city.

Overall, it was a lovely birthday, and super-great to spend it in Cape Town, the most beautiful city in the WORLD.


March 24

While Steph was in prison, Tina and I went to the beach. We first got bikini waxes at this super-fancy hotel (that would cost upwards of $500/night if we stayed there ourselves) and were able to lay by the pool. We kept remarking how lucky we are that Medill is subsidizing our trip to paradise. Then Steph joined us as we lay out on the beach which was beautiful, of course. Though it was slightly annoying that every 4.5 seconds a man would come by hawking water or ice cream or sunglasses. We firmly said NO.

After the beach (and some more Sinfull gelato) we came back and got ready to go out. While we were getting ready, a nice Scottish girl came by our room and asked if she could join us to go out. Apparently, a boy ditched her and now seh was on her own. Of course she could join us! We were quite excited to make hostel friends, since where we are staying the people aren't the friendliest.

Our new friend Laura (21, and staying in Namibia for three months) went with us to the Waterfront for shopping and seafood at Ocean Basket. Beautiful, duh. I need to stop saying that because EVERYTHING's beautiful. I couldn't imagine living in Cape Town forever, and just taking the beauty for granted.

Then we went to Cubana, a cool bar that wasn't super-touristy and a great break from the trashiness of Long Street. Then we danced at Opium. It was ok, though the house music is not my thing. There was a guy wearing a shirt that said "I love beer and girls." Not the way to pick up chicks, fella.

Before heading off to bed, we had falafel from a street vendor, just to make sure our Scottish friend solidified the idea of fat Americans in her head.