Arts

So it turns out the Arts festival was not all i was hoping for. There were many shows mostly dramas every day all for around $20 per show. There were also many little stalls selling crafts and and the ZA hotdog, boerwors. I decided not to stay for several days and caught a bus back to cape town last night. I had an interesting time getting from the arts festival to the bus station some 120km away in a different city.

I started by hitching a ride with some guy, who said he was going near the bus station (Lie number one). T minus one hour to bus departure, We got within 20km of the bus station city, then turned off the highway. I asked what was going on and he said something like we are going to X, you can get a ride from there which would be faster than getting one on the highway(lie two). 30min later we stop somewhat closer to the city and he helps me get a shared taxi to the city. The taxi driver says i must go across town to get a taxi to the bus station(lie three) he then drives across town and drops me under some highway overpass and says i can get a taxi from there to the bus station(lie four). Darkness(night) falls. Taxis at night are no fun, neither are the streets of SA. T minus ten minutes to bus departure, I ask people at the underoverpass stop for directions and they direct me to another underoverpass stop and tell me i must get a taxi first to a big taxi stand and then to the bus station(they turn out to be right). T plus five minutes to bus departure, I get a taxi to the taxi stand which turns out to be back on the other side of the city, where i already was. I then get a taxi to the bus station, 10 minutes after my bus departure time. I frantically search the buses at the station and cannot find my bus. it left, or so i thought, until i started talking to the people standing around. Apparently the bus i booked is always over an hour late. and it was yesterday. waited for about an hour and then got on for my 12hour overnight journey to cape town.

I thought about getting stressed about the whole situation many times while in the taxis. i decided to patiently wait, because being frustrated wasnt going to make the taxis go faster. if i did miss the bus, i could probably get another one the day after with only a long night spent at the bus station(a dirty parking lot). being patient payed off.

So 12 hours later..or so. I arrived at cape town station at about 515am. Found myself a train to to my part of the city and managed to arrive at my front gate at about 6am about two hours before sunrise, it is winter here even though it still feels like a pleasant spring. I should clarify about my living situation. It technically isnt my front gate i was standing in front of. my lease ended june 30th. I fly out July 16th. I arrived July5th. I am squatting. I had to turn in my keys, pack everything up, and store my luggage with friend before I left.

My friend, Wes, was not answering his phone which forced me to climb over the razor wire wall. Most houses here, all houses here are fortified against crime and the bad street people. Our house actually only had a concrete wall until two months ago. We had had a few breakins over the semester, all by the same guy. He managed to break in with people in the house everytime. He made off with a camera the first time, and the other 4+ times just some broken glass. We actually saw him come in and out of the gate a few times. We had reported the breakins to the landlord in full detail. the landlord's response was to put razor wire on the wall. Post razor wire we still had breakins, as our thief came in the gate under the wire.

After conquering the wall and lifting my backpack over, i set about waking wes up. His room is on the back side of the house, and as the front door is far away, I began climbing over our back wall into the bed breakfast place behind. A little sneaking around in the B&B placed me at our backyard wall. More fence climbing and i was looking in wes's window. The combination of Wes mentioning that he may move rooms and the girl shoes at the front door when wes should be alone, forced me to attempt to make out who was sleeping in the room before knocking on the window. I wanted to avoid awkward situations with new residents. While peaking in the window(still dark) I was greeted from an upstairs window by an older brit man. I promptly returned the greeting and explained what i was doing snooping around the house in the dark and managed to convince him i wasnt a thief and in the process woke up wes and doubly confirmed myself. More climbing and i was back at the front door.

I now have a daily task of avoiding runins with the landlord and cleaning ladies. We will see how it goes.