Cape Town, South Africa

Hello everyone, and greetings from Cape Town! I will get Andrej to post one of these days, but for now, you are once again stuck with me. Thanks to everyone who has left us comments and emails- its nice to know we have fans! Also, I have told some of you that if you are signed up to be a 'follower' of the blog that it will email you when we post. Apparently it doesn't, I apologize for the misinformation. If anybody has been receiving emails about our posts, please let me know so I can pass on how to other people.
Cape Town has been fabulous. It is a fun, coastal city. Its a place where a foreigner can feel very at home and enjoy many of the comforts of their home country. In that regard, it has been a good place for us to ease in to Africa.
Our first few days here, we got to know that town by running errands. Shopping for toiletries, going to the bank, finding a used book store, hitting up the post office- all of that gave us a nice walking tour of the city. I think by far our most ambitious errand was finding a Notary Public. Andrej had to get some legal forms notarized. This took us to a bank (where they had no idea what we were talking about) then to a fancy law firm. This is where we encountered a recurring theme of very helpful strangers- all of their lawyers who could help us where out on vacation, but they spent a good 15 minutes calling around to different law firms and writing us directions and eventually sending us on our way to another law firm that could notarize the forms. We have had many strangers go above and beyond to help us- walking out onto the street to give us directions, offering us helpful advice, offering to drive us into town, etc.
Other highlights of our time in Cape Town include taking the cable way up Table Mountain and hiking around and getting some fantastic views, hiking around Lion's Head mountain, going to some fantastic beaches, and checking out the waterfront shopping area.
Other items of interest- the weather. The first few days it was decidedly on the cool side for being the middle of summer with temps around the low 70s. However, it has now warmed up to around the upper 80s. No rain, and all in all great weather.
Crime. Many people talk about South Africa's extremely high crime rate, especially in their cities. I have heard stories (that I am sure are true) of car jacks, robberies, and shootings. However, I have seen none of that in my short time here, and for the most part feel perfectly safe. Apparently the commuter trains are not the safest- one day we had a nice man and his son pull up in their pick-up offering to take us into town as we were walking into the train station. We said no thank you, but he called us back saying the trains are rather unsafe and it would be no trouble. We again thanked him for the offer and decided that riding in a train in the middle of the afternoon was probably safer than riding in the bed of a pick-up on the highway. We have not had any problems, but we also try to be smart about it and only take the trains during the daytime, etc.
Lastly, I think it is fun when I am traveling to pick out the similarities, as the differences are pretty obvious. I think in Cape Town, there are many more similarities to home than I can name, but here are a few:
-They speak English.
-Movie theaters, shopping centers, etc. One place we were at on the waterfront had everything from a Hallmark, to a couple movie theaters, to a Build a Bear workshop, to J Crew.
-McDonalds, KFC
-Slug bugs!
-taxis, trains, buses
-You still have to wait in line a disproportionate amount of time at the post office. We spent at least an hour there one day.
-ATMs (yes, our cards do work here)

We are leaving Cape Town today and heading down the coast to Simon's Town. Hope everything is well back home! Here are some pictures to enjoy:

Our backpackers lodge in a suburb of Cape Town
Andrej hiking on top of Table Mountain
A view from the top of Table Mountain overlooking the ocean.
Me at the waterfront.
The view of the 'Twelve Apostles' mountains from the beach in Camps Bay.