The Mother City: A beauty that takes care of herself

Cape Town is a beauty that knows how to take care of herself. If the people who run this city would take over the continent Africa would be kicking both Europe's and America's ass.
Coming to think of it they probably will in the future. Judging from the magazines there's quite an entrepreneurial spirit here. Even the kids in the townships write their own newspaper. Check it out here www.we-are-africa.com. Even if it's a harsh reality they're describing what fuels their writing is a belief in positive change. At least in this part of town the predominantly black kids don't beg, they go to school instead. Actually the grown-ups don't either. Even in the super touristy area there's this laid-back vibe: people don't yell or drag you into their stores, they don't follow you, they're just smiling, greeting you and showing their products. And the men, I'm happy to report, are not hell-bent on acquiring a foreign passport sleazy style. Although there are some tourists where I live it's a residential part of the city and although I did expect it to be beautiful I'm stunned at how clean and everything is. The streets are discreetly patrolled and so is the promenade along the coast line though here the folks are much more conspicuous driving around on their Segways and wearing these bright neon-yellow tops. Real estate is big here, so big in fact that it's way easier to buy a house than a blow-dryer. I did finally acquire the only one I found but although I leave the house with perfectly straight hair, there's a wicked wind blowing everything out of its place. In fact I have trouble imagining anybody walking around in a skirt and staying decent. The least exhibitionist option is to wear a super tight mini-skirt.

One of the little pleasures of spending time in a foreign country is buying the local shampoos and lotions and enjoying what I'd like to call my African scent, which is a mix of papaya, inca inchi oil (whatever that is) and pomgrenate. Yesterday I in fact enjoyed it so much that I didn't want to spoil it by putting on Nivea sunblock. I figured I'll apply it when I'm fully exposed to the sun which of course was not the smartest idea. I got a light sunburn and a tremendous head ache. The pain only went away after an 11-hour sleep marathon. Despite the headache I met up with a girl I found through the couchsurfing network. She managed the miracle of taking me to a place where I loved the sushi. Up until now the best had been to not mind it very much but I didn't think I could actually like it. Not being able to eat with chopsticks on a first meeting made me feel like a Neanderthal most of the time. She pointed out all kinds of restaurants which are good and it's pretty cool knowing that I have the time to actually try all of them. Restaurants, even the sushi restaurant where brilliant views of the sea were to be enjoyed, are extremely cheap and might ruin my noble intention of wanting to cook for myself. In fact most things besides tours to see the animals Africa is famous for is pretty cheap here. It's easy to see why the senior citizens who don't retire here at least spend the winter in Cape Town.

Here in Sea Point you smell the sea weed and salt almost everywhere, even in the apartment or on Main street. The big waves which don't have a lot of natural obstacles crash on to the rocks with such force that even on the elevated promenade you have to make sure you don't get showered. The water is full of life, muscles and weed and some of it is deposited on the promenade by those huge waves. People are constantly removing the weed to keep the beaches clean but the sea is so full of it, that they of course never finish. The bluish shells get flattened on the promenade and give the pavement an interesting colour.