South Africa

Hello everyone!! As you may or may not know, I'm back in the States as of late Friday night, but I just had to finish off my blog for the last leg of the trip.

We left Zimbabwe and took an 18 hour bus ride to Johannesburg where we met up with one of Saul's good friends. This bus ride was not uneventful.....when we arrived at the border of Zimbabwe and South Africa, everyone must disembark in order to get an exit stamp. So as we were waiting our turn I saw people heading towards our bus and asked the guard if we were supposed to just bypass the line and get one our bus in which he replied "yes". So I made Saul get out of the line and started waiting in the line to get back on the bus. Well obviously the guard did not speak English as we actually did need an exit stamp, so Saul and I proceeded to stand back in the exit line (now longer this time). We were almost to the counter, when I noticed our bus drive off......yes it left us. We then had to run for the next 15 minutes to the South African border, where luckily our bus was stopped and we were able to get on. It was quite an adventure and the bus driver actually lectured US for not coming back in a timely manner!!! Anyway, Saul and I can laugh about this now, but I was obviously freaking out at the time as Saul stayed calm and collected as usual. :) Anyway, once we arrived in Jo'burg, Sureka (Saul's friend) was nice enough to take our souvenirs off our hands as we left on another bus ride to Cape Town 3 hours after we arrived. Despite the short time in Jo'burg, the vibe there was amazing! People everywhere were blowing there vuvuzela's on account of the world cup in South Africa. It was the most interesting thing to see, people in business suits walking with their vuvuzela in hand or wearing the most ridiculous flag colored glasses. You could almost feel the national pride in the air!

The day that we arrived in Cape Town was the day before the start of the world cup, so we ended up partying in the center of Cape Town where the city center was blocked off and huge big screen TV's were set up as a concert was played for the World Cup. It was such an amazing experience to see so many people so proud to have the world cup in Africa for the first time and we were blessed to be there to witness it. We stayed at Saul's brother's place for the night and headed to Tsitsikamma where the world's tallest bungee jumping resides! Unfortunately two people told us it was around 3 hours to drive there and then 7 hours later we arrived, but no matter, we did it and it was amazing!!! 216 meters of pure adrenaline! The good thing about being further than we expected was that we found an adorable little town called Knysna and ended up spending the night there. Little did we know that Knysna was hosting the French and Denmark teams so that made the atmosphere even better when we headed to a hotel lobby to eat and watch the starting games.

The following morning, we got an early start and headed back to Cape Town as we were leaving in the evening back to Jo'burg. We were smart this time and took a 2 hours flight instead of a 16 hour bus ride as Saul found this travel agency that was selling tickets that were cheaper than taking the bus!! We wish we'd known about that on the way to Cape Town....lol! Anyway, as soon as we got to Jo'burg we went straight to a fan park where we saw USA and England play!! Again an amazing experience to see everyone come together. The following day we went to the Apartheid Museum which was an eye opening experience for me. A definite must see if going to South Africa. We also visited a lion park where lions were walking inches from our car. They also have an area where I got to play with the lion cubs!!! One of the highlights of my trip!! The rest of the SA trip was filled with the watching of the world cup! I've definitely taken a liking to soccer now and am even thinking of going to the world cup in Brazil......we'll see.

Anyway, after 2 days and 24 hours of collective flight hours, I'm back in the States where my jet lag is actually not too bad. :) Saul and I had an amazing trip and now have the travel bug as we're now thinking of teaching English in Thailand for a year once my master's program is finished! It's a bittersweet end as I finished one of the most amazing life altering trips of my life, but now I start a new era of my life with the start of grad school. I hope you all immensely enjoyed following my blog as much as I've enjoyed sharing my experience with all of you. Check back soon as I'll put the link to all the pictures once I receive them from Saul. Wish me luck on my first day of grad school tomorrow!

Love,

Nicole