Feb 26th Train Ride (Feeling Apartheid First Hand)

Remainder of Day 3 in Cape Town

We had a taste of the leftover segregation policies from South Africa’s Apartheid when we caught the train back to the waterfront dock. We got to the station right before the train was leaving so we hopped on the closest car.

The wooden benches lined the outside of the car and trash littered the floor. I looked around and we were the only white people in that car. When we sat down, two women near us got up and sat somewhere different. People on all sides of us were talking in their native tongue (called Xhosa, with a lot of clicking noises). We felt very uneasy because I think the black people on the car thought that we were trying to make a statement.

We got off after two stops because we weren’t actually sure where we had to get off or how to purchase tickets because the ticket offices were closed. We asked some girls in an ice cream stand and they gave us all the information we needed. We hopped on the next train, on the first class train that had people of many races and it was an hour back to Cape Town. We then boarded a public bus back to the waterfront area where our ship was docked.

The Waterfront area is basically a bunch of piers that had a two story mall, dozens of fancy restaurants with outside dining and music and several bars. It was a generally safe area and was very close to the ship. A lot of local musicians performed around there and in the center was a huge Ferris wheel that overlooks the city. It was built when the World Cup was held there last year.

That night we had dinner at a bar called Mitchells. I had a pizza with feta, garlic and onions and it was delicious. There was a group of Englishmen rooting for the Liverpool soccer team that were very rowdy. We then sat by the dock and watched the dock seals sleeping and snuggling up next to each other. It was a very peaceful end to the night.