Week 1 Part 1
Week 1 Part 2
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 Part 1
Week 6 Part 2
Week 6 Part 3
Week 7 Part 1
Week 7 Part 2
Week 8
Week 9 Part 1
Week 9 Part 2
Week 10 Part 1
Week 10 Part 2
Well, shortly after my arrival, Michael went up and I decided to get a (tine) coke at the lonely kiosk at the airport and waited.
Later this day I went to the Waterfront with my host family, Ingrid, Daniela and Israel, as I'd already planned on Wednesday. We had a nice dinner in the booked restaurant and took a coffee at another bar.
Christmas market
2008/11/29
2008/11/29
The last day I spent a while at the beach with a surfboard. But having my back hurt last time and having been in pain for something like a week or more, I wasn’t that successful today anymore. So I went home early. I got the information that there is a Christmas market happening in Green Point directly at main street. So I decided to have a look and of I went again. Actually I got also the information, that it is not comparable with a German Christmas market and that was true. The market was inside of a building and mainly a flee market for Christmas tree decoration and other small handmade gifts. I was out of the building soon and just the chance to get a proper Ostrich egg for my grandma. Hoping to have all presents for my family together.
Travel Back
2008/11/30
2008/11/30
It’s time to say goodbye. My flight was leaving in the morning and after having everything packed I was waiting for the taxi. I said goodbye to my host family … Daniela will stay still a little longer before her trip goes on to a small township somewhere in the Eastern area of South Africa to participate in voluntary work. Ingrid was already preparing for the next guest.
My travel took my via Jo’burg airport with some hours waiting time. After having no chance at Cape Town Airport to dive through the local souvenirs I just the chance at Jo’burg and right in last minute … before my plane leaves without me … I found a nice blue T-Shirt of the World Soccer Championship 2010 in South Africa.
Funny thing at the end of the travel: I was somehow chosen for extra passenger check. So I needed to wait for personal baggage check in Cape Town Airport, Johannesburg and Zurich and finally, when I arrived at Hannover airport, the customs control picked me out. After having been lucky with customs control already two times this year, I had sent some stuff back to home via mail. So that I mainly only had my clothes with… otherwise I surely had violated the maximum permitted values.
Well, this was only the second half of week 10. If you mist the first ones, please click ‘previous’.
Sky Diving
2008/11/28
2008/11/28
Last day at school! Today I had for the last time English grammar,skills and preparation. I'd got some presents for my teachers and got some from them. Lynda gave me some more preparation exercises "for the flight back". At 12 Michael and I departed from school. We had a last appointment this afternoon. We'd booked a sky diving trip with "Revel Adventures". So we were being driven to the North of Cape Town to a small airport in the wilderness. There we were welcomed by our pilots and had some time to have a look around. The driver had to collect another tourist for the sky diving trip.In the meantime we filled a form, that in case of emergency, we don't have any chance to get money from the company. Always the same story ... We got our safety gears and were putting them on. We hadn't been finished then the pilot pointed at me and said: "You are first."
So I followed him and went into the smallest plane I've ever used. It was maybe 10 meters long and there was enough space for six people, including the pilot. I was already fixed to my tandem college. The other once were equipped with cameras and planned to take pictures and movies. It took us about half an hour in the plane to reach the perfect height. The plane was very noisy and the wind chilly but we hadn't any turbulence. So we reached the height of 3000 kilometres. Three times the height of Table Mountain which was visible in the background. There it went quite fast. One person opened the door, another, my partner asked me to put my feet out of the plane and the head in the back, so that I was looking to the sky. (Well, this wasn't a big problem, as seeing the earth flying along my feet was a little bit scary.)
Than we jumped.
We fall about 30 seconds and it felt great. Just my breast was hurting, because of the injury from two weeks ago and the pressure, I was having on it. After 30 seconds, the parachute opened and we were stopped.
No gravity any more!
The rest of the way we were paragliding down.
I was really happy, having been the first one, because I could see how nervous Michael was, after I arrived and how long it had taken, to go up and down. So he had already been waiting for about 30 minutes in the safety gear with nobody to talk and nothing to do.
Bye bye South Africa
I will come back in 2010 … that is a promise