I love Cape Town!

Cape Town is BEAUTIFUL!

There’s music in the streets, art everywhere I look, and friendly, loving beautiful people!

I made a friend in the craft market near the Waterfront. He’s an artist. He’s called Jason. He makes guitars out of old motor oil cans and sells them in the craft market with another musician named Dani. They’re pretty expensive—I think the cheapest is ~ZAR6,000 or so—and he’s got quite the impressive customer list. Lots of big names. I bought his CD.

To my RadioShack, Health Food store, and tattoo studio friends: check out how global my tendency to make friends out of clerks and artisans has become.

Jason’s great. I’m never, ever expecting to find someone with so compatible a sense of humour. He’s calm, very, very calm, and his sarcasm is intelligent, rather than a cheap waste of breath (as is found on the ship), and actually, he’s already learned how to burn me pretty effectively. He dislikes how angsty I am against chivalry, but respects it every other time we approach a door.

Also… he’s pretty nice on the ol’ eyes.

We’re to meet up again, tomorrow night, at this place that has live music. That’s actually how we got to talking. He asked if I dug listening to live performances then recommended a place, Mannenburg’s (sp?). Then, during our conversation, he asked if I was just going to be walking around, and if he could come with me. We spent most of the evening lazily exploring the Waterfront, buying ourselves and each other drinks. Actually, we started at Mannenburg’s. I hadn’t asked him to, but he helped me get acquainted with the area and told me about some places to go to.

And he bought me falafel! Instant friend, right there.

Before meeting Jason and Dani, I was walking around the craft market, picking up a few things. I got something for my mom’s friend, Iris. It’s a hand-woven grass table runner. I met a jeweler named Mike from Ethiopia in the market. He sold me two single earrings, which is awesome. I hate having to buy a pair when I only need one. They’re both very cool. I also got a necklace made of brass and recycled glass. All of his stuff was beautiful. It would have been very easy for me to spend hundreds of dollars there. If and when I become ruler of the Milky Way, Mike shall be my jeweler.

Anyway, all of that stuff I bought, the weaving, the jewelry, the cd, I left it all on the bar at the last pub Jason and I were in. Just left it. We left and started walking around, wasting time until he had to leave, then on the way back, I met up with another SASer and realized during our conversation that I no longer had the bag with me. I went back to the bar and it was still sitting there. Awesome.

I had to answer to about four or five of my friends about Jason on my way back, though. Lots of raised eyebrows and stubborn, knowing smiles.

Alex and Shayla invited me to go back to Manenburgs, where our night was hijacked by a cluster of middle-aged businessmen, one of whom had no teeth. The other was a crazy Indian man who had too strong a grip and gave us all his phone number. Another was an apologetic Irishman. After they left, we spent some time talking to a couple of the women who worked there. One of them, the manager, I believe, was absolutely beautiful. She was quite tall and on the skinny side with creamy dark skin, big eyes, and long, thin, black braids that fell close to her knees. Some people look like deities.

Anyway, I’m tired now. Again, no pictures. But South Africa’s outside; no one expects me to stay inside editing photos. There’s a lot to be done while my head is still young.