Spring 2015 - Day 79: South Africa

I went to Jessi’s room around 11 as we had agreed. Jen was already there and we sat on their beds and waited for Jessi to be ready. 

Around 11:15 we headed off the ship, weaving around the lifeboats as we walked out of the port. The plan was to get lunch at a restaurant that they knew had really good wifi. 

Wifi sounded like an excellent idea to me! 

We took a cab to the restaurant as it was pretty far from the ship. The restaurant we went to was called Gourmet Boerie. They specialized in these hot dog things called Boeries. You could get them in Turkey, Beef, Chicken, or Ostrich meat. Then you could get a whole bunch of different things on top of it. I got cheese and mushrooms. 

I also ordered a Savanna Dry, which the hard cider of the area and is my absolutely favorite cider in existence. We sat in that restaurant for over two hours. That is how good their wifi was. 

During lunch Jessi told me that they saw Dean Thomas leaving the day before. He had a whole bunch of luggage with him. Can you say drama? Guess he really is leaving the voyage. I wonder what is going to happen? If we are going to get a new Dean or not. Guess we will find out. 

When we finally left our next goal was to find a tattoo shop on Long Street called Sins of Style where Jen and I could get tattoos and Jessi could get her septum pierced. Jessi said that she thought it was walkable so we went right out of the restaurant and started up the hill. 

We walked for a while, going in the different stores if they looked interesting. We didn't seem to be getting anywhere so we went into a little convenience store to ask for directions. The woman in there said that the place we were going was too far away to walk and that we should take a cab. 

We decided that we just walked the wrong direction so we started back down the hill. We had walked way farther than we thought we had and it took a while to even get back to where we started. 

But when we did get back to the restaurant and went off in the opposite direction we realized that Long Street was literally right there. Whoops. 

This was the first time I had been on Long Street. Long Street is one of the most popular and busy streets in the city. Since it was getting pretty late and the shops didn't stay open until late into the night we went into a different tattoo shop then we planned. 

They had some openings so we took a seat and waited for the artist to come back. Jen went first. She got raison d’être in cursive on her forearm. It is a french saying that means reason to be. I went after her but I took a while to figure out what font I wanted. I didn't want anything weird and cursive. I wanted to get Ubuntu and it feels like a powerful, strong word that required block letters. 

It is an african saying that means “I am because we are, and because we are I am.” To me it means that we are all human and I think that it really sums up our voyage nicely. It is also something that I need to work on, understanding that everyone is human. 

I got it on my side and it hurt so much more than my foot. But it turned out fantastic, I love it. 

Unfortunately, the place that we went did not do piercings but after wandering around the shops a little more Jessi decided that she really wanted to get it. So we went to go find Sins of Style. It took us a bit to find but we did. Jen and I were not allowed to go into the back with her. We sat in the little waiting room and waited while she went with the lady. We heard her shriek twice and then everything went quiet. Then the guy at the front desk went and got a cup of something, stirred it and brought it into the little room. 

While this was happening Jen and I were watching some guys on the street. One of them had a huge knife and was showing it off to people. Then the guy with the huge knife came in the shop and went to the back to show the piercing lady his giant knife. It was really weird. 

She was just casually talking to a guy about his huge knife while Jessi was still in the tiny room. Eventually she came out. She had gotten it pierced with a micro bar so you couldn't even see it. 

She told us what happened. Apparently she had a kind of adrenaline seizure. It is when your body gets such a rush of adrenaline that you muscles seize up and you black out. The lady said that it happens all the time and her and the guy actually bet on it to see who will be first every day. 

I guess Jessi helped one of them win. 

After that we went back to the ship. Jessi and Jen were invited to a party that night and they wanted to get ready for it. I ate dinner on the ship and didn't go anywhere. Tomorrow I have the Toms service trip and after that Stephanie and I are going to hike Lion's Head so I wanted to get a good night sleep.