Wednesday, 27th April
Summer through all seasons is an enticing phenomenon. As the weather in Port Elizabeth gets colder, eternal summer becomes even more inviting so we planned a trip to Durban. Ten girls left on Wednesday morning, and three other people left on Thursday to visit the warm city. Our trip started out a little tenuously as a few of the ten got back to the hotel from Long Street (the famous party street in Cape Town) a little too close to our 5 am departure for the airport. Everyone was back to a normal state by the time we landed in Durban and we made our way to Banana Backpackers, our accommodation for the few nights were there. We got a pretty unpleasant surprise that got much more so the more we saw of the backpacker. In the ground floor of the building that housed the backpacker, was a lovely establishment called ‘Sonya’s Massage and Escort’. No, I am not kidding you. The young lady in her bikini looked very nice but for some odd reason, I wasn’t the happiest camper with the location, which also boasted a slightly sketchy neighborhood. The cockroaches we found later didn’t help either.
On the more positive side of our first day in Durban, we got to explore some great spots. We began the day at the Durban Botanic Gardens, a little piece of Eden in the middle of a dense city. We each took about a bajillion pictures (that’s the scientific term for the amount of pictures taken) and the browsing seemed nearly endless, especially for Taylor, who was still on crutches from her Table Mountain ankle incident. After we’d had our fill of flowers for the day we made our way to find some lunch. We went to Nando’s in The Workshop (chain restaurant in a shopping mall). Afterwards, we decided to walk our way to the BAT Center. We stumbled upon the Natural Science Museum and my dorky self was even more in heaven. I had forgotten how much I loved museums until we begin to explore the exhibits. The Insect Arcade was a favorite of Taylor’s and boasted a really cool diagram that lit up little dots on the human body where various insects make their homes.
We eventually left the museum, to the slight reluctance of those who wished it were bigger and to the relief of the antsy ones. The walk to the BAT Centre gave us a look at urban Durban and not necessarily of the prettiest parts of Durban. We finally found it, thanks to our handy dandy tourist map. We had to walk into a tunnel structure that took you under the train tracks and it smelled of urine and certainly housed people at night. But the creepy tunnel was certainly worth it when we came upon the eclectic building. There was more character in the building than I have ever seen grace a single structure. It really didn’t seem like a building anymore, rather it was a constantly morphing work of art that housed wonderful sounds of jazz and art that tempted the browser to the extreme. Sadly only a few of the artist shops were open when we went so our next stop came too soon. The quick spar doesn’t seem quite exciting enough to write about but it allowed for the purchasing of breakfast food and became the last stop of the day until dinner.
We went to a Mexican restaurant on Florida Road. The Mexican food was certainly the closest we have come to that breed of cuisine and the road was a nice return to a neighborhood where we felt safe. We sadly had to return to Banana Backpackers, at which point we found the cockroaches. We got ready for bed and I called Zach, who is thankfully still able to calm me down about cockroaches and creepiness from 9,000 miles away. I laid down on the sheets, about which I had a few doubts, and used my beach towel as a blanket. Sleep came a little easier knowing we had reservations for the next two nights at a backpacker by Florida Road and we would be departing Banana’s lovely establishment, and leaving the vicinity of Sonya’s, in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment