Post Cape Town I planned to jump around
South Africa a bit more to visit some friends. First stop was the beautiful
Durban located in KwaZulu-Natal. Durban is located on the eastern coast of
South Africa, home to beaches of the Indian Ocean, rolling hills of Zulu land,
and my friend Taryn J I met Taryn back in 2009 when I traveled to Jordan on my Peace Camp
with People to People International and being so close to South Africa for so
long I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see her. I was only with her for a
few days but we were sure to pack in as much as her list of touristy activities
as we could.
Cape Town became my number 1 city but
Durban comes in at a close number 2. It’s a large city located right on the
coast home to pristine beaches, excellent food, warm weather, and lots to do. I
don’t really know what to compare it to but it was a perfect combination of a
vacation spot but not over the top. You know when you go to a beach town and
all along the waterfront there is an obnoxious amount of the EXACT same store
or restaurant and no just pure beach. Well Durban is not this. There was plenty
of beach, a gorgeously clean large boardwalk, and wonderful individual stores
and restaurants/cafes that were their own. I don’t want to jump to too many
conclusions because I was only there for like 3 days but it was just perfect. I
guess I was also there during the week, but whatever, it was amazing.
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| Seafood pasta for lunch with a view |
We toured their soccer stadium constructed
for the World Cup in 2010 and even climbed to the top of it!
I also got a taste of a Durban original “Bunny
Chow”. Bunny chow originated when migrant workers from India needed a way to
eat lunch while working. So they hollowed out a loaf of bread to fill their
curry dishes in. The result, your favorite Indian dish in a loaf of carbs ready
to eat on the go or I believe to soak up a ton of alcohol on a drunk night. I don’t
know why this hasn’t caught on yet on college campuses because it’s wonderful.
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| Bunny Chow of Butter Chicken |
We also took a drive out into the rolling
green hills of South Africa to Zulu land to see the traditional dance and
village. Zulu life was very similar to traditional life in Namibia, with
regards to the food they ate, how they prepared it, the style of housing they
lived in, etc.
Later that night Taryn was taking me to a
fundraising trivia night at a local school where her friend taught. There was a
theme called Stars and Stripes and we needed to coordinate outfits and table
decorations, the whole thing. To be honest, when she initially told me stars
and stripes I thought oh so people will interpret it as they see fit. We’ll
probably all go as jail prisoners like with black and white stripes and others
will come as rock stars. I took it literal, not even thinking it could be
American culture. SO even when Taryn said we were going to dress up like
cowboys I thought to myself “well that’s random”. Sure enough when we arrived
the theme was definitely American “Stars and Stripes”. At first I was terrified
at what I was going to see. I wasn’t expecting anything specific, maybe the
unexpected was the scary parts. Well anyway I got there and was instantly
embarrassed. Omg this is what people think of Americans? We do not all wear
cowboy hats, have braided pig tails, and drink out of mason jars! One table had
a fake sign selling road kill soup. Like no. Then there was a woman with a fake
pregnant belly and a beer in her hand. After about 10 minutes of looking around
in slight horror, I got a sense of humor about it and began to proudly declare
myself American and had a ton of fun on my last night in Durban.
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