Cape Town

After three days in Amsterdam, I flew to Cape Town.  My friend had a work conference in Cape Town and invited me to tag along (same conference I attended with her when we went to Sweden and Denmark 6 years ago).  I decided to stop in Amsterdam on the way over because it s a hub for Delta/KLM flights, and since I would be stopping there anyway, I may as well stay a few days.  

this is the view from our window -- that's Table Mountain in the back

One day while my friend was at her conference, I was hanging out at the hotel.  I thought I might take a shower and just then this happened.  

Just a window washer, but I was very happy that I am a procrastinator and hadn't started my shower yet! I waved and then took his picture.  

This is a piece of the Berlin wall, which they gifted to South Africa after the end of Apartheid.  

There was a courthouse around the corner from our hotel that people could go to in order to have their classification changed.  If their hair was not too kinky and their complexion light enough, they could go from non-white to white.  Of course that meant that they couldn't talk to their families anymore, but I guess that is the price some were willing to pay.  These are the benches outside where people waited to meet with the judge.

These brightly painted houses are in the Bo-Kapp neighborhood.  My guide told me that these homes were painted bright colors because the people that originally lived there were not allowed to wear colors, so they painted their homes to reflect a brighter mood.  I went on a different tour on my last day there, and that guide said that story was a myth.  These homes were painted bright colors after Apartheid ended in 1993 and Cape Town became known as the Rainbow City.  He also told us that there is a town in Brazil that was having economic troubles.  They painted their homes like this and the city became a huge tourist attraction.  These homes were originally slave quarters, and after slaves were freed, they continued to live here and passed them down to the next generation.  Now, of course, these homes are becoming a hot commodity and people are selling their ancestral homes for millions of Rand because they are located close to the downtown area of the city.  

this street is known as "Hollywood" because so many pictures are taken here.

They were filming something in this home -- a movie or commercial or something.