My trip to the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia!

Day 3

I took the 01.40 flight from Montego Bay to London. It took 13 hours, but because I traveled by night it felt like an hour. I was in London at 1.45am. My flight to South Africa took off at 3pm, so I didn’t have much time at the airport. The plane to South Africa was supposed to take eleven hours. I sat beside another backpacker and the hours weren’t so long. Before I knew it the plane landed in Cape Town, the capital of South Africa. This colorful country got a population of 47.9 million. Here in Cape Town I stayed only for one day, so I had already planned what to do. First I visited Robben Island Museum. From the 17^th to the 20^th centuries, Robben Island was a prison where people got banished, isolated and imprisoned. It was the Dutch settlers who made this island a prison. Muslims, soldiers, civilians, women, anthi-apartheid activist and the first democratic president, Nelson Mandela, were some of the prisoners on Robben Island. I saw how they lived and what they did to people. 

The

apartheid system in Africa ended in 1990. While the apartheid system worked, they sorted people by they race and the black people had no rights. Nelson Mandela worked against this and accomplished to take it away after his stay in prison.

 

After my visit to Robben Island I went to Rugby union game. Rugby union is one of the most popular sports in South Africa, especially among Afrikaners. The national rugby union team is known as the Springboks. They played on the Newlands stadium that had a capacity 51,900 people. I got goosebumps when I saw that people covered the whole stadium and I have never experienced so much energy and good mood.

 

On my way home from the rugby game I drove to the V&A waterfront, which is a marked were they sold souvenirs. I thought I had to bring something home since I only were

here in Africa for one day. It was over 400 retail outlets and they sold everything from fashion, homeware and curios to jewellery and equipment. I found some carved wooden items; bowls, figures and masks. They are a specialty for Africa, a bit hard do get in my suitcase though. After an exciting walk trough the stores, I was ready to go back to the hotel and get ready for Australia...