The first part is over

Good evening, 

The first part of my stay in Cape Town is over. Yesterday I changed my accommodation. I left my host-family and the driver of my project drove me to a backpacker, where I will live the next four weeks. Currently I share the room with two other guys. One of them a man from Johannesburg is here for holidays. The other guy, from France, is also doing the Soccer-project. We are the only two Volunteers here:) I expected a lot of Volunteers here, but ok. Tomorrow starts my first day. I'm looking forward to it. I hope the weather is good, because the other Volunteer said me, when it's raining, the project doesn't take place. And at the moment, we have a lot of rain in Cape Town. Actually the winter has started. 

Last Thursday I finished the school. I received my diplom and a report. It was sad and emotional to say goodbye to all my new friends. But we celebrated a lot the last days so it was a great time again. And a few of the students I will see again in the next weeks - so not all of the goodbye's were definitely.



My last school day with my classmates.

The greatest highlight since my last post on Friday a week ago was the rugby game at 23 may. With a group of 27 people, I watched the game between the Cape Town Stormers and the Melbourne Rebels in the stadium. The Stormers won the game 31 - 15. After the game we could go on the field, to take some pictures. Later we had a big party in the spingbok-pub near the stadium. It was great, because almost all of our group joined the party.

 a huge group in the newlands-stadium

group-picture on the field. The photo-bomber on the lefthand side wasn't a member of our group:)

A sad day was of course the Monday, when Aarau went down to Challenge League. I followed the game via live-ticker. I was really frustrated after the game. Luckily I was in a pub...
Nevertheless we have now a fan more - namely in Brazil. I gave Joao from Sao Paulo a FCA-Shirt and he gave my a shirt of his favorite team - Corinthians Sao Paulo.



A little disaster was the Tuesday-evening. I had to cook for my host-parents. The wanted Rösti with Raclette-Cheese. First I made some Bruschetta for the "apero". It was really a success. I was motivated and convinced of my cooking skills. But shame. The gas-grill was too hot and because of that "alles esch aghocket". Finally I had three mini-portions. The rest was burnt. Luckily I had enough Raclette-Cheese. The host-parents said to me the food is very good - but honestly, I think they couldn't say to me, that they are disappointed about the result. They expected a delicious original Swiss Rösti. But I promised, I will come back to Cape Town with improved cooking-skills :)

Yeah, I had a really good time during the last eight weeks. I will miss all the students and my host-family. And the security-man of a primary school, where I walked by every day. Also with him, I had a really kindly good-bye...

But now I'm looking forward to my second part in Cape Town. And of course to the travel trough Namibia with my beloved Girlfriend.

You will hear from me the next weekend.

Peace
Dario

Post Nr. 6

Hello my friends

I'm sitting in the garden, it's beautiful weather - again (all South Africans are speaking about the winter is coming, since I arrived 7 weeks ago). But it is still summer - for me. 

Yesterday we had a big party in a club with the name Tiger Tiger. So I'm a little bit tired. Today I'm going to visit a Nightmarket in Hout-Bay with the school (29 people). Its gonna be fun. 

Tomorrow is the big day with the rugby-game. Meanwhile we are 27 people - awesome. The tickets are distributed and the anticipating is rising. 

Yesterday, I had a very impressive experience. I helped in the soupkitchen of our ex-driver. His wife cooks every Thursday soup or stew in big pots for the people from the townships. So we ladled the stew in the containers (chlini Plastikbehälter oder Töpperweer :) ) from the people. 

It is a beautiful project i think. I will go next week again. 

During the last week, I think my last post was on Wednesday a week ago, I did a lot. 

On Thursday I went to the cinema to see the movie "the duff" (a simple 0815 high-school movie). 

On Friday a week ago I got up very early at 5.15 am. Together with a friend I hiked up to the Lions Head - my absolutely favorite place in Cape Town - to see the sunrise. It was beautiful, but the sunset on the top of the Lions Head is a little bit nicer --> and especially not so early in the morning 

;-) 

The 97th picture on the Lions Head. But this time with the sunrise in the background.


After the Lions Head I visited the Disrict 6 museum. Its a interesting museum, where you can read a lot about the sad history of this district.
In the afternoon, I went to the table mountain, but I didn't hike up. I took the cable car. The weather on the top was horrible. Cold, windy and cloudy. You couldn't see anything. But we had a fun afternoon in the restaurant with one or two beers.
Afterwards we had dinner on the waterfront.

Table mountain


The highlight, last week, was the weekend-trip to Stellenbosch. We rent a car and we slept in a backpacker. Stellenbosch is a famous place for wine. There are a lot of wine-farms, where you can taste red- and whitewine. All the farms are very nice and the weather was awesome. On Saturday we visited the dernier-farm and the waterford-farm, on sunday the eikendal-farm. The wines were delicious and so we drank a lot:)
In the evening we went out. Stellenbosch is a student-place, so there was a lot of partys.

Stellenbosch, dernier-farm

Stellenbosch, eikendal-farm

Team Stellenbosch

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I relaxed and recovered. Of course I was very happy because of the 2:1-victory of the FC Aarau. But it was only a short happiness until the 2:2 FCZ-Vaduz.
The FCA-game was the first game, I could stream successfully. So i saw the wonderful goal of Djuric live. But yeah, its gonna be very very difficult to stay in the NLA. Hope dies last.

Next week is my last week at school. After that I start with my social project. I'm really looking forward to my volunteering.

Have a nice weekend guys and you will hear from me.

PEACE
DARIO

Post Number 5

Hello my friends

After a weekend with a lot of party, I realize, I'm getting older. Today I didn't go to school, because of stomach problems and weakness. But now I feel better. Maybe the reason isn't the hard weekend, maybe I have eaten something wrong. My suspect is the biltong I've bought on Monday evening...

Since my last post at 5th of may, a week has already passed again. I experienced a lot. I didn't do big trips, but nevertheless I had every day program.
On Tuesday a week ago I met my neighbor from Aarau, Andrea and her friend Carmen. They are in South Africa for holidays. We ate in the restaurant MAMA AFRICA. It was a very cozy evening. I had a delicious Kudu-Steak, the others had a platter with different meat (Crocodile, ostrich, Springbok...). It was my second visit in MAMA AFRICA. I like this place, because every evening plays a african live band.

One day later, I saw the champions league game between Barcelona and Bayern Munich in a original south african - no touristic - pub. The south african, they love soccer. They really love soccer. The atmosphere in this pub was awesome. I've seldom seen a crowd, who is watching a game with so much passion. After Messi's 1:0, one guy took of his Barca-Shirt and celebrated the goal, like he were the scorer. After the final whistle, the game and the current footballnews were beeing analyzed passionately and loudly. It was a pleasure to observe this scenes.

On Thursday-evening my weekend began with a visit in the karaoke bar in the city-part of observatory. The evening was very funny. A lot of students were there and of course, we sang some songs. For example Gangnam Style with my friend from south korea. :)

Unfortunately some guys leaved South Africa last weekend. One of them, a guy from South Korea, organized on Friday-evening a braai at his house. It was really nice and a lot of students visited the goodbye-party.

On Saturday I made together with two friends a touristic day (Meanwhile we doesn't describe ourself as tourists. We are local people). We drove with the cabriolet-bus around Cape Town.

At the evening we celebrated the birthday of a student at the dubliner pub in the long street. Almost the whole good hope school was in the club. We had a great time all together. And now, the monkey dance ist famous in South Africa too ;-)

After three party's in a row, sunday was a relaxing day. I went to the campsbay-beach with one aim: recovering. I think I achieved my aim:)

Yeah, this was my last week. This week, like I said, I have some trouble with my health. But I hope, I'll be ready till the weekend. Because we are going to rent a car and we are driving to Stellenbosch (Wynelands). To taste some wine.

Something, that made me very happy last week: I tried to organize tickets for the rugbymatch at 23 may 2015. I asked at school, who is interested to join me. Now, I'm going to watch the game with 22 others.. awesome. The tickets are ordered and paid. So I don't have to withdraw some money in the next weeks, because every day I receive money:)

Now, I wish you all a beautiful Auffahrt. I hope the "seniore" of FC Gränichen will win the Cup and I hope FC Aarau will use the last chance this weekend.

PEACE
Dario

Rugby, Garden Route, Bungee Jumping

Hello, 

The time is running at the moment. I'm already in the half of my stay at the good hope school in Cape Town. Since my last post, I have experienced a lot. 

On Saturday a week ago, I visited a rugby game between the Stormers (Cape Town) and the Bulls (Pretoria). Unfortunately we had not the best places in the stadium, but the game was exciting - complicated, but exciting. Fortunately I went to the game with a student, who plays Rugby in Switzerland, so I had an expert next to me. The Stormers beat the Bulls 15:13 (without a try, only with kicks). 

Rugby is in South Africa definitively very popular. Already 5 hours before the game starts, is a hustle and bustle around the stadium. The roads are congested and all the sports-grounds near the stadium transform into parking places, which are full of people they having their braai. 

One Day later I went to Robben Island, the Island, where Nelson Mandela was prisoned 18 years. It was an impressive visit, because the cells are really very small in the jail. And when you think about, that people was imprisoned for such a long time, because of nothing - horrible. The tour was also really exciting, because the guide was an ex-prisoner. 

I think Robben Island is very recommendable, where you have a lot of stuff to think about.

The last week was a short one, because of the national day on Monday and the 1. May ond Friday. 

I hiked up on the top of the lions head again on Tuesday and I went to the famous Long Street for have a party on Thursday. 

On Friday i started early in the morning really exhausted a 3-day-trip to the garden route. But the tour was rewarding and we experienced a lot. On Friday we visited the cango caves in Oudtshoorn. We did an adventure-tour. In some parts the route was only 27 centimetres high or narrowing at a point to about 30 centimeters. The tour is definitely nothing for people with claustrophobia. 

After the caves, we went to canoeing. 

Our accomodation, a backpacker with the name afrovibe, was located directly in front of the sea. It was beautiful. We had supper together, played bear-pong, enjoyed the wonderful beachbar and had a great time together. 

The absolute Highlight of the trip was a day later on Saturday. – the bungee jumping. I can’t still beliebe, that I had jumped the world’s highest bungy jump bridge (216 metres). Before the jump i was so nervous and scared. We were a group about 30 people and i was one of the last jumpers. It was a long time to wait – horrible, but it was worth it. I have got a video of my jump, but the uploud doesn’t work because of my bad Wifi....
 


On sunday we made a safari during 3 hours. I saw lions, zebras, giraffes, elephants, rinos etc.
After that we went back to Cape Town. It was a long drive, we stuck in a lot of traffic. The journey back took about 8 hours. I was so exhausted, because of the long days and very short nights before. The whole time, i was sleeping.
 
Today was the start of my fifth week here in Cape Town. Only 4 weeks until my social project. The time is running. This week I haven’t got any plans yet. But I’m sure, that I’ll have a lot to tell again, next week.
 
 

Peace, ond machets all guet


Dario

 

 

Garden Route Truppe