Cape Town reminds us of home, and then it doesn't

We arrived in Cape Town on the 25th after a rather easy set of flights on South African (travel tip: pre-hydrate before going to the airport in Dar es Salaam, there is no AC or fans). As we drove into town and crossed around Table Mountain on the N2 the city came into view below. For those who have taken 101 from SFO into the City the similarity of the view below was stunning. We could see the skyline and city below, with the port in the background.

The next morning we set out from our guesthouse in very San Francisco winter-esc weather. Table Mountain was clad into fog and the temperature was in the low 60s. As we walked through the very narrow, European like streets it seemed so much like the Upper Haight. About a mile away houses lined up the mountainside, including one bright pink house which of course reminded us of home.

We've spent quite a bit of time up and down Long Street here, which is much like Haight in its collection of cool shops, hipsters, and crazy people. We also walked all the way down to the Cape Town harbor, which is a very busy working harbor as well as super tourist zone. After about 20 minutes we were both trying to figure out how to get out of there!

So many things are vaguely familiar. The city clearly was built with a European feel, much like how I think San Francisco is the most European of major US cities. There are a great deal of Victorian buildings in the neighborhood where we are staying. People, on the whole, are quite warm, and the weather is, well... cold like SF.

All this said, we are without a doubt, not at home. For starters, Sundays here are dead - the city literally feels like a ghost town. But deeper there are a number of things that are a bit disturbing. White people don't seem to walk around unless they are tourists. Coming from San Francisco, and walking almost everywhere this is super weird. I can only speculate as to why, but I'm assuming it has to do with money. White and "Coloured" (this is a wildly used South African term for people who are not white, and not African, generally referring to people of South Asian / Asian decent) people have money for cars; Africans typically do not (or a more positive explination would be that they are smarter than the rest and realize that walking places in such a beautiful city is the way to go). Mass transit here is terrible, or is reportedly very dangerous, so I can understand why people would walk everywhere.

Of people we see on the street, my eyes tell me there has been very little mixing of the races. South African history would of course explain why, but it is really weird for us to see. The White people are really White - to the point where I think I can tell the Dutch and British apart (though who knows if I'm right). The Africans seem very, very African, etc... This coming from California where everyone really has been all mixed up for some time (thank goodness), its strange to see.

Tonight we walked down to the Internet cafe where we are now. The view was of a narrow street that could have been lifted right out of the Upper Haight, complete with a green hillside lined with nice looking homes (re: imagine looking up to Ashbury Heights from one of the narrow streets off Fredrick). Right next to our head sounded a rhythmic "zap... zap" of an four-wired electric fence on top of a six foot concrete fence guarding a fancy home. Signs for the chosen "Armed Response" security company where plastered on the side. A very clear reminder we are not at home, and are in a country with serious problems. As we walked I reminded myself to not raise my arms, since doing so would get them very close to audibly scary voltage levels...

-Jonathan