Christmas Holidays

December / January, 2010

From the 11th of December until the 11th of January the school and hostel closed for its Christmas holidays. A little longer than we get off in Holland since these holidays also serve as summer vacation. Of course that is the ideal time of exploring the some of the country.

First I stayed a few nights with my host family, after which I would leave for a one week group tour I had booked. With this tour I travelled through the Garden Route along the coast in eastern direction, all the way up to Port Elisabeth. The group existed out of youngsters from mostly my age with many different nationalities: German, American, Australian, Canadian and Mexican. Our tour guide, driver and cook Maudi was with us for the whole week and made everything run very smoothly. I had an amazing time with a very nice group. We travelled from backpackers lodge to backpackers lodge with a big van. I’ve seen beautiful nature ranging from semi-deserts to huge valleys. On the way we stopped at every tourist highlight to visit. These were the activities we did:
- Visiting the southernmost tip of Africa. The place where the Indian and the pacific oceans meet.
- Ostrich farm tour, including an ostrich ride and standing on its eggs (they’re massive and won’t break).
- Visiting a cheetah farm with all different predators.
- Cave tour with absolutely stunning chambers.
- The world’s highest bungee jump!!!!! Yes, I’ve done a 216 meter bungee jump. You don’t want to know how scared I was but I did it and it was incredible.
- Zipline from tree top to tree top through some beautiful nature.
- Elephant farm tour and a ride on an elephant. They are wonderful animals.
- A safari through the Addo Elephant Park, where we haven’t just seen elephants but most of the wild animals including lions, buffalo’s and giraffes.
It was a great holiday with great people and a good opportunity to see some more of the country.

A few days after I returned from the trip, my parents came to visit me. Although they arrived a day later than they were supposed to due to heavy snowfall in Germany, the 22nd of December, for the first time after three months I was reunited with my parents and my little brother. Together we stayed in several hotels and bed ‘n breakfasts and we have visited many of the tourist attractions Cape Town has to offer, like Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, Waterfront, Greenmarket square and Canal Walk shopping centre. It was also a very good opportunity to show them where I had been living for the past three months. For two days we visited The Aquila game reserve, a relatively small but beautiful safari park with beautiful luxury facilities. All together we had a great relaxing time together and we celebrated Christmas in hot midsummer conditions. After they headed home again on the 1st of January, I wouldn’t see them again for the upcoming 5 and half months.

The last few days of the holidays I spend with my hostfamily, where Ryan (my exchange) by the way was already very busy with preparing his gap-year to Holland. His departure is planned for early February. Which is going to be very interesting as Holland is experiencing its coldest winter in years and Ryan has never seen snow in his life.