The Other Side of the Mountain

::HOOOOOOONK!!!:: "Get out of the way! Do you want to die?!"
Going to the beach is supposed to be relaxing. And when we were in Camps Bay this afternoon, it was relaxing. Beautiful mediterranean scenes: angry Atlantic waves crashing on the white sand beaches, visions of beautiful people gathered at one of South Africa - and the world's - best strips for sunbathing, cool breezes, games of chess and football going on around us, and the hot African sun keeping us warm.
Flash forward to the Cape Town Minibus Transit Terminal. As CJ Cregg once said to Albie Duncan on West Wing, "Have you ever been to the Moscow Circus? No? Well then I have no frame of reference in which to describe to you what you're about to see." Picture if you will minibuses, stretched across the top of the train station downtown, literally hundreds, maybe thousands of them, each with a different destination, and a different hawker trying to get fares. "Sea Point! Heidelberg! Mowbray! Wynberg!" The cacaphony is deafening. You are disoriented trying to differentiate between the screams, the hooting, the whistling, the grind of the engines. In the close and confined space, minibuses whiz past going too fast for the road. In the scene depicted in medias res above, poor Ashley from our group was nearly run down by a speeding minibus amidst the confusion. You must find the right bus in all of the chaos, then be prepared to be scrunched in with 16 or so people who are about to become your closest friends for the short ride up to Mowbray, in our case.
In any case, we made it home, perhaps a bit more tired than when we left. But I have never been to the beach and then come home thinking I need a scotch. Our voyage today has certainly changed that. But, ah, we are in Africa, these are the experiences you cannot have anywhere else. The relaxation and the chaos all in one short afternoon spent on the other side of the mountain.