WELCOME to South Africa

I love to be here <3 Tuuli's friends are awesome (and Tuuli herself, amazing. Love her lots). So far I've met Freddy, Nana, Solly, Joy, Tyler, Masi, Agnes at her birthday dinner (where I had a moment with a homeless man of which you can read from here http://ceccacare.blogspot.co.za/2016/11/meeting-with-homeless-man.html), Babs and Lungs (Solly's brothers), Manny, Raphael and our neighbour house's Jason, Natalie, Ivan, Suzie and a few others briefly. I've been to a Sushi bar called Fushin on Stanley Street, a local mall in Summerstrand, a grocery store called Pick and Pay, at a farewell get together next door, next day again but with smaller gang and more chilled vibe, a day trip to Sardinia Bay Beach (sooooo beautiful) and local bar hopping organized by Joy. It started at McDonald's from where she came to pick us up with a minibus. We went to her place where she, her kids and her parents live. She had cooked dinner for about 20 of us, most were Dutch, two Germans, one Swedish and a few locals. We went to three different local bars. It was pretty interesting to see the places, because we were the only whites there. The music was really good, dancing was easy and much better and crazier than in places where mainly white people go. I don't know why but it feels like that it's hard to be who you really are and express yourself the way you would among whites. And I'm not a racist I love everyone and I love talking to people but only when they are real. I can't deal with fake or negative people. Or sure I can but I don't enjoy it as much as I do when people are who they are and are confident about it. And somehow me and Tuuli preferred dancing among locals.

In the second bar I noticed a pool table and wanted to play so I communicated with the players if it's possible to play at some point with someone. Two guys were finishing their game and they gave me a cue (the stick, just learned a new word) so apparently I was next. It must have been a scene there for a white chick to play because people were watching, some even put money on the corners to bet. I didn't hit my balls (or maybe a few) before my opponent had only one ball with the 8 left. After that I got stuff in and he didn't. I had one of mine left and he shot the 8 in but the white one went as well so I won !!!!! It was so funny, the whole game. The third bar was the biggest and nicest with the best music but was also pretty empty. The second I got in I started dancing and went straight to the dance floor and some local girls noticed and joined me. It was fun dancing with them, they really know how to dance here.

On Saturday we were supposed to go to a hiphop festival but decided to stay in all day except for a funny grocery store adventure. And yesterday we went to two different events Tuuli had found from Facebook. The first one was COYSA (Colours of You SA), organized by "a team of young creatives from Port Elizabeth" and it was in a cool setting, kind of like between and inside of buildings where they had for example a square with a stage and live music, fashion show,  restaurant area, live dj, live tattooing by Otherworld Tattoo Studio (Natalie had taken a tattoo earlier from them and I'm thinking of getting one as well, a dolphin, funny story actually but in my second room in this house [cause the maid locked my first room] there's a dolphin thing on the wall and a dolphin is my spirit animal so I put two and two together and figured that this is the place to get a dolphin tattoo), hair cutting and shaping, different kind of art for example skateboard paintings, photography, posters, paintings, jewellery.. We were there as a cool bunch: Natalie, Suzie and Ivan from next door, Tuuli, Solly, Freddy, a new face Margo, Tyler and Masi.

You can read about COYSA here

http://www.heraldlive.co.za/my-heraldlive/2016/11/25/183911/

After a few hours there we went to a roof top party (except for Freddy and Margo). It was upstairs (surprisingly heh) in a "creative work space" (some kind of office) and when I got to the roof I got so confused because it was so cool, almost too cool for me to be able to function properly. It was like I couldn't stay still, I needed to do something all the time or I would've felt too anxious. Earlier that day and on Saturday too I had done some stretching and I felt I needed to shake some energy out of me. There was good music though, in both events. There were a couple of new faces to me, Manny and Raphael, younger guys and also Shingi (who was at the farewell party) was there with his friend Siya, a young football player who rapped Kendrick Lamar when his song was on and I told him I wanted to make music with rappers, he said that his friend has a home studio so. To me he is a star child and I told him what a star child is and many other things about the universe (also to Tyler and Manny that I also believe are star children). I'm not sure but I think he's from Cape town and I was supposed to go there by myself but haven't booked anything yet, there's just so much going on. We also have many ideas about what to do and where to go so our plans change all the time. This week Tuuli and I might go to Terra-Khaya in Hogsback for a couple of nights, a cool Eco-Lodge for travellers. And next week maybe Cape Town by myself. And Paiju, a Finnish girl comes here next week and we're going to rent a car and drive to Durban and Johannesburg. From where I fly to India. Ah I love my life.

http://terrakhaya.co.za/

The seat next to me was for my butt so I had a good night sleep on the flight from Madrid to Johannesburg

South Africa air space

from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth (Is it...)

Sushi @ Fushin on Tuesday

Surf store's skateboard

Lunch @ the mall

Surfing Santa Claus @ the mall

Rainbow over the neighbourhood

Tuuli and Freddy

Snails after rain on the yard, stepped on one and felt so bad :(

Sacramento trail

Tuuli and Solly

Heart-shaped pond

Dead penguin :(

(too white to be posting pictures of me just yet)

:(

:(

Watch out for snakes from now on

Agnes' birthday dinner @ Tilting Heads, a Mexican restaurant

In loving memory of Frances-Ann Leclerco: May all who rest here feel a lasting sense of peace and happiness

Oh yeah almost forgot. On Saturday morning before 10 me and Solly needed to head out for breakfast. The land lady and the maid don't know that I'm staying here and I suppose it's not cool that there are people sleeping here, so I packed my bags, took them in Solly's car and he took me to the port. I saw the beach for the first time and took some pictures.

Huh, did it ! Back to chilling, ciaooo XX Cecca

Crazy mess at the airport

Whiuh, after two days of travelling I'm happy to be in South Africa with one of my best friends since high school. Aleksandra had told me to go early to the airport in Tel Aviv because of the security checks that may take some time, so I got there five hours before the flight (Shahar drove me to the train station early because of his work) which was too early, the check-in opened 2 hours later. But I was fine, writing my other blog and having coffee. I went to the queue to check in my backpack but wasn't the first one and it took at least half an hour if not more till my turn. It was maybe two hours till the flight at that time.

First problem: I didn't have tickets out of South Africa. Why? Because I had no idea yet where I would go next and when. So I needed to decide now or they wouldn't let me on the plane. Okay, where do I find a place to buy a ticket? They gave me directions to Ticketing. Went there and asked a couple of people behind the desks, they couldn't help me and told me to go somewhere else. Okay, tried to find a desk that would help me with this. Didn't. I asked a guy from Info and he was the first one really wanting to help and told me to go to another place, but I couldn't find it. I was getting a bit anxious and went back to the check-in. There I figured I'll just go online and get tickets to Goa for Christmas, a place I knew I'll be more than welcome. It was an option anyway before Australia 'cause I took all my rupees from the last visit in India with me (not sure though will the money be valid anymore when I get there, heard that the currency is changing).

Second problem: Now that I'd bought tickets out of SA (15.45, 1,5 hours before the flight), I needed to wait for the e-ticket before I could check in my luggage. The guy behind the desk said that he'll close the check-in 16.15. I refreshed my e-mail each minute but didn't receive anything but the confirmation (which wasn't good enough). I got a little bit more nervous and after four they said I needed to security check my luggage before the check-in. So they took me to a woman who asked me questions like why was I here, where did I stay, what did I do, what were their names etc, then she asked a man over and he continued asking questions, same ones and new ones, where am I going after, what will I do there, who am I meeting there, what do they study and where and if anyone gave me a present.. And he asked another man over to continue with the questions. I told them that the check-in counter closes at 16.15 but they said yeah we know and went further to discuss and I waited. 16.30 they put stickers on my backpack, checked it in and let me continue to the security check for hand luggage.

Third problem: Now I don't know if I looked like a criminal or someone that someone else would have taken advantage of giving maybe drugs or something, but they searched everything in my hand luggage, with a stick that touched everything, they opened my card decks, pencil cases, notebooks, I had to take my sweater off and they scanned me three times, I showed my navel jewel and my bikini top had a zipper so I needed to take that off as well. They scanned many times all my stuff they took out of my hand luggage. I told them I'm starting to panic a bit now hehe, but they said that don't worry the plane is waiting for me. Thanks for the info and I relaxed. 15 minutes before the take off me and my stuff were ready to fly and I got escorted to the gate. I told the guy who escorted me that this was not my fault, I got here at 12. Apparently it doesn't matter how early you get to the airport, anything can happen haha.

My beautiful Finnish friend Tuuli was waiting for me at the airport and it was so good to see her !!! It's always weird to speak Finnish after a while (for her I mean) but there's so much to talk about! Luckily we have about a month to talk! And I can't wait to see her life here. The place she's been living in since July is a big house with 4 roommates (1 German, 1 Namibian, 2 South Africans). There used to live 7 people but 2 of them (Germans) already left. I already met almost all of them. Yesterday we saw a Swedish girl from next door and tonight there will be a farewell party in their house. Cool. Excited ;P

Now I put my clothes to dry and we head out to get some lunch, then the grocery store and slippers for me. Ciaooooo! X

Israel in my heart

Yup, Israel made it in my heart. Haha, I suppose that ain't too hard nowadays. There's something special about every place. The past few days I've seen Israel more than only Tel Aviv. I also hung out with the guys I met in India two years ago. Yehuda took me and his english friend to the Dead Sea (2-3 hour drive from Tel Aviv which was amazing, through the desert) and it felt like I was in a spa but it was natures own creation. I rubbed the salt on my skin and after felt so good. Happy, healthy and relaxed. While I was swimming - or trying to swim (was hard because all you did was float), an elderly woman started talking to me. We talked about my travel plans to Australia and she told me she had been living in Melbourne for 20 years now. I told her that Byron Bay somehow wants me to go there and she said that her good friend's daughter-in-law lives there and is looking for a math teacher to her 12 yo son. She asked me to come over to her sun bathing spot so she can give her digits and I said that we're going to eat now and I'll come by later. We had lunch near by in a chill indian style place called Taj Mahal and relaxed there a bit. I went back to find the woman and got there just in time before I would've missed her. She gave me the FB profile of the Byron Bay woman and I'm going to contact her and see what happens. Her son looks like an angel and I really love working with kids or teenagers, everything happens for a reason huh. Ah can't wait to get there.

The Dead Sea from a desert hill

Lunch at Taj Mahal restaurant

On Wednesday Shahar took me to Jerusalem. Saw and touched(!) the crying wall and sent my wishes to the universe heh. We walked around, had coffee, tastings at the market and dinner and drove back. Didn't see Bethlehem, Jews are not welcome there. (:D I'm not one but my friend is) Something to come back to.

Men and women can't pray on the same side so men go left and women right

On Thursday Aleksandra had invited two girls for dinner at ours, Katja from Russia and Julie (the american from earlier post) and we ended up going out. On Friday I saw David who was going to play at a nature party arranged by Shahar on Saturday. The party was on from noon till midnight but we got there after 21. Would've been nice to be there during the day, but David and his dj partner were up all night and slept all day. Israelis love trance and so do I and it was soooo good dancing trance. Last time I did in India and that's a long time ago. The setting was pretty, red lights, bonfire and trees around the dance floor. Some people dancing barefoot, including me.

Also on Saturday Aleksandra showed me the old town of Jaffa, the oldest place in Tel Aviv. We walked the beach road which is beautiful and on Saturdays (the sabbath) most of the places are closed and locals enjoy the day off by walking around with friends and families. Sunday here is Monday already and people go to work. Most people work six days a week. On Fridays places close early though.

Beautiful building in Jaffa

Jaffa

Tel Aviv coast view from Jaffa

...what do you think

Street art in Jaffa

Aleksandra an my lunch at Main Bazar

Street art in Jaffa

Fishermen

Today, Sunday, I had all of my nails done by Katja. Bought some souvenirs and packed my bags because tomorrow the journey continues!! Two days, 3 flights and I'll be in Port Elizabeth with one of my best friends whom I haven't seen in ten months! She'll pick me up from the airport. See you soon Tuuli <333

Terkkui :3 Cecca