Wow, I can't beleave that one month passed already.. I keep telling people I'm only here since two weeks. Time flies by. Soon it's already halftime. Summer started some days ago here. Every day I'm experiencing something new and meeting new people while doing new stuff. It is so much that I've hard times remembering what I did 3 days ago. It was a great Idea to write about my trip on the blog, for myself to remember and I hope you like the reading as much as I do. Hopefully it will lead to some of you visiting this awesome country. Come visit me if you want, I could show you around. Well, so much of an introduction, let's start with the core.
University: is getting better and more intensive too. We finished the first course “digital Publishing – PDF Animations”. As finishing project we had to create an animated “How To” in InDesign only. I did a How to make the perfect burger. A topic “capetownians” certainly can relate to since the food here is so f*cking delicious! I was not able to add this so-called “interactive PDF” into the Blog but here is the same stuff as video (will be posted in a separate post later on too):
[burger](/assets/thibault-jan_beyer_perfect-burger.mp4)
The new course ”digital publishing” is way more intensive, the first one was just an opener to get comfortable. So what is this digital publishing? To keep explanation simple Adobes Digital Publishing Services (DPS) is a tool within InDesign to create digital magazines and books (mostly used on mobile devices, smartphones, tablets and the like). The difference between DPS and EPUB is that the content can be presented in a more interactive way in DPS as in EPUB since EPUB is about static content (so far, EPUB is still evolving and you can already add some interactions). 
Both formats are pretty new and still limited but evolving (It's similar to Blu-ray vs HD-DVD back in the days. I guess that the upcoming years one of both will win the run and become standard. So far EPUB is more known and supported but DPS is way better when it comes to design possibilities. However, our teacher thinks that both will coexist..). Ok so for this new course we have to create a digital magazine. Let's see what I'll come up with.
Friday I attempted a DrupalCamp which was pretty interesting. I went there to learn Drupal because I never used it but the camp was more general than I thought. The most interesting parts for me were the speech about how to successfully run a company, the one about search engine optimisation (if you follow the blog you know that I know a lot about SEO already and this speech was great to keep up to date with the new google policy) and lastly of course the free meals and drinks.
The Theater in Langa: is nearly finished. Even thought there are riots in Langa every second day because of the new buildings: the government want to get rid of the Townships and is trying to gradually construct new flats and destroying the Township barracks. Sounds good doesn't it? Well there are lists about who comes in which house when, but everyone here is corrupt so some get in faster than other. Also the residents fear that there is not enough space for everyone to enter and that they aren't able to pay the rent. That's why they're going on the streets, burning cars and destroying properties.. If you ask me, in 2-3 years, the new houses will look just like the old barracks or even worse since they are poorly build (just stone with no isolation or what so ever) and there is no one willing to maintain them. Let's get back to the theater. Students from Düsseldorf left and those from Aachen arrived. There was already an event in the theater, modern dance. You probably do not know but I'm not that into dance, the dancer's performance however was exiting and the vibes in the theater were awesome. I'm sure a lot of girls felt in love with the dancers that day. So basically you can already use the place for events. It's just some minor fixes. It'll be finished within the next weeks.
Activities: after University we've been to the beach several times. I mean oh men, it's so great to be at the beach within 5 minutes if you want to. Lying there, drinking beer, listening to good music, just relaxing until sunset. Great stuff. Friday after the project presentations at university we visited the District Six museum. The first district destroyed by the white government to get rid of the blacks from city center. The residents of district six where moved to the first township which happened to become Langa. District Six was renamed zonnebloem and reserved for white only. During the apartheid the skin color was written on the ID. Everything depended on what was written there. Even people seeming white were labeled black and thus excluded from society. The museum gives insights about how people lived before, during and after apartheid which was very interesting. I could take pictures so you can get an idea:
Then we went to Hermanus (the whale watching metropolis) to watch whales in the evening. But saw none. Well maybe one far aways, but we're unsure about that. Anyway, Hermanus is a beautiful city with astonishing views and the best pizza in south africa so far. After all this driving, poor Herbert (the name we gave our beetle) is losing oil and has to be repaired over the weekend. We got another car for the weekend, an ugly Mazda, we called her Jacqueline.
Saturday morning we had our breakfast at the old biscuit mill, which basically is a food market and it was sooooo delicious. Really. Wow. They call Cape Town “The mother city” and this mother for sure knows how to cook. Here's some Foodporn for you:
After the best sandwich I've ever had we left the biscuit mill to visit poor Rima who was ill. After bringing her flowers we decide to climb lions head. Lions head was the best hike so far. Once you're on top you've a 360° view on Cape Town with Camps Bay. In the evening you see the sun going down on the one side and the moon coming up on the other simultaneously, for sure very impressive.
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Climbing up Lion's Head[/caption]
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Highest point of Lion's Head[/caption]
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Chilling[/caption]
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Sunset[/caption]
Sunday was not our most luckiest day. In the morning we went to a place called Mzoli's with some architecture students. Mzoli's is actually just a tiny butcher's shop in a Township called Gugulethu. Somehow they managed to become the most known butcher's shop in South Africa. Whites and black, poor and rich, all eat and party together. The meat was fantastic, the atmosphere and the people very interesting. I guess it's not something you would find in a typical tourist guide. My tourist guide advises me to “never go in a township. ever. period.” and I've been in two already and nothing major happened. Well it was not all guns and roses to be honest. The guys where we parked our car (and we paid them well. Usually you give 5R for parking, we gave them 40R) damaged one tire. From Township Gugulethu we drove to Township Langa where there was the event in the theater. Afterwards we changed Jacqueline's tire. As I put the damaged tire in the car the car trunk felt on my head. It blended so we decided to go to the hospital. Rima and Annika drove me. Luckily I had no major injuries and was sent home to recover after having paid the doctor. Vanessa, one of the architects, injured her back on the way and Rima broke her finger on the way back. So yeah. It was definitely not our best day.
Tuesday we pickup our loved old car Herbert again and went celebrate Christoph's birthday (an Austrian selling Belgian beer here in cape town). Victor, a roommate of Rima and mutual friend cooked a delicious french meal, we had Belgian and Dutch beer south african wine and friends from cape town. Thursday was, as every first thursday, open Thursdays. Most art galleries in cape town are opened until late and the streets are crowded even at night (which is rare here). I guess it's the only day every month where it would be safe to walk alone at night. I don't know where the poor were but strangely we didn't saw any that night. All galleries were great, but my favourite were the paintings from Daniel Clarke. It is impossible to capture the beauty of a painting in a picture but here are some just to give an impression:
His Art somewhat reminded me of the works from my all time favourite artist Gustav Klimt.
Friday evening we went to the food market in Hout Bay. Awesome food again. There was a market aswell. I bought a red beetle made from old conserves and awesome sunglasses made of wood. Later we go to Annika's place to watch a movie, drink beer, chat with her roommates and eat mussels. The next day we've decided to drive to the wine route in Stellenbosch to have a wine tasting and do wild camping. We had the opportunity to taste 5 great wines for only 25R (1,6€) at the Uitkyk Estate. We were already a bit drunk so we decided to buy 2 bottles and search for a great camping place. So we drove through the wine fields and eventually found the perfect spot. Hidden of course because wild camping is not allowed and can be dangerous. But still with an amazing view on the mountains on the one side and the skyline
of cape town in the distance on the other side. It was already dark as we managed to build up the tent, we gathered branches and I made a camp fire. We roasted sausage on it and listened to chilled music having great conversations along with great wine. Playing card games. Chilling. Awesome. Until some girl cried at somewhat around 1am which freaked us out. I was worried that bad people were around and something could happen to us. We went outside to calm down and saw some falling stars it was beautiful.
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Our view from inside the tent[/caption]
The next day we got up early to pick up Vanessa and drive to Cape Point (and point of good hope). Cape point is in a nature reserve with wild animals and picturesque views and costs 110R (7€) entrance per person. We saw some wild animals including several baboons. Baboons are dangerous animals. It's written everywhere but the tourists did not care and took pictures from short distance with flash lights. No wonder that a baboon got aggressive and stole the pocket of one tourist and throw it down the hill into the ocean. To be honest, I found joy in her misfortune because the tourists behaviour of non-respect towards animals was disgusting.
And leaving you today with a picture of point of good hope wich reminds me of Wanderer above the Sea of Fog:
Most of the awesome photographies were taken by Annika – make sure to check out Annika's blog if you like the style and hire her for your next photography job.
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