The one problem with Africa? It’s so damn far away.
I’m back in Cape Town, hanging out at the airport waiting for my flight. I arrived here about an hour ago after an uneventful flight from Windhoek, but that was the shortest leg of the trip — only two hours. From here, I have an eleven-hour overnight flight to Amsterdam, followed by a seven-hour flight to Montreal. With the layovers and the time difference factored in, it will take me a good 32 hours to fly home, and that’s assuming no delays. When will that Star Trek transporter be invented already?
Today was a lazy day. My sleep last night was interrupted by the group of teenage missionaries departing at 3am, loudly, but what the heck, it beats crying babies on airplanes (which I’m sure to encounter tonight). I slept in, took a long shower, and repacked my bags, managing to fit in the two bottles of wine, which I hope will make it home in my checked luggage without breaking. Transporting liquids used to be so much easier when you could take them carry-on. I ate the rest of my leftover food as lunch at the hostel, and then boarded the airport transfer van to the Windhoek airport. I suppose if I’d been more motivated, I might’ve woken up early to fit in some more sightseeing, but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. I’ve seen and done so much on this trip that it’s time to call it a day and pack it in. Africa will still be here for the next trip.
Once again, Air Namibia was pleasant and friendly, and the meal on board was appreciated. I was sitting next to a PhD student working on her thesis in urban planning. She’s from Cape Town, has lived in the US as well as South Africa, and was able to offer a lot of interesting perspective on how South African cities have developed the way they did — the historical and political reasons for it. It was a really interesting discussion, particularly in light of my impression of Cape Town as a beautiful city with massive infrastructure and planning challenges. That’s basically the theme of her research, and we talked a lot about cities around the world and how they cope with their unique urbanization challenges in different ways.
We landed right on schedule, and I picked up my bags and re-checked them with KLM for the longer trip home. Now I’m basically just hanging out at the gate. Cape Town’s airport is quite small, and I’ve browsed all the shops already. I hate the feeling of killing time when I only have one more day of vacation, but what can you do? Anyway, the airport sound system is piping in bad 90s pop (Spice Girls? Really?) and I’m taking that as a sign that my vacation is truly over and it’s time to go home.