hey peeps! last one of these crazy CT entries as the last day dawned... the monday! MONDAY: we decided to use the car for our last day as we thought it would probably be easier considering what we had planned... our intended agenda was very much a cultural one which, i am ashamed to say i was a little concerned about, but it turned out to be actually pretty fun and pretty amazing to be honest! we had booked a trip to robben island for 9 o'clock (trust me i don't know whats with all these early morning starts - somethings gotta be wrong!) so we headed off early with all our stuff in the car as we had said goodbye to our hostel stay and drove on our way... we found our way pretty easily which is a miracle in itself and picked up our tickets no probs! so we hoped on a rather posh catamaran (ooh la la i know) and had a 20 min trip approx to robben island. we got off the boat and were picked up by our buses which we were to be shown around in. our bus tour guide, i cant remember his name but he was an ex-prisoner (as were all the guides) so knew all there was to know... was really interesting hearing his stories. he showed us the leper graveyard, the place where (god this is awful - cant remember any names) the guy who insisted on being locked up as soon as he got released etc - a campainer against apartide. we heard how he was in there for about 21 years in solitary confinement and not even the guards were allowed to speak to him and he literally went mad (as in mentally ill) and got lung cancer and was really really ill before they allowed him out... he died shortly after. was very humbling! then we went to the quary, we heard all about how many of the prisoners got snow blindness as they were quarrying limestone and in the summer the reflection was soooo strong and how that's where most of the plotting for freedom went on - shall i tell you how? well there is the most photographed toilet in the whole world in that quary, and it is a cave!!! its where all the prisoners went to "do their thing" whilst working and because the appartide was sooo idiotic and stupid the guards (white) weren't allowed in that toilet so they were not disturbed AT ALL whilst in there thus making it the perfect plotting place... so stupid isnt it! well we got driven around the grounds of the island just showing us the landscape etc (pretty barren i must say) and then we got to the crunch point - nelson mandela's prison cell: we had a different guide for this part of the tour, another prisoner - partly what made it sooo interesting, cos you had people with real knowledge and feeling for the place showing you round. the cells were in rows and rows and rows of blocks and blocks and blocks. they were about 2 x 2.5 metres and had to blankets as a mattress, one shelf and that's it! there was a small courtyard about 7 x 8 metres for all of them to garden and sit and work and THAT'S IT! his cell to be honest was no different from the others i spose just seeing it with all the others really hit home how it must have been being there in that tiny tiny room for 18 years... pretty powerful stuff! anyway we were then driven back to the boat and we chugged off back home arriving at about 12.30. we grabbed some lunch, again massive portions of way too good food, at a restaurant i cant remember - they've all blurred into one massive delicious meal now! and then we set off for the district 6 museum. i don't know how many of you know of or how much about this museum... well before i went i didn't actually know what was in it or what it was about, which is pretty appaling but when you got in it was soo touching it kinda makes you think that it would be hard to forget! it was a very small museum, more like our two front rooms merged with an upper floor, but it was so beautifully done. it was created by a guy who had been directly affected by district 6 (an area where they destroyed loads and loads of black peoples houses chucking them out and theyre legacies and memories more than anything.). he gave us a short guided tour around and told us his tales. as you walk in there is a massive "mat" on the floor which is infact a drawn map of the area and old residents have come in and signed their names on the part of the map where their houses used to be, very sweet, and there was part of a memory banner (the whole thing was over 10ft long) which is a piece of canvas which ex-residents write their memories on which then get sewn on afterwards, a stand of road names which a guy was given to destroy but in fact stored and donated to the museum and just loads and loads of donated personal photographs and written memories of these people, you sure walked out of there feeling small... then we just pottered around the S.A museum and the S.A art gallery which had a picasso exhibition on. the museum had a couple of nice pieces in it, the display i most liked was the south african sea one... this had replicas of all the diff sea creatures you could come across in south african water - man i would not like to come across many of those i tell ya... so many looked insanely terrifying!!! and the display ended with the bones of a blue whales mouth all assembled: BLOODY HELL!!!! seriously it was huge... it must have been about 7 metres long and that was just the mouth, the real things appartently grow to 65 metres on average which i didn't know. the art gallery - some of the picasso paintings were quite interesting, some were just way too random but they had some which showed his individual progressions, those i liked, you saw how good an 'ordinary' artist he was as his first sketches were very lifelike and each time they got more and more random and to see how his mind must've worked while doing these paintings was pretty strange but impressive. there was one in particular called the bull. anyway, we had planned to watch the sun set on one of the famous celebrity beaches and we got there in plenty of time and literally sat on the warm sand and watched the sun go from bright blue sky to dusky rose and then pitch black - was truly truly beautiful and a really perfect ending to a really great weekend! i'll leave you with that image and say bye for now! ta ta emily xxx