Ryan's 21st Birthday

A 21^st birthday in Cape Town is a birthday to remember forever. I can recall friends back home telling me they felt bad that my 21^st birthday will be celebrated abroad and on a smaller scale than in the U.S. They couldn’t have been more wrong as I wouldn’t have traded it for anywhere else in the world. 

We did so much that weekend that it’s hard to put it all in words on a blog post. On Thursday, our entire group hiked up Lion’s Head around 5:30pm to watch the sunset over Camps Bay into the Atlantic Ocean at 7:15pm and the full moon rise over the city. The hike itself was pretty enough as the trail begins with a brilliant backdrop of Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak followed by a breathtaking view of the Twelve Apostles and Camps Bay just below as you make your way around the mountain, and finally finishing off with a sight of Signal Hill and the city bowl as you complete a clock-wise spiral to the peak. Upon reaching the top in about an hour and a half, we rejoined with the rest of our group amongst the hundreds of other tourists and hikers who’ve also come to see the full moon. After sitting on the side of a cliff watching the sun disappear over the ocean horizon, our group quickly scrambled to the other side of Lion’s Head to secure a good spot for watching the moon rise over the city. At that point, our group had begun to sing happy birthday in which the rest of the mountain joined in forcing up tears of joy and happiness. 

Cape Town as Viewed from Lion's Head at full moon

For the following hour and a half, we sat quietly and watched the city below light up as the sky changed colors from purple and orange to dark blue and black simultaneously uncovering thousands of stars and even a few planets to gaze at. After seeing Jupiter’s moons and our own up close through a few telescopes belonging to visiting astronomers, we began to make our way down along with hundreds of other people in the dark with nothing to guide our footsteps but the moonlight. There were so many other people trying to get off the mountain at the same time that it was quite a sight to see a long line of people that could only be distinguished in the distance by their dim headlamps or flashlights. Afterwards we all reconvened at Loch Road to enjoy the beautiful birthday cake that our professor Marita McComiskey had baked for us. To conclude the night, many of us went out and celebrated for what would be my first legal drink in the United States. By the end of the weekend I realized that a 21^st birthday would’ve been special anywhere in the world but the study abroad group that I have come with made this occasion one of the best nights of my life    

Ryan, Dan, Brandi, Theresa