Cindy learning her way around the city

Cape Town Train Station

During one of our free days, we had to do a transportation exercise, which meant our group of 10 would be split into 2. Then one group had to practice taking a mini bus taxi, while the other group practiced taking the train into town. I was part of the group that had to take the train and our mission was to buy Vernon a samosa and his favorite can of soda from a bakery by St. George’s Mall. The group consisted of me, Leslie, Deborah, Maeve, Cynthia and Carrie. We left the house around 9am and walked over to the train station at first we were clueless as to which way the train station was so we stopped someone who was jogging and asked for directions, she kindly pointed us in the right direction and 20 minutes later we arrived.  It cost us 16 Rand  for 1^st class round-trip, which is equivalent to just about $1.60. We waited for the train then when it finally arrived we had no idea where 1^st class was so we just followed behind others and quickly noticed that we were not in first class because it was extremely crowded and we had to stand. However some people were kind enough to give up their seats when they saw us struggling to stand as the train made abrupt stops. We finally made it to our stop and we got off and made our way to our destination. It was easy to find because we had remembered certain streets, stores, and stops that Vernon had showed and pointed out to us when he gave us a tour.  So we made it and bough the samosa and soda, we then ate a quick breakfast and headed back to the train station, this time we made it to 1^st class where it was empty, silent, and looked brand new. This was one adventure I’ll always remember because I was nervous at first, but it turned out to be a great experience where we had to rely on “Capetonians” as Vernon called them, to help us get around town.