Bittersweet ... Totsiens Cape Town

I cannot believe it's here.  The last few days of packing have come and gone and soon we'll be off to Mossel Bay, and soon after that, back home to Minnesota.

The goodbye process begins here, in Cape Town.  Nearly a year and a half here and I still feel like I've only just started to get to really know her.  I cannot tell you what a pang I feel to leave this bright, gorgeous, complicated city.

I have walked all over her, have come to love particular corners and buildings.  I marvel at the creativity of her artists and the skills of her chefs and the beauty of her people.  I've woken up many a morning inside a cloud as Table Mountain captures the mist.  I've made friends here.

I'm going to miss so many things.  Company Gardens and Gatsby sandwiches and hearing 5 different languages on any given day and Long Street and even our tiny little apartment. 

I'm trying to not be too dramatic about it all.  Trying to remind myself that I will come back, see my friends again, see the city.  But I don't think I'll ever live here again.  Never be a Capetonian again.  And try as I might to see silver linings, there is an inherent sadness at leaving a place you have loved so well.

Of course you never know.  Maybe fate will bring me back here one day.  Till that maybe-when, I just have to say, Cape Town, I love you.  Cape Town, I thank you.  Cape Town, I'll miss you very much.  Totsiens, beloved Cape Town.

PS:  I'll continue blogging from Mossel Bay, specifically, I have to document our last safari, this time to the Kgalagadi and Namibia.  So lots of pictures of that ... and of course I'll have final thoughts before we leave South Africa all together.