#4 Playing tourist in the city I live in

It's been almost a month since I've moved out of the apartment I share with my boyfriend (see post #2). And while there's a lot of a sadness around it all, there is one thing I'm totally loving about it and that's the way I get to play tourist in a city I've lived in for 10 years.

When we first spoke of me moving out to give the relationship some space, he suggested I find a single place for three months so I could settle into it and not feel the disruption of being home-less. While a great idea I appreciated him for thinking of, it's hard to find a place for three months in the peak of Cape Town summer. The number of digital nomads has only increased since the pandemic, and the property market has always been flooded in January as new graduates flock to the city to secure their first jobs - just like I did back in 2014.

So instead, I spent the first two weeks living with a friend in a suburb I've frequently visited, but never lived in: Sea Point. Nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Signal Hill, Sea Point has a vibrant community that feels hyper local. While many people from around the city come to walk on the Promenade (one of the best public spaces in the city), or visit some of the restaurants or Mojo Market, there are other spaces where you start to notice regulars showing up to do the same thing each day.

There's the frequent meeting of friends who like to take early dips in the tidal pool or ocean at Saunders' Rock in the early morning. Or the sound of friends bumping into one another in the supermarket. Just the other day my friend and I bumped into one of her friends on a walk on the promenade and ended up having a spontaneous dinner at a restaurant nearby, and then we (all women) walked home, in the dark, at night, feeling safe. This feeling does not happen in South Africa!

But maybe what I've shared so far is more the locals side of the experience. The community I've sensed in the rich social fabric of one of the city's most metropolitan suburbs.

The elements that make me feel like I'm playing tourist is that with the flexibility to work when I want to, I'm spending a lot of my summer days walking around and hanging out at the beach. While the first two weeks I was based in one place, the last two weeks I've been far more mobile, staying only a night or two in one place before moving on, more than often via my flat where all my stuff remains. For the freedom of just carrying a backpack with me, I'm wearing the same (vivobarefoot) shoes for everything, and because it's hot (and my hair is in need of a haircut) I'm frequently wearing a cap and carrying a water bottle.

I feel very grateful to live in a city that is so popular for tourists, and I wonder if I could've carried this mindset if I were still living in the small town I grew up in. Although part of me also wishes I had been better prepared for this financially so that I could go travelling overseas to somewhere new Eat, Pray, Love style.