The city with a chip of a mountain on it’s shoulder

By Björn, January 14, 2010

Cape Town is a great place. We all know that. I just returned from a nice long holiday there. Cape Town has always struck me as a beautiful place with the mountains and the peninsula. In the past I never had an opportunity to stay over for long. I was always just in and out for a weekend or so.

Now that I have had a chance to stay there for a month, I got a better feel for the place. Besides it’s beauty, which is the first observation, I now had a chance to get a feel for the capetonians. I suddenly realised that they are not the nicest bunch of people in this country. It seems almost everybody is walking around with a chip on their shoulder. And please don’t get me wrong, I met some amazing people there, but they are few and far between. The majority seems to feel they are somehow superior to the rest of humanity. They are unfriendly and unhelpful. This includes the people in the service industry. You’re almost too scared to ask them for any assistance.

So now I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly this is. I recall a lot of stand-up comedians making fun of this. They seem to think it’s because of the mountain. Like, “we’re sooo cool dude, we havva mountain an’ all”. Haha! I have to honestly say, I think this is exactly what it is!! The people living farther away from the city do not seem to suffer from this, just the bunch living in Table Mountain’s shadow.

So I tried to imagine what Cape Town would be like without the mountain. And the answer is, it will just be another city! Just like Jo’burg or some or other polluted, busy place.

Capetonians really need to lighten up. They’re living in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. It reminds me of the saying, ‘Beauty only runs skin deep’.

In: Rants & Raves

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5 Responses to “The city with a chip of a mountain on it’s shoulder”

  1. On January 18th, 2010 at 9:32 pm missbliss said,

    Agreed… I adore Cape town, and mainly because of all that it offers. I particularly enjoy the dining experiences over and above most and all the sight-seeing that can be done in the city. But I do have to say that although I have many friends there – capetonians definitely think that they are ‘awesome’ because they live in Cape Town, which is ‘awesome’. That is so not the case, if we were defined by the city we live in – then JHB people would all be treated as criminals and all PE people would be treated as boring. Don’t get me wrong, PE is not boring in every sense of the word, but compared to other big cities – this is the overall perception by others. Capetonians need to realise that life is more about who you’re with and the most you can make out of the place you live in…. and you’re not so amazing coz you’re sitting watching the sun set in camps bay, the sun set in camps bay is amazing, you just happen to be there….! The friendly city says be friendly – it makes your day that much happier!

  2. On May 2nd, 2011 at 5:52 pm tony said,

    yah i spent the last few years in CT and people wise it is a bit… different… so now maybe i can relocate to PE and i see your peyote are growing nicely out there… and there is the occasional trance party as well nice going… so CT to PE… what you think..? worth it..?

  3. On May 3rd, 2011 at 12:57 pm Björn said,

    one thing i can say is that the people are way friendlier and caring here than in ct. pe is still a “small town” though even though it is called a city. we don’t have the kind of social life that ct enjoys.
    the trance scene is definitely growing here. we have some awesome parties. if you’re not one of those people that absolutely has to go out all the time, then pe is great. we normally just wait for the big parties to come around and then go out.

  4. On May 26th, 2011 at 2:51 pm Katherine said,

    Hear hear! I was just down in Cape Town and though I find it stunningly beautiful, I was aghast by the lack of friendliness and general ‘attitudes’ of most of the people I came across in the service industry and just around. I enjoy chatting and being friendly to everyone I come across, but it seems this is lacking in this ‘great city’ and was greeted with scowls. It just affirmed my belief that PE really is the friendly city and at least it only takes me 10 minutes to get to work, and I can swim in our lovely sea, without freezing my titties off! PE Rocks!

  5. On May 26th, 2011 at 2:53 pm Björn said,

    indeed!!!

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