No curtain call (South Africa, Day 8)

Yes, that's Table Mountain in the background. So gorgeous!

Oof, I woke up this morning hurting all over. It hurt to sit, it hurt to stand, it hurt to turn over. It hurt to do anything. I was so sore. I am clearly made of lard, and very out of shape. I might not be hiking Table Mountain anytime soon.

So while Ami, Jean, and Gelia (yes, she went again!) hiked up Lion’s Head in the morning, I sat in my new room and quite happily observed the Lord’s day of rest. Because honestly, I could barely move. My muscles ached like crazy and I swear I had coca cola urine. And my new unit is air-conditioned! Who would want to leave?

So after the girls got back from successfully climbing up and down the mountain, they all took a nap, and then we headed out to Kirstenbosch, home to the gorgeous Botanical Gardens, and the venue for the aKing concert. Think Hollywood Bowl but with far prettier mountains and flowers as the background scenery.

I had never heard of aKing before, but they’re a South African rock band, who look like the Counting Crows and sound like Lifehouse/Nickelback/any other soft rock band you can think of. Although, I must admit that I thought they were singing in Afrikaans for half the concert, before I finally recognized a phrase and realized that no, all of their songs are in English.

I ended up buying one of their CDs as a souvenir, and as luck would have it, the concert ended right about then, with the announcement that the band would be coming over to the stand where I was in 10 minutes to sign memorabilia. And as hoards of fangirls rushed towards us, Jean grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the line, and thus is the story of how we became one of the first fangirls to meet and take pictures with aKing.

There’s a certain charm to rock stars, eh? I swear I almost fainted from pure giddiness when he shook my hand and asked for my name in that sexy Afrikaans voice of his.

aKing fangirl for life!