Creepin' on Obz

I was sorting though my 5,000-some photos that I've now accumulated since January, and came across a few neat ones from around my neighborhood. So, I decided to share!

The first is a panorama that I took in February, of Arnold Street, right outside my front gate. You can actually see our front wall and gate on the far right of the photo. The "I ♥ Obs" campaign is something that the Neighborhood Association initiated, so you see the logo on lots of business storefronts, car bumpers, and street poles. For me, it just sort of reflects the uniqueness of Observatory. This includes the varied stretch of bars, restaurants, and shops on Lower Main Road, the mix of races, ages, and nationalities that you find all over the area and interacting (including the international students), as well as the jokes that can be tossed around about how sketch it can be, crime and all (not so much a joke, actually). Whatever.  Despite these things, Obz is lekker.

Outside my house, on Arnold Street.

The next two photos were taken in late April. Friends from Mozambique and I were waiting to leave for a dinner and wine tasting in Stellenbosch, and another great sunset set in as dusk arrived. I like to call these the "cotton candy" sunsets, because both the blues and the pinks look like cotton candy flavors. Or the cotton candy flavored popsicles.  So, the sunset was basically delicious.

Sunset on Lower Main Road.

Another shot from down further.

Lastly, I really feel like you should see the creepiest piece of graffiti in the city. There is a lot of graffiti in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town (Obs and the other neighborhoods). Much of it is actually commissioned, and is put in community spaces like parks and building sides... it is quite neat.  It has different themes, some of it is old, some newer.  I don't know when this is from, or what the artist was thinking for that matter...

My creepy graffiti friend.

You'll also find criminals and other skellums (local word for shifty people) that write their names all over. Walls, street poles, sidewalks. It's called tagging, and I don't like it. Especially "Futsek", he's everywhere. I found this shifty, painted old man while walking to the dive shop one morning, as I was headed out to the ocean for the day. He was next to the train tracks, seemingly staring at people and trains that passed. Creep city...