Robben Island

On Saturday I visited Robben Island. An island that had served as a prison for many years until it was shut down in the 90's. Robbben Island is most famous because it is the place where Nelson Mandela was held captive for 18 years of his life.
To be honest, the tour itself was pretty boring, I fell asleep on the ferry and the tour bus twice (I'm blaming that on jet lag lol). And lets not even talk about the sea sickness...ahhhh. After we got off the tour bus and went into the actual prison grounds it was pretty amazing to see the type of conditions that the prisoners were subjected to. They were held in a large room made for 50 but would hold up to 100 prisoners at a time. Since there were so many they would sleep on pads on the floor. There was a communal bathroom in each room that contained only 3 toilets.
Mr. Mandela and the other political leaders were not afforded such luxuries. They were held in solitary confinement where they were locked up in a small cell at 3pm not to be let out until 5am the next morning. During the day they were allowed a small window of time to play tennis. They would communicate with the rest of the prisoners by hiding notes in tennis balls and hitting them over the walls. I will post some pictures (pilfered from my peers) later on.
The best part of the tour was the tour guide for the prison. He was an actual former prisoner who had been held at Robben island in his youth for political activism. It was interesting to hear his personal story about his time there. Unfortunately, the interesting part was only about 40 minutes of a 3 hour tour AND we didn't have time to look around on our own OR buy souvenirs...hmph! Overall, though it is one experience that I'm thankful to have the chance to have had, I will never do it again.
God Bless!
Sae