PORT ELIZABETH

Twelve hours in the car, a friends wedding took across an endless expanse of sand and rock to my first visit to the windy city, Port Elizabeth. All I saw for the first 30 minutes entering P.E. was low cost government housing, informal settlements and garbage stuck to fences and littered over grass as far as the eye could see. We drove following the GPS to our friends parents house where we would be staying, this didn’t seem right, the tin roofs and broken fences didn’t match the family I grew up with. On arriving at our destination once driving through the heart of what was definitely a township, I argued passionately with my husband that this could not be the address. We phoned our friend- yes we were in the wrong area. Driving out of the area and into an area which more accurately matched how I had pictured P.E. we met our two friends in a parking lot, laughing between the cars about our silly adventure to kick start the weekend.We finally got to the correct house and with some awkward hugs we rushed through showers and catch up conversations out to dinner to meet our friend’s fiancé.

The laughing started from the first hello and there were few moments over the five days where we weren’t laughing. Warren, my brother Rory, our friend Dave and Ross (the groom) are old school friends and my brother and I grew up with Ross. So many funny stories were told over again and our little trip into what is fondly known in P.E. as gun town (yes it was a township) was told to everyone who we ate or drank with all weekend.The wedding was perfect, just outside of P.E; a picnic, a sit down dinner and a bonfire- Ross and Shyna really tried to make their day perfect and memorable for all their guests and it truly was. A little run on the beach on the Sunday after the wedding (insert knee injury and tears here), a spit braai, a trip to Jeffrey’s bay for the day and one last dinner all together promising to not wait another three or four years to see each other and it all ended as quickly as it began.

Port Elizabeth was beautiful, but I think mostly because of the people we shared it with.