I really do. Wow, where to begin, I’ve been doing so much here. It’s been so nice not only just to have Alika and Talita’s company, but also of course the added bonus that they know their way around the city. They’ve both been fabulous tour guides of sorts. So after our jam-packed day driving around the Cape of Good Hope on Thursday, I had a bit of lovely beach time on Friday late morning, and then Alika and her friend Shaianne picked me up to take me to the Waterfront, a lively area of shops, restaurants, live music, tourist attractions situated around the harbor. First we stopped at a favorite local café, Vida e Caffe, for excellent coffee and the biggest, most delicious muffins I’ve ever had. Then we wandered around, went into the Apartheid museum, which while interesting of course, I was told used to have a much better display. But I was able to book a ticket for a tour on Robben Island for Sunday afternoon, which when I had called about when I first arrived in town was sold out for the following two weeks! We did a bit of window shopping in the big, beautiful mall (I know, I can’t believe I just wrote “beautiful” and “mall” in the same sentence, but the mall really is beautiful, and coming from East Africa, I do now have a smidge of appreciation for just well built structures!), then went to buy tickets for a 5pm catamaran cruise with unlimited champagne! Talita was racing to join us and literally and frustratingly just missed the boat! But the weather was beautiful and we had lots of bubbly and took in the view of the city from the harbor and beyond, as the wind splashed larger waves all over us.
Afterward, we met Talita who was having a head shaved—what an amazing girl. We headed to Clifton beach to meet up with Alika’s dad who had all the fixings for an excellent sunset picnic on the beach. Some life, huh? But just when you’re thinking, okay, you’re making this up, things are going to well for you now! In the midst of our revelry on the beach, somehow the rental car keys went missing. Oy vey. It was completely dark by the time we realized this, and though Alika and Shaianne made a valiant attempt to search the wide beach with a cell phone flashlight, it was a lost cause. We called the rental company and headed back to wait at Talita’s apartment. Our Friday night plans had gone up in smoke, although as coincidence would have it, so had everyone else’s: the whole of the city centre had a power outage. Camp’s Bay was eerily dark and quiet—the same place that was noisy and vibrant the night before. We took a stroll to pick up some snacks, the rental company brought a new car, and after some more wine on the terrace, headed to bed—a mother nature intended! Especially because we had a big day ahead: Wine Country!
After an early morning run along the beach (and fall, I must admit, not so gracefully!), Talita dropped us off at Alika’s dad’s apartment where I would be staying as T had her boyfriend and friend coming to visit. Then we drive off to pick up her mom in the suburbs and head off for the winelands. First we visited Backsberg, a vineyard estate with lovely gardens, excellent wines, a rustic feel, and a divine chocolate shop. For a mere 10 rand, we had 6 wine tastings. The next stop was a scenic view at Verde en Lust vineyard, before hitting up Graham Beck, a modern, sophisticated vineyard with a tasting room of dark wood overlooking the bottling and boxing area of the wine factory. After a (free!) tasting of 5 wines, we piled back into the card to head for Haute Gabriel, a very upscale winery, where we managed to just miss their 3:30 closing time, but instead of having to pay they gave me a tasting of their excellent sparkling rose and pinot noir. Then we headed to the main street of adorable Franschoek for a late lunch and a delicious cheese plate—ah, how I’ve missed good cheese! Then Alika’s parents dropped us off at University of Stellenbosch in, you guessed it, Stellenbosch, another wineland town. I wandered around town a bit, which was teeming with students as it was their big, start of the year party weekend. Brought me back to good ole time in Charlottesville! Yes, that’s right, at 25 I got to party like an Afrikaans college student. Ah, yes, I forgot to mention this: Alika and Talita speak Afrikaans as their first language. So much of the time I have no idea what they’re saying. They speak English perfectly mind you, but just in their day to day conversation, Afrikaans is the norm. Thus I’m often out of it, but I actually really like listening to it (and having a chance to zone out!). But at the University of Stellenbosch, an Afrikaans school, many of Alika’s friends did not really speak English very much at all, so that definitely added to the experience—as did being a random 25 year old American at an Afrikaans university party—ahh, travelling, gotta love it! But what a great, unique experience, and the late night mushroom and cheese pies (and McDonald’s French fries, I must admit to) were extremely good too.
The next day, Alika’s mom picked us up and we went for what may have been the best two hours of my whole time here: a wine and cheese tasting at Fairview Vineyard. As we walked up to the pretty building, we were greeted by the Goat Tower, where the farm’s goats reside and get exercise, very cute! It was 10:30 am and we had not had breakfast, unless you count the pies from 3am, so after just the first couple of wine tastings I could feel myself starting to babble and giggle. We shared our wine tastings so we could sample more of them, which only led to more confusion. Clearly the breakfast of champions as our pourer commented. Clearly, in bad need of something solid in our tummies, we headed around the corner to the cheese tasting sections. HEAVEN. There were seven different platters heaped with cheese cubes, like some Whole Foods on steroids. There were goat's and cow's milk cheeses, along with olives, preserves, pickles, and more to complement each cheese. I went back 3 times! Gross, I know, but it was SO good. Meanwhile, Alika and her mom were compiling a huge basket of cheese purchases for our dinner that night. After we finally tore ourselves away from the cheese room, we walked down to the restaurant for some coffee and croissants. That’s when my first rainstorm in South Africa commenced, we ran for the car with our wines and cheeses, and headed for another stop on our way back to the city: Butterfly World. Now, the only time I’ve ever been to a butterfly place was when I was much younger and on a family trip in Florida or something, but it was too cold and the butterflies just sat there—very disappointing as you can imagine. Not so this time: butterflies were fluttering everywhere above our heads through the dense flowering plants and green foliage of the greenhouse. It was really quite spectacular. In the back room, there were spiders and snakes in cages—um, until the woman in charge there brought out a small coral colored snake and placed it in Alika’s hand. I was panicking at the sight! That is until the woman brought out a humongous snake with a fat body and green patches along its long scaly body. Then terror set it. But I knew I had to hold it, or I’d be disappointed in myself. So I did, giving out sighs of fear all the time. So the question is: Do I look how I felt??
There were also some cute monkey-like creatures, an iguana, parrots, and small antelope like creatures called dikdiks. All it all, it really was a terrific place, as could be seen from how crowded it was with South African locals. After a morning of indulgence and adrenaline rushes, we drove back into the city, where they dropped me off for my Robben Island trip. The trip included a 40 minute boat ride there and back on somewhat choppy waters, which felt a bit long, although the view was nice. Once at the Island, our guide, a former inmate, lead us through the old prison where he and hundreds of other political prisoners including its most famous, Nelson Mandela were kept. We saw Mandela’s former cell, before being taken on a bus ride around park of the 13 sq km island. While it was interesting, there was not enough time to wander around on our own, because we were shuttled back on to the last ferry. Alika and her mom picked me up, and we headed to her dad’s apartment for our second wine and cheese feast of the day. You can imagine I slept well that night!
Today was time for some sightseeing in the city centre. Alika and I took a combi (the local name for a shared mini taxi) into town and made our first stop at the Castle of Good Hope. We looked at the military museum, and then made our way to the inner courtyard where a staged mini cannon was ceremoniously set off at noon that was impressively loud. A guided tour followed which explained the history of the fort and the Dutch-British skirmishes. Our next stop was the District Six Museum, but not until we shared the most enormous and disgusting (and surprisingly good) chip roll that is a local “delicacy”: a sub roll filled with chips and ketchup. Healthy I know. The museum is housed along a main road in current District Six, but one that bares little resemblance to the District Six of old. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, when apartheid was becoming more and more rigid, District Six, the last remaining bastion of a multiracial community within the city center was disbanded. Black and colored inhabitants were forced to leave and their houses were bulldozed to the ground, forcing many of them to move out to the townships on the outskirts of the city. The small museum filled with numerous photos, street signs, and stories of old inhabitants is very moving and thought-provoking. We spent about an hour taking in as much information as possible, and then went back out into the sunshine and wandered down to stroll through the company gardens. Then it was time to race to Talita’s apartment to meet her and her friend Chrissie to drive out to Chapman’s Peak again for horseback riding on Long Beach at Noordhoek. Crazy I know, and even more crazy because I seriously hadn’t been on a horse in over a decade. But it was a lot of fun, despite almost getting bucked off a couple of times. After Nutmeg tried to throw me I finally climbed on Cognac and had no problems. Much better. We rode along the perfectly white sand beaches to the water’s edge and then through the wetlands back to the stables. Then we went back to Talita’s apartment and got dressed up (so clearly I had to borrow clothes since I have five shirts with me right now!) and headed out for some fancier dining at the Waterfront—sushi and drinks and then more food at a nice restaurant called Balducci's. Clearly an excellent couple of days.
Today is my last day in Cape Town. I went with Alika, her mom, and one of her colleagues to see a couple of townships. These were not apartheid specific townships, but similar in many of the problems. Alika’s mom works in the city planning office and much of her work involves getting the funding to put through better housing developments and maintain current ones. While the poor housing and improper living conditions (blocked sewers caused by people trying to flush even blankets, rewire electric wires along the ground unsafely) is always a sad sight to see, I must say that coming from the slums I was working with in Kampala the housing was significantly better. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting side of Cape Town to see, away from the beauty and prosperity that I’ve encountered until now. After some last minute (and last time) shopping the Africa craft market in Greenmarket Square near Long Street, I’m going to pack up tonight, bid Cape Town a found farewell, and be in Sydney in hopefully not too long!
Afterward, we met Talita who was having a head shaved—what an amazing girl. We headed to Clifton beach to meet up with Alika’s dad who had all the fixings for an excellent sunset picnic on the beach. Some life, huh? But just when you’re thinking, okay, you’re making this up, things are going to well for you now! In the midst of our revelry on the beach, somehow the rental car keys went missing. Oy vey. It was completely dark by the time we realized this, and though Alika and Shaianne made a valiant attempt to search the wide beach with a cell phone flashlight, it was a lost cause. We called the rental company and headed back to wait at Talita’s apartment. Our Friday night plans had gone up in smoke, although as coincidence would have it, so had everyone else’s: the whole of the city centre had a power outage. Camp’s Bay was eerily dark and quiet—the same place that was noisy and vibrant the night before. We took a stroll to pick up some snacks, the rental company brought a new car, and after some more wine on the terrace, headed to bed—a mother nature intended! Especially because we had a big day ahead: Wine Country!
After an early morning run along the beach (and fall, I must admit, not so gracefully!), Talita dropped us off at Alika’s dad’s apartment where I would be staying as T had her boyfriend and friend coming to visit. Then we drive off to pick up her mom in the suburbs and head off for the winelands. First we visited Backsberg, a vineyard estate with lovely gardens, excellent wines, a rustic feel, and a divine chocolate shop. For a mere 10 rand, we had 6 wine tastings. The next stop was a scenic view at Verde en Lust vineyard, before hitting up Graham Beck, a modern, sophisticated vineyard with a tasting room of dark wood overlooking the bottling and boxing area of the wine factory. After a (free!) tasting of 5 wines, we piled back into the card to head for Haute Gabriel, a very upscale winery, where we managed to just miss their 3:30 closing time, but instead of having to pay they gave me a tasting of their excellent sparkling rose and pinot noir. Then we headed to the main street of adorable Franschoek for a late lunch and a delicious cheese plate—ah, how I’ve missed good cheese! Then Alika’s parents dropped us off at University of Stellenbosch in, you guessed it, Stellenbosch, another wineland town. I wandered around town a bit, which was teeming with students as it was their big, start of the year party weekend. Brought me back to good ole time in Charlottesville! Yes, that’s right, at 25 I got to party like an Afrikaans college student. Ah, yes, I forgot to mention this: Alika and Talita speak Afrikaans as their first language. So much of the time I have no idea what they’re saying. They speak English perfectly mind you, but just in their day to day conversation, Afrikaans is the norm. Thus I’m often out of it, but I actually really like listening to it (and having a chance to zone out!). But at the University of Stellenbosch, an Afrikaans school, many of Alika’s friends did not really speak English very much at all, so that definitely added to the experience—as did being a random 25 year old American at an Afrikaans university party—ahh, travelling, gotta love it! But what a great, unique experience, and the late night mushroom and cheese pies (and McDonald’s French fries, I must admit to) were extremely good too.
The next day, Alika’s mom picked us up and we went for what may have been the best two hours of my whole time here: a wine and cheese tasting at Fairview Vineyard. As we walked up to the pretty building, we were greeted by the Goat Tower, where the farm’s goats reside and get exercise, very cute! It was 10:30 am and we had not had breakfast, unless you count the pies from 3am, so after just the first couple of wine tastings I could feel myself starting to babble and giggle. We shared our wine tastings so we could sample more of them, which only led to more confusion. Clearly the breakfast of champions as our pourer commented. Clearly, in bad need of something solid in our tummies, we headed around the corner to the cheese tasting sections. HEAVEN. There were seven different platters heaped with cheese cubes, like some Whole Foods on steroids. There were goat's and cow's milk cheeses, along with olives, preserves, pickles, and more to complement each cheese. I went back 3 times! Gross, I know, but it was SO good. Meanwhile, Alika and her mom were compiling a huge basket of cheese purchases for our dinner that night. After we finally tore ourselves away from the cheese room, we walked down to the restaurant for some coffee and croissants. That’s when my first rainstorm in South Africa commenced, we ran for the car with our wines and cheeses, and headed for another stop on our way back to the city: Butterfly World. Now, the only time I’ve ever been to a butterfly place was when I was much younger and on a family trip in Florida or something, but it was too cold and the butterflies just sat there—very disappointing as you can imagine. Not so this time: butterflies were fluttering everywhere above our heads through the dense flowering plants and green foliage of the greenhouse. It was really quite spectacular. In the back room, there were spiders and snakes in cages—um, until the woman in charge there brought out a small coral colored snake and placed it in Alika’s hand. I was panicking at the sight! That is until the woman brought out a humongous snake with a fat body and green patches along its long scaly body. Then terror set it. But I knew I had to hold it, or I’d be disappointed in myself. So I did, giving out sighs of fear all the time. So the question is: Do I look how I felt??
There were also some cute monkey-like creatures, an iguana, parrots, and small antelope like creatures called dikdiks. All it all, it really was a terrific place, as could be seen from how crowded it was with South African locals. After a morning of indulgence and adrenaline rushes, we drove back into the city, where they dropped me off for my Robben Island trip. The trip included a 40 minute boat ride there and back on somewhat choppy waters, which felt a bit long, although the view was nice. Once at the Island, our guide, a former inmate, lead us through the old prison where he and hundreds of other political prisoners including its most famous, Nelson Mandela were kept. We saw Mandela’s former cell, before being taken on a bus ride around park of the 13 sq km island. While it was interesting, there was not enough time to wander around on our own, because we were shuttled back on to the last ferry. Alika and her mom picked me up, and we headed to her dad’s apartment for our second wine and cheese feast of the day. You can imagine I slept well that night!
Today was time for some sightseeing in the city centre. Alika and I took a combi (the local name for a shared mini taxi) into town and made our first stop at the Castle of Good Hope. We looked at the military museum, and then made our way to the inner courtyard where a staged mini cannon was ceremoniously set off at noon that was impressively loud. A guided tour followed which explained the history of the fort and the Dutch-British skirmishes. Our next stop was the District Six Museum, but not until we shared the most enormous and disgusting (and surprisingly good) chip roll that is a local “delicacy”: a sub roll filled with chips and ketchup. Healthy I know. The museum is housed along a main road in current District Six, but one that bares little resemblance to the District Six of old. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, when apartheid was becoming more and more rigid, District Six, the last remaining bastion of a multiracial community within the city center was disbanded. Black and colored inhabitants were forced to leave and their houses were bulldozed to the ground, forcing many of them to move out to the townships on the outskirts of the city. The small museum filled with numerous photos, street signs, and stories of old inhabitants is very moving and thought-provoking. We spent about an hour taking in as much information as possible, and then went back out into the sunshine and wandered down to stroll through the company gardens. Then it was time to race to Talita’s apartment to meet her and her friend Chrissie to drive out to Chapman’s Peak again for horseback riding on Long Beach at Noordhoek. Crazy I know, and even more crazy because I seriously hadn’t been on a horse in over a decade. But it was a lot of fun, despite almost getting bucked off a couple of times. After Nutmeg tried to throw me I finally climbed on Cognac and had no problems. Much better. We rode along the perfectly white sand beaches to the water’s edge and then through the wetlands back to the stables. Then we went back to Talita’s apartment and got dressed up (so clearly I had to borrow clothes since I have five shirts with me right now!) and headed out for some fancier dining at the Waterfront—sushi and drinks and then more food at a nice restaurant called Balducci's. Clearly an excellent couple of days.
Today is my last day in Cape Town. I went with Alika, her mom, and one of her colleagues to see a couple of townships. These were not apartheid specific townships, but similar in many of the problems. Alika’s mom works in the city planning office and much of her work involves getting the funding to put through better housing developments and maintain current ones. While the poor housing and improper living conditions (blocked sewers caused by people trying to flush even blankets, rewire electric wires along the ground unsafely) is always a sad sight to see, I must say that coming from the slums I was working with in Kampala the housing was significantly better. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting side of Cape Town to see, away from the beauty and prosperity that I’ve encountered until now. After some last minute (and last time) shopping the Africa craft market in Greenmarket Square near Long Street, I’m going to pack up tonight, bid Cape Town a found farewell, and be in Sydney in hopefully not too long!
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