8/6

It has been a few days since my last entry, so I have some serious catching up to do. First, let me say that I love our job. Since we can only go into the township on Thursdays, the rest of the week (we work Monday through Friday) is according to our hours. We have gotten used to a schedule where we wake early (by 8) and go spend the first half of the day doing touristy things. Then, after lunch, we come back to the hostel and are able to work online until dinner. It has been perfect, since we are not neglecting our project, the reason we came here, but we still get to do other things as well.

Anyways, after the museum on Friday we stopped by the cutest bakery for lunch. It happened to be one of Oprah, President Mbeki, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s favorites spots. Very cool. With the decorations, cakes, and assortment of desserts it was easy to see why. Once we got back to the hostel we did our Friday workload, made dinner, then got ready to go out. We have met a brother and sister from Canada, so went down to the hostel bar with them. Once there we ran into basically everyone from the hostel. The workers, some locals who we’ve hung out with the past few nights, the couple from Florida, and couples we’ve met in the kitchen or café area. We stayed there for a few hours then walked to Long Street in a mass group. It was our first night there, so I’ll mention a few key things. 1. The architecture is gorgeous. Each building is different, brightly colored, and with a New Orleans-esque balcony. They have street vendors that are cooking chicken, meat, fish, whatever you want outside many of the big bars (and they have ques around the corner!). We started in a bar that one of the locals had a hook-up in so we were all able to get free drinks (there were probably 20 of us). We hung out on the balcony while live music played inside. It was very chill. After that bar we walked to the Zula bar (FeFe has talked about it often so we were excited to finally see it). Again, there was a balcony overlooking the street. This time there was a stage where live music and comedy shows are normally held. Unfortunately we were too late for the band, but we will definitely be back. There was also a dance floor. Awesome. A great night. The best part was that I was talking to one of the locals, and he was asking me what our plans were for the next day. Well, Brittany and I were planning on doing laundry (big plans…) and he thought that was horrifying. So he offered to take us and the Canadians on a private wine tour (we had been planning on doing a guided one for like 400 Rand). Of course we agreed.

The next morning he picked us up at 9 and we squeezed into his car. Wine country was only about 1/2 hour away, and felt like a completely new world. It was very rural, with grand mountains and rocking similar to Cape Town. Unlike Cape Town, the area before the mountain was extremely flat with umbrella-like trees and grape farms as far as the eye could see. All the homes were very simple, surviving from the Dutch rule. Our first stop was at the Glen Carlou winery. We drove up a long tree-shaded driveway with grape fields just beyond. The building at the top of the driveway was unbelievable. It was one great room with very modern furniture and decorations. The bar was a half circle located at the far right side, with the long wall being all windows overlooking the winery and green mountain ranges. The ceiling was thatched, adding a simple elegance to an otherwise very retro room. We sat down at the bar and they immediately brought us our “menu”, a list of the 8 wines we would be tasting, along with the prices and room to make our purchases. We spent at least two hours sitting and sipping, enjoying the company and scenery as each empty glass was refilled with a new wine. It was waaaay better than being on a formal tour. Instead of talking with strangers we were able to get to know some friends, and more than that, we were able to take our time. The wine itself was obviously very tasty with an assortment of reds and whites, ranging from 40 Rand a bottle to 1800 Rand (unfortunately we didn’t get to taste this one L).  After Glen Carlou we drove down what I can only describe as wine road. After 100 ft or so was an entrance to a new winery. I swear we passed at least 50 on this one road. We finally turned onto a dirt road that wound through grape fields and eventually led to a plantation. Brittany and I both felt like we were at Washington’s house. There was a large green lawn before a colonial style white house. We went inside a barn to the left, the tasting room for Boschendal wineries. This time it was a small room, with a tiny bar covered in empty glasses, and long tables along the edges. We were seated and given a menu. It had at least 20 wines, reds, whites, and specialties, which we were allowed to choose 5 from. After we had made our selections, all wines were brought out at the same time and placed on a mat with circles and numbers. We were much more keen to these wines, and enjoyed being able to try one after another, then go back to our favorites. We stayed here for another two hours, then left to find lunch (we could have purchased a cheese platter if we weren’t so cheap). Ken, the local, wanted us to see Stallanbosch, a town home to one of the most famous wineries in South Africa. The drive was unbelievable. We wound down a canyon between two mountains before finally coming upon the town. We stopped for lunch at the University student center, which was much more like a mall than a student union. After lunch we all decided we were far too tired to go to another winery, so we headed back to our hostel. Once there we didn’t last ten minutes before we all fell into bed and passed out for a good 3 hours. When we woke up we decided to watch a movie, have dinner, and just hang out. We all went downstairs where a group was watching the Portugal versus Turkey football game. We convinced most of them to come play Egyptian Ratscrew, where we kept a game going for a while between 10 of us. 3 of them were locals that we hadn’t met yet, so it was fun getting to know them (we love the Canadians, but they are leaving tomorrow morning. The locals take us around Cape Town and we can hang out with them the whole summer).

This morning we were planning on going on a hike with Thandi and here church group, so we got up early and headed to the train station. Unfortunately the next train would have gotten us to Muizenberg far later than we were supposed to, so we had to pass on the hike. Instead we decided to tour the Company Gardens in the middle of the city and spend our day outside reading, drinking tea, and people watching. It ended up being a perfect day. There were no clouds, and since it was a Sunday, most of the benches were open. We read for a while, talked, and just chilled. Then we went to the gardens café where we ate lunch next to old men playing a heated game of chess and a newborn being cradled by her mother. Over lunch we planned our meals for the week, then stopped at the market on the way home.

Random story, on the way to the train station we were walking behind two girls who stopped to ask us if we knew where the gym was. We started talking and one of them was an American law student here working for the summer, the other was an English girl from her hostel. We parted ways, only to see them both on the way home from the market. It turns out she is staying on Long Street with a group of law students in the same program. We exchanged numbers and will hopefully hang out next weekend. It just goes to show what a friendly city Cape Town is. The people have all been so nice, often times out-of-their-way nice.

We met up with Chris and Carley (the Canadians) and all picked up dinner at Nando’s, a South African chain that reminded me of El Pollo Loco. Afterwards we went up to the bar and played Ring of Fire with them, Alex (a Zimbabwean who is staying in our room and working at the hostel this summer), and two girls from England until we went to bed.