Blogs from Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 13

The first day I was at Stellenbosch Dale and I walked around the town, went grocery shopping, and had coffee and milk tart (this sort of cinnamon-tasting flan like dessert) at this adorable cafe in the campus' botantical garden. The surrounding mountains were so beautiful they reminded me of the Isle of Skye, they have this surrealistic enchantment. Last night we hung out upstairs with other international students, most of whom were German. We drank a container of boxed wine that had broke and had been put into a bowl. I quickly befriended Dale's flatmate Micha. The next day we had planned to go to Jonkershoek (http://www.capenature.org.za/index.php?fSectionId=55) but the weather was bad. Instead we hung out in his flat just enjoying being together, went to a movie, and went to sleep. ... read more

Hello! I am so sorry that I haven't written a blog yet, but there has been seriously not a moment of free time since I arrived until now (and even now, I only have 20 minutes before I have to go back so that the TV crew can film us "walking slowly to rehearsal" - those were our instructions). I do have some stories written on my laptop, but there is no wireless and now I am in an internet cafe... so I suppose a short update is better than nothing at all! Most of it will probably be random because I don't have the energy to organize it into lovely paragraphs and also I'm kind of rusty because I haven't written coherently in English for a long time. Actually, I can barely speak coherently in ... read more

Rob and I got up early on Tuesday morning and headed for Stellenbosch. After only a few mistaken turns (eep) onto the wrong side of the road, Rob mastered the skill of left-sided driving. Stellenbosch is a beautiful old university town about 45 minutes north of Capetown. The university dates back to the 1600's and it is one of the only schools that still teaches everything in Afrikaans. We wandered around the town for the morning and early afternoon, then headed to wineries in the afternoon. The area around Stellenbosch is speckled with vineyards and is a wine-tasters paradise. Our first stop was at Spier, a very commercialized place. They also have a cheetah sanctuary (though I wasn't very impressed with the way they keep their animals). The wine was ok, but nothing to write ... read more

I got up around 7am Friday morning to head to Stellenbosch, which is in the winelands region just outside Cape Town and home to S.A.’s main university. I took the Backpacker Bus (which charged R180 - about $27), which ended up being basically a private taxi ride—they picked me up at my hostel at the designated time and drove me straight to my accommodation in Stellenbosch—and I had the van to myself. Once we’d gotten out of Cape Town, there were shantytowns—called townships here—as far as the eye could see, stretching out on either side of the freeway. It was like that for nearly the entire rest of the way. (I have since come to learn that it’s pretty much like that outside every town.) It was quite a depressing contrast to cosmopolitan Cape Town. ... read more

We were on the road from Oudtshoorn to Stellenbosch a little later (as we didn't get back to our hostel until 11am...due to Meerkat Magic) the morning of the 29th. The drive was beautiful, as we drove up Route 62 through some small wine towns. The road took us through canyons with streams, and by large boulders and rock formations...very similar to Highway 6 around Golden, Colorado. The drive turned out to be about 5 hours, so upon our arrival (since it was a Sunday), all of the wineries were already closed for the day; not to worry, as we would more than make up for it on Monday (30 April). Our guesthouse (de Oude Ryneveld--don't ask me what that means) was very lovely. Our room had a high vaulted ceiling with wooden beams mixed ... read more