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Published: September 15th 2008
After I wrote my first entry, I was upstairs in our room waiting for Jenny to arrive. For about an hour I jumped to the window every time I heard a car. Finally, after about 10 cars - and we're not on a busy road - Jen arrived! I'm not going to lie...there was hugging and jumping up and down and lots of fast talking. After quickly catching up we grabbed dinner right down the street at a Thai restaurant. It was very good. Had my first SA beer...Black Label...Loved it! Try it if you come!
We woke up on Saturday to beautiful cloudless skies with sunshine! Due to the dramatic and quick changes in weather here, we decided to head out early and make sure to visit Table Mountain. We ate breakfast at the B&B with Philip, one of the owners, talked a little baseball, he's a Cubs fan, caught up on some current events, filled our tummies with the best breakfast bread ever (thank god I get to eat it for 4 more days) and then headed out. In order to cover lots of ground, we bought tickets for a hop on/hop off bus that takes you throughout the whole area. We did a complete tour of downtown which was quite unique. CT is a mixture of very old and very modern. So you would have a two story building next to a 20 story high rise and a mixture of art deco type color with classical european designs. It was quite amazing and different than what you see in most cities. Even on a Saturday, downtown was hopping with activity. We got off the bus to visit the District 6 Museum. Housed in an original church, this museum chronicals the days when all walks of life lived together. During the Aparthied, the area was designated as "whites only" and those that had lived there for generations were pushed out...forceabley. The government dulldosed their homes and relocated them to the poor areas outside of town, now know as Townships. The museum showed their lives before, after and now. It was an emotional look at the history of the people that make up such a diverse area of this county. I have a hard time understanding how a person can look at another and say, you skin color makes you less of a person and you must move to a new part of town. How could this happen? How do people come to think this way? At a glimce, much has seemed to change and yet little has seemd to change. I think this is a country with people who will continue to strvie forward and question why laws are made and fight for what is right for them. So many here seem to have a pride in who they are and where they come from...it's wonderful to see!
From here, we moved onto the Castle of Good Hope. The Castle was build between 1666 and 1667 by the Dutch. It was an amazing structure. Pentagon shaped, canons, mote and all. We of course did not time it right to make one of the guided tours, so instead we just crusied the perimeter and appreciated the archetural abilities of the earlier settlers.
Back on the bus we continues on to the base of Table Mountain. Table Mountain is the oldest mountain range in the world and we were both quite excited to see it up close. I have to admit, Jen and I both had such excitment that we were practically running off the bus. Before leaving the states I had the adventurous notion that Jen and I could hike the mountain...um...yeah...no way that was happening. This is one fo the most vertical ascends I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure that if we had attempted to hike it we'd still be on our way up. Instead, we took the cable car. As an added bonus, the cable car routed. Jen though this was fantastic. I won't lie, it freaked me out. I had thrown myself off the side of a mountain, but riding up in a rotating cable car freaked me out. Jen's all like, wow look at this...and cool can you see that...and dude the cables look really cool streching out below us...I was like, Um, I think I might puke and please don't ask me to look down. Shocking I know...but what can I do. Once at the top...I was very happy! Stunning. Really that's the only word...stunning. The views below were the entire city, beach and the atlantic stretching as far as you could see. We hiked around a bit and the wind really began to pick up. We were warned that if the horn blew that meant they were going to stop running the cable car...you can imagine the look on Jen and I's faces...stuck on the top...no way! Luckily the weather held. We have some very fun photos...I scared Jenny when I did a 'look mom no hands" moment. She rolled her eyes, I giggled...it was great! I loved the views because when you looked one way you had the bustling city and the other you had untouched nature. The ride back down the mountain was a bit nerve racking as well. Just as you're about to leave the station at the top there is a titch of moment and then it stops and you sway ever so slightly...I did not like that. When we arrived back at the bottom the bus was there. We loaded up and headed out to the next stop.
THe bus took us around the mountain on the backside, sort of. We curved and twisted our way down to sealevel again to an area called Camps Bay. At this point in the day, it was blazing hot and the hiking shoes were not cutting it. We found a cute surf shop and Jen got a pair of flip flops. I decided to stick it out with my shoes. My feet are rarely hot to begin with so why let this moment end. We had a great lunch at a seafood restaurant. Jen got the Fish Stack which was a filet of fish, then shimp and something else and then another filet of fish and sundried tomoato paste like thing on top. Extremely tasty! I got the steak sandwich. Comical, I know...but I was starving and it was so good! We finished up lunch and when the bill came we were attempting to factor in the tip. Note: here you tip 10% and the tax is added in even though it's listed separately. Part B of that last statement we did not know. SO, we were adding the tax into the total and then tipping on that. Once we paid our very nice waiter came back to us and said...you have made my day! Of course we thought that it was because we are cute and charming and I drank his favorite beer...Um, no. It wasn't until dinner that night that the waiter explained the tip was already included. We'd given the lunch guy like a 25% tip! Lovely!!! After lunch we walked on the beach and dipped our toes on the surf. The water looked so inviting and yet was SOOOOO cold! I went screaming from the surf like a 5 yr old! Jenny was laughing and pointing of course and a man walking by commented - and that's only your toes! Classic!!! The beach was alive with families and kids and surfers and soccer games and rugby...it was so fun to see. Just a typical sunny Saturday afternoon. After our bit of beach time, we decided that the walk back to our guesthouse would be fun. Just over 2 hrs later we arrived, sweatly, thursty and tired! Those beers a lunch were no longer a good idea. I have to admit, about the first hour of the walk was fantastic! Beautiful beaches and soaring cliffs. Amazing houses, including an orange one on the point that is my new dream house...we had fun taking photos and talking. The second hour of the walk was through a section of town that was a bit dodgey and not too scenic. The guesthouse looked wonderful when we arrived!
For our only Saturday night in town we decided to go out for jazz. There is a huge jazz scene here and we thought it'd make a great evening out. So we got a bit dressed up and headed to the waterfront to the Green Dolphin. They had a great quartet playing and the music was fantastic! The lead woman was playing the saxophone. Great music! We ordered ostrich carpaccio (yummy!), grilled calamari and then a pasta dish. Our first bottle of wine was a native grape - Pinotage. So good! Of course we were feeling toasty so a second bottle was in order as well as dessert. We ordered a last harvest wine thinking it'd be in the smaller bottle. They don't skimp on that stuff here. Full bottle, wonderful flavor! We got toasted and had a great time.
Sunday we woke up with a bit of a headache (hmmm...) and tumbled down to breakfast. Yeah to the breakfast bread!!! It set me free. :-) On SUndays right across from our place there is a big market. All sorts of gifts and wears and whatnot. We had both read about it and the owners of the guesthouse raved about it. We loaded up on breakfast and set out with some cash. We had to bargin. Bargining was key. Now, I'm really bad about this. Let me put it in perspective...$1 is about 8 rand here is about. Our beers were 12 rand....at the nice restaurant. So, nothing is too expensive. I don't do well in these bargining situations. I'm here on holiday...I'm planning to spend this money...even without bargining its a deal. Jenny having been in the country for two weeks already was doing much better than I was. At one booth, I bought several items. When I was done, Jenny asked, how much for these earrings...and the woman says, since your friend bought so much I will give you very good deal. Yeah, she didn't even had to bargin. The lady practically gave them to her. I of course, overpaid...either way...I love the stuff I got! I did get two original oil paintings for 300 rand. It will cost me more to frame one of them in the STates! Ha!!! For the most part the vendors at the market were very warm. A couple of them were excited to ask us about the US. Once gentleman even asked me about who I would vote for in the election. Too funny! All in all, we were there about 3 hours, both of us will probably have to leave some of our older clothes here just to have room in our bags to bring all the stuff back and we had a really good time!
After dropping our items at home, we went to Mitchell's...the oldest mico brewed beer bar in the Cape and a Scottish place. Ahhhh, perfect! We had fish n' chips, beers and caught up on some international Formula 1 racing. The remainder of the afternoon was spent just relaxing. I read more in my book. Jen updated her blog. We made reservations for dinner at the Grill down the street. They offered several different game dishes. Elise, get excited...you will see photos of wharthog ribs and ostrich steak and you might want to reconsider that red meat thing if you come to visit here. For those of you that don't know...Elise wanted to see photos of the food. We started off dinner with Wilderbeast patate. This was amazing! Then I got the wharthog ribs that had a bbq sauce on them and were out of this world good. Jenny even said at one point, can you not carry a conversation and eat. I was very into my food :-) Jen got the ostrich steak which was wonderful as well! So far, very happy with the selection of foods here. The walk home was interesting. The storm was blowing in adn the wind was howling! The wind here is unbelievable!!! It blows in off the coast and will literally knock you over. I swear, we have been walking with a lean for a day and a half just to stay standing! We hit the hay early in order to rest up for our big day on Monday. We're heading to Cape Point!
For those of you eager to see photos - the internet is very slow and I plan to send some out when I arrive home...stay tunned! Love you all, CJ
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Fred Brennan
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Another Most Excellent Adventure
Courtney! You held back on the news of this trip when we had dinner, together. So it's my turn to playfully wag the index finger and am so thrilled that you are off to another corner of the world and taking us along. Your willingness to be open to the world's offerings, and humorous take on just about everything, make your entries such a joy to read! Travel on! Love to Ms. Jenny...And don't forget to write!!!