Here I am in Cape Town. I have no internet in my backpacker (hostel) so I find myself in a coffee shop down the road with FREE WIFI! I was excited to see this sign the other day and have been coming back to this coffee shop often. Three days in total, so these 12Rand ($2) coffees shouldn't hurt my budget too much... but still, a bit pricey for South Africa. So other than finding a great location to kick it and sooth my addiction to the internet, I have found Cape Town to be a truly fantastic city.
Everyone I have met so far is so friendly, generous and helpful. Through various acquaintances I have made, I have been able to get out of my residential part of town and see the hot-spots, eat some great food, and finally get a taste for the local wine. Last night I had a really nice picnic with two friends - a local and used-to-be-local who I met in Calistoga this winter - before seeing a hilarious version of Taming of the Shrew at the outdoor theatre. The picnic included a bottle of crisp white wine (...), local figs, berries, creamy Camebert cheese and fresh cheesy bread. We ate ravishly while catching up and laughing at the unique species of birds that encircled us.
During the play, which was just short of a Cirque de Soleil-esque show, my attention was quickly drawn to the sky as my eyes caught a firefly flying overhead. Upon realizing what this was, I scrambled to pull my hands out from under the blanket to point it out to Linah... but it flew away. So she thinks I'm crazy... especially since I couldn't find the words to describe what I saw and I started laughing uncontrollably. But all in all we had a great time together and Corina, the local, was such a treat to meet. Thanks to her I am beginning to understand, more or less, the ins and outs of South Africa!
In addition to this outing, I was lucky enough to meet up with another local on Sunday, Jo, who I met in Burgundy in September. Jo works for Francois Freres here in South Africa, and is a key player to the production of great wines in the surrounding areas. She was generous enough to take me out with her boyfriend for the day to see the sights. Firstly - we conquered the heights of the Table Mountain 1600 meters above sea level, by riding up in a Cable Car. From the top of the Mountain we could look down on the entire city and surrounding natural landmarks - Cape of Good Hope, Lyon's Head, Devil's Peak, False Bay, V & A Waterfront, etc... It was breathtaking. All around the Mountain adventurous souls flocked. Paragliders were floating over the ocean, rock climbers were adjusting their ropes and hikers were burning their calories for the week. I questioned my own adventurous soul, but decided I best wait for now. It was lunch time, nonetheless, and it was time to eat some seafood. So that's what we did.
After riding the Cable Car down and getting a 360 view of the town, Jo, Willy and I went to the Waterfront for some sushi, fish and prawns, along with a few glasses of Chenin blanc and Shiraz. Yum. Afterwards we walked around listening to music and grabbing some ice cream cones to cool off.
So I am very excited indeed to be out and about, and now I must sign off on this Tuesday early afternoon to meet up with Liam and Louise, my fellow interns, to catch the India v. S Africa cricket match!
Love you all. Over and out,
d'laur
No comments:
Post a Comment