T.I.A.: This Is Africa

I have been dreading blogging about this much anticipated first-month-of-SA recap. It's not that I don't want to share with all of you what I've been up to, but there is just sooo much we have done that I don't even know where to begin. My procrastination has meant, of course, that now I have even more to recap--and so, even more dread.

Since Emma (so beautifully) summed up the Garden Route, I'm going to post about some activities we've done in and around Cape Town over the past few weeks. Here it goes...

The theme of this post should be "Living the Life" because that is precisely what we are doing. Living in Cape Town means beach, eating, partying, sleeping. (In our case it is more like eating, beach, eating, partying, eating, sleeping.) Anyway, I don't know why it has taken me so long in life to realize that I am a natural beach bum. The beaches here are absolutely INCREDIBLE. The two beaches we most often cruise to are Cliffton 4 and Muizenberg. Cliffton 4 is gorgeous and right off of Camps Bay. The only downside is that the water is brutallyy cold. Muizenberg is a little windy sometimes, but the water is super nice. Another downside of Muizenberg is that a guy was eaten by a shark there a few weeks ago. Only a minor downside. However, it's a great surfing beach and there's an awesome restaurant there we always hit up called Knead.

On the weekends, when we are not at the beach you can usually find us at Old Biscuit Mill.

It is this unbelievable market in Woodstock (about 10 minutes from where I live in Mowbray) that sells everything you can imagine. Our routine is the following: we get iced coffee at this place called Espresso Lab: UNREAL. Then we attack the clothing tent, which boasts a bunch of different independent designers every week (the first time I went, I bought 4 dresses in under 15 minutes). Then we slowly mosey (actually run) on over to the food tent. There is everything from steak sandwiches to whole coconuts you can drink from with a straw. We usually camp out there for an hour or two.

A few weekends ago we spiced up our day with a wine tour in Stellenbosch--on Valentine's Day!

The four of us and Ariel, our fifth crew member, went with two of our guy friends, Harrison and Rodrigo, and some of their lady friends.

We got up bright and early and the drive was about an hour from UCT Lower Campus. We visited two wineries. Naturally, I got drunk after my second glass of wine and then went to town on the cheese tasting. Outside, they had beautiful fountains and landscaping... and some goats chillin around a stone castle. Cool. At the next winery we sipped on some champagne.

After that we had to peace early to go to a concert at the Kirstenbosch Gardens.

It was absolutely beautiful: just acres and acres of trees and flowers. In the back of the gardens there is a huge stage and tons of people just set up shop and picnic before the concert. We brought some goodies from Old Biscuit Mill. All in all, it was a beautiful day with my Valentines.

That's enough postage for me at the moment. I'm off to do some Advanced South African Politics reading. bleghhhh.

Until next time...

xx

Julie