On a Holiday
Friday, October 31st, 2008Day 216
I opened our window and stuck the camera outside for a great shot of table mountain with clear blue skies as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful day and our first true full day in Africa. We walked downstairs for breakfast which was included with the room. Wow, what a change from Argentina. Cereal, yogurt, juice, coffee, eggs and toast. A full breakfast that we definitely appreciated after over a month of media lunas.
After breakfast we walked down to the Castle of Good Hope. Cape Town has a very european feel and the dutch built castle only added to it. Just down the street we passed city hall and the grand parade. On February 11, 1990 this spot appeared on tv’s worldwide as Nelson Mandela made his first speech after being released from prison from the city hall’s balcony. Back to the castle, we entered the beautiful courtyard which has a cafe. Over the west wall was table mountain. We walked through the different rooms that contained paintings from colonial days and a collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain. In the other rooms was a very interesting temporary photography exhibit. Entitled “Emergency and Emergence” it contained photos on South African events during apartheid and general photos of life in South Africa. It was an excellent collection and really gave us a good start on learning about the issues this country has and are dealing with.
After a few hours walking around the castle, which is more fort than castle, we found a great burger place. Meat, fish and veggie burgers, but with some amazing ingredients. I had an amazing tuna burger and Jordana a soy burger. After lunch we were pretty wiped out so went back to the guesthouse for a rest.
Cape Town has a beautiful waterfront and we figured we’d check that out at night. We walked about 30 minutes to the water and were amazed at how beautiful and gentrified the waterfront was. Restaurants and bars were everywhere in restored old dock buildings. We found a fantastic spot on a patio at a belgium style restaurant directly next to the water. While seals played in the water, we stared at table mountain in the distance as the sunset was a stunning orange. A perfect night, and our oysters, mussels and beer were also just about perfect. I felt like we were on a holiday from our travels.
As night fell we hopped in a taxi back to Long St and found a bar for a few drinks. It was interesting to watch the mainly white South African crown pour into the bar. We could have been anywhere in Europe or at home for that matter. The one thing that was exotic about this place was the price of a pint. A pint of the local brew Castle is $1.20 CAD is about 5 times less than we would pay back in Toronto. No wonder they drink so much here! We toasted the end to a easy day of sightseeing while we watched the Liverpool/Tottenham match on tv. I had read how Cape Town and all of the western cape would be different than the rest of South Africa. I didn’t expect it to be this different, well at least I was getting the impression that as a tourist we were getting a very white or upper class view of South Africa so far.
Michael Coroneos