We entered South Africa through Cape Town, and I immediately fell in love. Such an awesome place. Cape Town is similar to SF - seaside city with a nearby wine region. A city that doesn't feel like a city. Two full days was really not enough time for us here.
To start, our hostel was very clean and had awesome staff, but was in a horrible location. "In the middle of the gang war area" was how our cab driver described it. So not being able to leave or walk around the area was a bit of a disapointment. We had to take a cab if we wanted to go anywhere. This was really the only negative about the time spent in Cape Town.
The first day we went to Table Mountain. Unfortunately, the weather at the top was cloudy, so we didn't take the tram thing up. Added to the list for the next trip. We were dropped off in the city center at a market. Bought some homemade goods and then walked to Long Street.
After exploring around here, we made our way to the FIFA fan zone. FIFA sent up a bunch of locations around South Africa to watch the games. It was a cool area - fenced off - with free giveaways and places to buy food and beer with some large TV screens. Obviously everyone was rooting for SA to win. There were way too many people at the fan zone before the game started, and we would've had to have watched the game while standing in the middle of all of them, so we headed to a bar. Their win over France put the town in good spirits, despite the fact that they would not advance.
The next day was the best day of my life. We had booked a half day tour following the coast of the Cape. Expecting it to be like the London tour - we had low expectations - and were prepared to be on a bus with a bunch of strangers struggling to overcome more jetlag. Unexpectedly, we were the only two on the tour, so we were in a private car with our guide, Bobby. We went from the City Center down to Simons Town to Cape Point and then up to Hout Bay. At Cape Point, you can see where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. My optimistic pictures did not turn out. All the towns we passed were small beach towns. On the tour we almost ran over some baboons (on several occaisons) and we got to visit with some penguins and see some ostriches. It was a very, very beautiful drive. And Bobby was a great tour guide.
After our tour, we went back to the hostel and threw on our USA jerseys and went back to the fan zone to meet our friend Josh and some other Americans to watch the US play Alergia. For whatever reason the fan zone was only playing the London game on its larger tvs. Unsatisfied with the mini tv they provided for the US game, we went in search of a bar. We started out with maybe 10 people - decked out in red, white and blue - walking through Cape Town. Slowly more began to follow us. By the time we reached a bar, the Purple Turtle, we had grown to about 40. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but by the time the game started there were about 65 Americans crowded into the Purple Turtle, and by half time, about 80. It was a great place to watch the game. And it turned out to be an awesome game. The US won. The Purple Turtle blasted Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the USA' because they knew that's the exact song we sing in celebrations such as that.
After the game, we - regretfully - had to leave our Miley singing friends behind because we had reservations at a very, very nice restaurant. A couple months before our trip, a list of the top 50 restaurants in the world came out. Number 12, La Colombre, was in Cape Town. Reservations were made shortly after the list was published. I could proably dedicate a post, possibly a book about the experience. We had a 5 course meal paired with local wine. It was an amazing time. The food was perfect - every bite a vacation. And wine - five glasses - is never a bad thing. To add to the magic, the meal cost $65. Five courses! At the 12 best restaurant in the world!
Fell asleep full, drunk, happy in our hostel surrounded by gang warfare.
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