EPIC Africa Vacay pt.5 Cape Town

CAPE TOWN
On Monday, we left Ilha in the morning and drove back to Monapo. After dropping Vonnie off and giving Misol a chance to repack, we headed to Nampula for our flight to Johannesburg. Originally, we were supposed to have a 1.5 hr. layover in Jo’burg before our flight to Cape Town, but our flight left Nampula over an hour late, and of course, we had to pick up our luggage and go through immigration and customs, so not surprisingly, we missed our connection to Cape Town. The good news was that South African Air has hourly flights to Cape Town until 9 PM, so we just had to get on the next flight. The bad news was that our Nampula – Jo’burg flight was operated by South African Airlink, and according to all of the SA agents we spoke to, Airlink is a completely different, unaffiliated airline, so SA couldn’t help us; we had to have Airlink rebook our flight. But of course, there were no agents at the Airlink counter, and when we called the Airlink customer service number, no one seemed able to help us. Finally, a random SA agent took pity on us and before we knew it, our bags had been checked and we were holding boarding passes for the next flight, which happened to be boarding in 4 minutes. Luckily, there was no one at the security line, and we were at the first gate after security, so we made it with time to spare. (I HATE HATE HATE AIRLINK! HATE! HATE! I had vowed never to fly them ever again after my agonizing experience with them coming back from Barcelona, but miray had booked the tix and I had no say… I hate them…)
By the way, it was FREEZING in Jo’burg! So cold that we could see our breath in the air! And Misol, of course, was in a tank top and skirt. (my teeth were literally chattering in the 10 minutes it took us to get from the plane to the bus to the terminal) We were worried that Cape Town would be really cold, too, but the weather has been great.
Cape Town is wonderful! I know this sounds totally spoiled, but it’s so great to be back in “civilization.” Shopping malls, metered taxis, and amazing restaurants. And the city itself is beautiful – it’s right on the water, so parts of it feel similar to San Francisco, but then there’s a giant mountain (Table Mountain) right in the middle of the city, which is very dramatic and beautiful. I can understand why so many people love Cape Town.
Our hotel is really nice. Clean white sheets on soft beds with great pillows. (THE COMFIEST BEDS EVERRRRR! I pretty much passed out as soon as I laid down in mine!) Gourmet chocolates on the beds for nightly turndown service. And best of all, no more geckos in the bathroom! Haha.
Our first day, we set out to walk to the V&A Waterfront, which is the touristy area of the city right near our hotel. But we got a little bit lost and ended up stumbling across the cutest little café! The food was delicious, and it was really cute inside. We liked it so much that we’re going back there tomorrow for breakfast. (my breakfast had a giant stack of bacon on it! mmmm like 20 pieces piled high! AHHHH)
After breakfast, we walked around the Waterfront a bit (there’s a giant mall with lots of high end stores, restaurants and even 2 movie theaters) and then headed to Green Market Square to check out the local craft market. Then we walked to the Mount Nelson Hotel, probably the most famous luxury hotel in Cape Town, for their famous buffet afternoon tea. We sat on the verandah of the lovely hotel and ate lots of delicious finger foods. I think our favorite thing was a puff pastry (shaped kind of like a mandoo) filled with this yummy creamy mushroom filling. I think we had at least 4 each! It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Mommy, we really wished you could have been with us!
After tea, we returned to the hotel to rest for a bit and then headed to a “small plates” style restaurant – instead of serving appetizer and entrée sized portions of their dishes, everything comes in a small portion so that you can sample a bunch of different things. We hadn’t really tried anything “African,” so we decided to try the ostrich and the kudu (looks kind of like a deer, but bigger). Both dishes were surprisingly tasty, as were all of the other dishes we ordered. We just wished we were with a larger group so that we could try more dishes!
Today, we decided to do the hop-on, hop-off bus to tour the city (we saved 10% because I happened to have my ticket stub from Istanbul, which was run by the same company!). Our first intended stop was Table Mountain (the mountain in the middle of the city), but unfortunately, the cable car to the top of the mountain was closed because it was so windy. Instead, we stayed on the bus to Camps Bay, which is a famous strip of restaurants/bars right on the beach. It was beautiful! We grabbed a table on the patio of a cute little bistro and just hung out for awhile, enjoying the view.
Then we got back on the bus and rode to Sea Point in search of a Korean restaurant that Misol had heard about from some of her friends. You should have seen the look of pure joy and excitement on Misol’s face when we finally found the restaurant! We wanted to order everything on the menu, but with only 2 of us, we were limited to a few dishes. The food was just ok by US standards but amazing by Misol’s Korean food-deprived standards. That meal should definitely tide Misol over until she gets to Seoul in December.
After lunch, we took the bus back to the V&A Waterfront area, where we decided to spend the rest of the day watching movies (Misol was adamant that we watch the final Harry Potter movie). This may sound like a waste of a day, but movies are so much cheaper in Cape Town than in the US! We ended up watching two 3D movies, and for all 4 tickets, we spent less than $15! Totally worth it!
Tomorrow, we’re planning on going back to Table Thirteen (the really cute café from our first day) for brunch, and then we’re off to wine country for some wine tasting and dinner. Only one more full day in Cape Town, so we have to make the most of it!
After enjoying 2 days in the mid-20s, we woke up Thursday to a gray day with an expected high of 17˚C. We headed back to Table Thirteen for a leisurely brunch, and then our private car picked us up for the drive to Franschoek. Our first stop was a very small winery called GlenWood. Given that we were there on an off-season Thursday, it wasn’t surprising that we were the only visitors. But it was nice because we got to chat with the woman running the tasting, and we were able to taste some lovely wines.
A taxi then picked us up to take us to our second tasting at Haute Cabriere. There, we were able to go on a cellar tour, followed by a tasting. It was pretty cool, except that we were joined by a group of drunk Australian travel agents who were pretty obnoxious. But after they finally left, when we expressed sympathy to the tour leader for dealing with such an obnoxious group, he thanked us by giving us another free glass of wine each.
By that point, we had about 2.5 hrs. until our dinner reservation and had originally planned to walk around “downtown” Franschoek (which is basically one street with lots of cute restaurants, galleries, shops and cafés), but it was so cold that we decided to pass the time in a really cozy café, drinking coffee/hot chocolate.
Dinner was at the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, and it was fantastic! It’s a fairly small dining room, with excellent service (especially by African standards, but even by US standards). We opted for the full nine course “Surprise Menu,” and Misol added the wine pairings (I had already had too much wine at our 2 earlier tastings). All of the food was so unique and interesting, with good use of local African ingredients and cooking methods. Definitely one of the more memorable meals I’ve had in recent memory.
After our lovely meal, our private car took us back to our hotel, where Misol crashed while I packed.
When we got to the airport this morning, we almost had a problem when we discovered that our flight had been canceled. Luckily, we were just in time to make an earlier flight, so we made it to Jo’burg without issue. After buying Misol one final meal of KFC, I sent her off to catch her flight back to Maputo.
And that, Family, concludes my 28 day adventure. It was an amazing trip, filled with tons of once in a lifetime experiences. Now I have to return to my real life, where there are lots of documents waiting to be signed, emails to be checked, and messages to be returned. I can’t believe I have to be back at work in two weeks. My two-month vacation has seriously flown by!