Well, this past weekend turned out to be another eventful one here in
Cape Town. Once again, I'll break down days and give you a play by play
of each one. Here we go.
Friday: I went to work
on Friday and had a typical day at work. I am still really enjoying
working at Vivid Luxury and love the people that I work with because
every day is some sort of an adventure in the office. After work on
Friday, I came home and joined the MSU crew for our weekly Friday
drinking pregame. We all decided to venture out from the regular
Sideshow club and took a taxi out to Camps Bay (Camps Bay is a beautiful
city on the other side of the mountains and it is right on the water.)
We ended up going to a club right across from the water and had a really
good time!
Saturday: Earlier in the week, all
of the MSU guys decided to designate Saturday to a guys day. Kevin
arranged a beer tasting in Newlands, which is another part of Cape Town
(it is about a 20 minute train ride outside of the city that I am
staying in.) We arrived at Newlands Brewery, home of Castle Lager, which
is a really good beer that we consistently drink here in Cape Town, and
went in to start our tour. The tour was truly an awesome experience. A
woman walked us through the entire process of how they make, bottle, and
ship out their different beers. We went through the room where they
make all of the beer and saw all of the vats in which the beer is made
(they were four stories high and each one was able to hold enough beer
for an average person to drink one pint of beer a day for 300 years.) We
then continued into the bottling room and saw all of the machines that
put the beer into the bottles and then where they get the labels put on.
Also, in South Africa there is an urban legend that if you put the cap
back on you beer when you are finished drinking it, you will not wake up
with a hangover (I can testify that every almost all of us MSU students
have proved that legend to be wrong.) At then end of the tour, we were
escorted into a tavern in the brewery and we were provided with a beer
tasting of three beers, followed by two large beers that we got to
choose. After we finished, we took the train back home and met back up
with the girls. By the time nighttime hit, we were all exhausted and
decided against going out, but overall, Guys Day turned out to be a
great success, and will happen quite a few more times before we all head
our separate ways.
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| Outside of the Brewery |
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| The MSU guys |
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| Beer Tasting |
Sunday: Today was by far the best day of the weekend. I
woke up this morning and found out that everyone was planning on going
to a restaurant called Mzoli's, and while I wanted to have a chill day
which consisted of me doing nothing, I decided to jump on the band wagon
so that I didn't miss out on anything amazing. It turns out that the
restaurant nothing that I expected. It was located in a township outside
of the city, and for those of you who do not know what a township is,
copy and paste this link: http://www.eveandersson.com/photos/south-africa/cape-town-township-khayelitsha-30-large.jpg into your search bar.
It was truly an experience that I was not expecting to encounter on
this trip. The houses are so small and cramped, and there is hardly any
electricity and water. There are stray dogs running around looking for
food and people walking around the dirty roads with no shoes. I also
noticed that as our taxi drove through the township, the people on the
sides of the street looked at us as though we were aliens. I always
thought that I would be uncomfortable and nervous if I were to ever be
in an area like that, but what I felt was completely different. I felt
so bad that people actually live in those kind of conditions and people
like me see do not realize how grateful I am for simple things like
clean, running water and a roof over my head. As we arrived at the
restaurant, I saw that it was a very small run down building with huge
line outside of the front door. We got in line with no idea of what we
were getting ourselves into and after about twenty minutes of waiting,
we entered the buidling to find a deli counter fills with a ton of
uncooked meats. Huge pieces of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and sausage sat
in front of us, and when we were asked what we wanted, we all winged it
and through something out there. I ended up getting a huge steak (it
was almost a foot long) and sausage (also, both of these together came
to $4.00) After you get your raw meat, you head into a small back room
filled with a ton of ovens and grills and hand them your food, then
return a little while later to pick it up. While we were waiting for our
food, we went around the back of Mzoli's to the giant tent in which the
tables were under. When we walked back there, we saw a ton of people
not just eating, but dancing, drinking, and having a great time. There
was a DJ who was blasting different music and it turned out to be a huge
party, so we all enjoyed our food and drinks for a few hours, and
decided that this is going to be a Sunday ritual. Out of all of the
crazy things that I have done so far on my adventure in Cape Town,
Mzoli's is by far one of the best experiences that I have had.
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| Everyone dancing inside |
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| Te back where they cook the food |
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| Looks gross, but it was GREAT |
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| Mzoli's |
Like I said, once again this weekend was full of surprises and
adventures, and I have no idea what activities that the next few weeks
have in store for me, but I cannot wait to continue to share the
adventure with you guys. Peace and love.
Saturday: Last week, most of the MSU crew signed up for the Cape Point adventure that Connect-123 (the internship program that we are going through) was hosting. The day started bright and early, at about 8:30, when we had to meed the people down in our apartment building lobby and we e all boarded the bus to head to Cape point (Cape Point is the southern most point in the Western Cape!) We took a half hour bus ride to Simons Town (where I have already been) but stopped at Boulder Beach, which was nonetheless amazing. The name holds true, as there are huge boulders all along the coast, but the best part of the entire beach was that there were hundreds of penguins. There was a long walkway to the beach, and as you walked you could see penguins walking around and hanging out. Once we got to the beach, there were tons of penguins swimming, sleeping, and just hanging out on the beach (as you can see in the picture, some were getting it on as well) We stood there and watched them for a little while, then walked a little ways down the coast to a restaurant called Berthas. Oh Berthas. Dear Lord. This restaurant was absolutely terrible. There was nobody in the restaurant except for the Connect-123 kids (there was about 20 of us) and the service was horrific. It took about 25 minutes for us to get waters, and another 45 minutes (at least) to get our food (also, don't order milkshakes there unless you want to wait another 50 minutes....no joke) Anyways, Berthas was terrible. So, we left, still hungry even after eating, and headed to Cape Point. The trip turned around real quick because the drive was breathtaking. We were driving along the coast and there was nothing but mountains and ocean in sight. When we arrived at Cape Point, we had to had to hike quite a ways to the top, but once we got there, it was one of the prettiest views that I have seen in this country. We were on a giant cliff, looking out to the clear blue waters. There was a lighthouse at the top with a wall surrounding it, but you could climb over the wall and stand on the edge of the cliff (I was not too excited about that, but after I did it I felt somewhat accomplished.) After Cape Point, we got back on the bus and headed to The Cape of Good Hope, which was another beautiful scene. There was HUGE kelp that was all over the beach and waves that were crashing into the rocks. We took some pictures, got back on the bus, then headed back to the City Bowl. Later that night, we went out to a bar called Jackal and Hyde, had a few too many drinks, then headed home.
