Beer Tasting and Sunday Funday

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.

Outside of the Brewery

The MSU guys

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.

Everyone dancing inside

Te back where they cook the food

Looks gross, but it was GREAT

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.