Well my last day in Cape Town was a suitably crazy one. Having gone out the night before on Long St. (the main Cape Town party street that has a decidedly colonial charm to) I woke up at a friend’s house Satuday morning in a somewhat sorry state, and unsure of how to get back to the hostel to make it to my hike. Looking outside I soon realized that the hike was not likely to happen – it was raining and foggy meaning that there would be no visibility from Table Mountain. Crap. Not one to sit around lamenting the weather I reluctantly woke up my host and explained the situation. We soon hatched a brilliant plan – it was a perfect day for a road trip to Franschoek!Packing ourselves into my friend’s car we first set off for the Biscuit Mill, which is a cute little warehouse district area that has been redone into artsey shops and food and alcohol stands. Naturally, what better way to avoid a hangover than gluhwine first thing in the morning along with some fresh made jalapeno rolls! The Biscuit Mill is incredibly charming and I highly recommend a visit if you’re in Cape Town. If (or rather, when!) I move here I plan to do most of my furniture, decoration and food shopping there.
As we wandered around slowly gathering strength and supplies for our trip we were stopped by a lady selling crystals. She offered to read our cards and though neither of us believes in that sort of thing the lady offered it for free. The thing is, she was amazingly good! She must just be really intuitive because she was eerily accurate in what she said. Kinda creeped me out! It was actually too personal to even share on a blog but yeah, if I am back there I kinda wanna go talk to her again. I mean the world is a strange place and really, you just never know.
Finally ready for the day we set off on the road and the pretty Huguenot wine region of Franschoek. I found it much prettier than Stellenbosch actually as there were more mountains and it seemed less touristy. Of course we did the requisite tastings. I really must say that I now officially have a new favourite varietal – the Pinotage – which apparently is of South African origin. Following lunch in a gorgeous fusion restaurant (I still can’t get over how cheap it is here!) we strolled around the pretty town in the now fully sunny day. Everything was going well until we walked up to my friend’s car and realized that it was in fact missing the front bumper! Thankfully there were people nearby who had seen what happened. Some guy had backed up into her car while it was parked. The damage was so severe that I can’t imagine how fast he had to be going. Luckily it had been reported so we went to the police station to get the details. The day only gets weirder from here and I won’t go into too many details for a variety of reasons but let’s just say that I have now seen the inside of two South African police stations, and have had the experience of driving in a car while seated next to its front bumper. Good times.
Last night I had a really solid sleep curled up next to a friend’s dog, and I am now sitting at Cape Town airport for my flight back to Jozi. I get to spend another day with Fleur, and then I am being picked up to go to tiny, rural Groblersdal in the African bush. Not entirely sure what to expect! Hopefully my net access will be steady enough to update this blog once a week at least from here on in...
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