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laurenborrelli · 6 years

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Lekkerrrr

When I moved to Boston 3 years ago, I got a text within my first 48 hours saying Kate and Daniel had booked a trip to visit the following weekend. The weekend of their visit, I distinctly remember Dan telling me he was interested in applying to University of Pittsburgh because of their study abroad program in Cape Town, South Africa. And then 3 years later he was attending that program through Pitt and I booked a flight to visit!

Dan is my childhood neighbor and 5 years younger. So I had to mentally prepare to be around kids that were barely 21 years old...AND tackle it as my first semi-solo trip. Not to mention I was able to use credit card points and fly for FREE!

Itinerary:

Wednesday, November 29th 2017: My flight departed Boston in the evening and I arrived at my layover destination in the AM. With a 9 hour layover in Munich, I ventured outside the airport to the Christkindlmarkt in the city center. With a full belly of sausage, one (ok two) gluhwein, and new cashmere scarf to keep me warm during the snowfall, I headed back to the airport nice and tired. Topping off with more hefeweizen (best type of beer to drink solo!) at the airport, I at least boarded verrrry sleepy for my 12 hour flight to Cape Town.

Friday: FINALLY arrived in South Africa around lunch time! Since Dan’s semester had just ended, the school let us stay there for a crazy affordable price. Would have been good to know that before we booked the airbnb in CBD...(theme with 21 y/o’s lol). A couple dead cockroaches in the kitchen and no central wifi BUT I had an incredible view of table mountain from my bedroom window. We spent most of this day booking tours / airbnb’s for the rest of the trip.

Saturday: We went to the Woodstock Market in the late morning. Half is local food vendors and the other half is local artists selling jewelry, household goods, clothes, you name it! Oh yeah and there was a DJ in the center right next to an aperol spritz station. I mean...what could be more perfect?!? Started with an amazing pour over and some stuff avocado. Then moved on to a spritz while I bought some awesome jewelry and a vegan leather clutch. I could have stayed here alllll day! And i probably spent less then $30 USD total. Then we headed to the central business district (CBD) to check out the Company’s Gardens. It is a beautiful public with a really awesome natural irrigation system for their vegetation. AND super cool mega sized whicker baskets as swings and tree houses. We grabbed fresh Juice on Long Street and ordered flights to try from brewery Beerhouse. A quick freshen up and we grabbed dinner on the waterfront meet up with some of his friend’s.

Sunday: Dan was super sweet in arranging a day to hang to check out the newly finished Zeitz Contemporary Museum of Art! It’s superrrr sick - a restored grain factory turned into museum. Concrete was cast around the old silos, which created a traditional deceiving form on the exterior. While the interior is just the reverse - a HUGE curvilinear entrance with a skeleton of a pterodactyl very Game of Thrones like in the center. A guy who worked in Dan’s study abroad office was a recent architecture grade from the University of Cape Town - so he joined us on our day of touring architecture! In fact, he is the one that told me there was a bit of an uproar of a British architect being selected for Africa’s first contemporary art museum. The attention to detail and design was immaculate in the city - makes it hard to believe there were no African-based architecture offices that couldn’t have tackled the challenge... We then checked out the watershed project. It’s an old industrial boat storage facility turned host for local artist vendors on the ground floor and communal “we work” style offices on teh second floor. Once again, a SUPER cool space!!! (BTW - this will be the theme of my architecture comments for this trip). The enclosed food market next door was a perfect stop for lunch. After walking around the waterfront some more, we made our way over to Camp’s Bay to watch the sunset. This area reminded me a lot of Southern California w/o the prices plus mountains in the background. Truly it was the most stunning sunsets I have ever enjoyed (and wth a spritz too!). Quite possibly my favorite day in Cape Town of the trip!!

Monday: It was a big weekend of activities for Dan so he slept in while I wandered around a bit on my own! Started with trying the world’s strongest cup of coffee at Haas Coffee (great I would only need one cup this morning!). Then went to the District Six Museum - which is a museum dedicated to the district segregated and then bull-dozed down during apartheid. Really heartbreaking but an excellent intro to how it has only been 50 years since this epidemic happened! To put into perspective, my parents were born before this happened (sorry for the age exposure mom and dad)! I then grabbed lunch and took the scenic route from the V/A Waterfront allll the way down to Clifton Beach. Stunning views, beautiful weather, and a good opportunity to see what South Africa’s non-working people are doing along the water at this time of day. They consisted of surfers, mothers and sitters pushing kids in strollers, LOTS of people running or roller blading, and a handful of “lookers” that suddenly stop what they are doing when you walk by. The beach is tucked between a bunch of wealthy homes in a pretty private location. A great spot to water-color the ocean crashing into seals on the rocks beyond! After much relaxing, I headed home for a quick change before Dan and I headed to hike Lion’s Head at sunset. An easy hike but the views are stunninggggg. Ended the evening with take-out of a Cape Town quintessential BFA (bacon feta avocado) pizza.

Tuesday: Walked to grab coffee in the nearby neighborhood of Rondebosch and then took a car to the beautiful, traditional Bo-Kaap neighborhood! Vividly painted stucco buildings line the streets and are very well preserved amongst the expanding urbanism surrounds. We took a cooking class with Cape Malay cuisine. The culture descends from Southeast Asian, but brought to Cape Town through the Dutch Indian Trade Company. So the cuisine has a interested blend of all three cultures - deep curry flavors with just enough spice for white people to tolerate LOL. Great day learning more about the history and making amazing, brand-new dishes! With very full bellies and a very strong sun overhead, we noodled to Camp’s Bay beach with a handful of Dan’s classmates. They were a bit of a handful and we had to lay on every piece of clothing so it wouldn’t get swept up in the immense ocean wind, but the views were stunning! We ended the night with trivia at a local bar. Luckily we had a couple South Africans on our team, so they were able to help us answer “what is the most played African song in foreign films.”

Wednesday: Dan and I headed to CBD to pick up a rental car for our trip outside of the city! We drove along swerve-y, cliffy edge road from Camps Bay, down through Hout Bay, down to the Cape of Good Hope! It’s basically a national park with...wild baboons roaming around! We went to the lighthouse at the Cape Peninsula and it was so windy I was scared to take my phone out in case it would fly away! Awesome perspective of the peninsula if you had a strong enough grip of the railing surrounding you!! I did a bit of hiking around the rocky cliffs while Dan and his friend Allie took lots of selfies around the water. We then checked into out ocean-front apartment in St. James that was so. freaking. BEAUTIFUL! Unreal views, unreal price, unreal sunsets/sunrises. Even got to see whales breaching form the balcony!! We finished the day by grabbing dinner and drinks from the great restaurant Tiger’s Milk in Muizenberg.

Thursday: I started with a sunrise run along a beautiful ocean-front path that went right by all the morning surfers in Muizenberg and the super man-made formed but naturally resourced ocean pools in St. James. We then hopped in the car for a morning snorkeling with seals, to only find the currents and wind were too strong. :( Instead we headed to check out the legendary warm-weather penguins at Boulders Beach. I grabbed some coffee, and a meat/cheese delicious hot-pocket style snack for lunch, and we headed the immaculate Noordhoek Beach. Bright white sand, turquoise water with minimal waves - never seen a more beautiful beach! So stunning and barren, for some very strange reason...maybe the large number of horse flies? LOL despite getting swarmed it was so hard to not want to get swallowed up in the beautiful vista. Even if I did leave with over twenty bites on my legs alone. We headed home and while those two napped, I walked down to check out the shopping in Kalk Bay. Also shops and the store owners were all super friendly - one woman’s husband photographs architecture professionally! After stirring them awake we headed to Muizenberg to watch the surfers at sunset and check out the infamous painted beach shacks. We bounced around at a couple out door bars before ending up at the great Tiger’s Milk.

Friday: Another sunrise run and yoga on the deck. I grabbed coffee at the super cute shop blonde + beard in Muizenberg, then we jumped in the car to head back to Cape Town. We moved into a different university student housing buildling upon our return...and this is the point where I decided it was worth spending the money for a nice apartment not in the college area of the city. We went to a natural watering hole only known to locals/students. Amazing views of table mountain and the water was super clean and hella refreshing. We grabbed dinner at an Indian restaurant close by then headed to drinks at Yours Truly on Kloof Street. My. Favorite. Bar. HANDS DOWN! Different DJ each level, awesome craft brews and cocktails, beautiful string lights and plants climbing up the terraces, super funky furniture, and people rocking all different trendy outfits. Dan’s friends felt out of place but I freaking loved it!! Finally I caved with how much they were itching to leave, and we grabbed Italian food down the block. We then stopped at their favorite 21 y/o hangout sgt pepper on Long Street and I hung on the smoker’s deck with Dan while his friends had a couple items stolen from them on the sweaty dance floor.

Saturday: Time for our wine tour! $60 for a round-trip bus to the infamous wine town of Stellenbosch. Tasting #1 included an array of cheese. Tasting #2 was in a beautiful outdoor garden. Tasting #3 tour of a cute farm where we tried wine from the syringe! Plus a fullll traditional braai (barbeque). Tasting #4 tiny little private winery. Tasting #5 pairing with Chocolate! Best part was bonding with everyone else on our tour!! An american couple on grad school holiday, an older couple with one descendent of Upper Saint Clair, super cool British couple my age, older British couple who have travel to 80% of the world, and a British dad with his daughter about my age who works in an art gallery. Great convos about how crazy Trump is but it humanized the U.S. to not be this great country anymore, to why haven’t I signed up to do bungee jumping yet, to you are crazy for staying with a bunch of 21 y/o’s up until now! Left with lots of souvenirs and great memories!! Brought my stuff to my new adorable apartment downtown and crashed during the sunset while watching elf on Netflix.

Sunday: Headed out solo to grab coffee/breakfast and then check out the Castle of Good Hope. Strangely enough there was a cross fit competition taking place in the main courtyard, so that was a bit entertaining to peak at in between taking in all the history. It was a dutch fort along the East India Trate Route to Indonesia - but more specifically acted as the home base during teh British invasions. Free tours are given by of the military museum and the inter-workings of the castle which turned out to be very light and engaging! I think picked Dan up and we went to the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Amazing variety of wildlife here and a good chance to hang with Dan one-on-one. We went to Moju Market and drove by a crowd letting out for the Springbok Rugby game. Now those fans where some crazy costumes! The market was superrrr lekker (va bene in Afrikaan). There was a station for trendy oysters, a “salad bae” stand, local wines shop, curry shop - everything plus an elevated ocean view. Awesome way to fuel up before Dan and I conquered a Table Mountain hike the next day.

Monday: I grabbed breakfast at the adorable Skinny Legs cafe and then coffee and beans at Origin Coffee Roastery. Both make my mouth water thinking about them (and their beautiful interiors too!). Then when to meet Dan at Kirstenbosch, where the beginning of our hike up Table Mountain began. Started pretty steep, up wooden ladders in woodsy areas. At the top we stumbled upon a completely barren water source. It looked to be a collection spot for a small reservoir. The water was unnaturally a rainbow gradient and was in a bit of a small canyon - making it seem like people were going to jump out at any moment like the hunger games. We randomly heard a siren here too, making us jumping in our pants even more! We then continued along the top of table which is mostly huge boulders - but it started to get windier. We soon found that it was too windy at the top for the gondola to take us down! So we had to bare the exposed edge by foot! This was seriously soooo hard because any time we would hear a huge wind gust coming, we would have to duck and hold onto any possible branch around us. Took a while it felt such a rush of accomplishment as we ate at an Indian buffet afterwards!

Friday: Last day! My flight was leaving in the evening, so i tried to squeeze in as much as I could! Morning at Clifton Beach then lunch of mussels and a glass of chenin blanc at the waterfront with Dan. Was able to do a little shopping at the artist in the waterfront too - most sold awesome sustainable home goods too! Probably did the most shopping / consuming of good food/drink this trip - but thats because it was all my style, amazing flavors, accessible, and reallllly affordable! I’m already counting this as one of my top 3 favorite cities and I can’t wait to go back and visit!!!

What brought me excitement:

Design Aesthetic: Yes the city is BUMPING with architecture, both new and old. Now this may sound crazy, but when i walked into a basic enterprise office in the CBD, something struck me. I followed the datum of the square floor tile, that then aligned with the line of small stair landing, that then aligned with the rectangular wall base, that then aligned wth the curtainwall mullion. MY JOB IS TO ALIGN FINISHES FOR A MUSEUM! How do these simple alignments just happen in the least design conscious interior spaces?! Still blows my mind the attention to detail and craft the culture just exudes. And it is oh so clear in every interior of every store, restaurant, coffee shop, boutique, refurbished space. Really inspiring as someone in the design field!! Nothing boujee or over the top either, all very minimalist, modern, simple, earthy designs - amazing!

Cultural Blend: My first day at the beach, there were a bunch of middle school age kids that all playing soccer together. A girl in a hijab kicking a ball to a blonde haired boy kicking to a black boy . The integration of the future generation was so heart-warming to see it made my eyes ACTUALLY well up! I’m not kidding too!! It’s location is an ideal spot for not just europeans on holiday, but a great stretch of immigrants from the middle east and asian as well! I can’t wait to come back in just 5 years and see how progressive it will be!!

What left me uneasy:

White Guilt: Learning how recent apartheid and many racist epidemics had occurred, it really left a sinking feeling in my stomach. I felt guilt vacationing here because I didn’t want any locals (no matter their ethnicity) to feel like I was taken advantage of their home. I didn’t want it to seem like I had some money to spend so I was creating a larger economic divide and taking anything away from the locals. It was probably the biggest guilt I have ever felt, even though it wasn’t me personally who had done those hurtful injustices. But it is up to me to stand up for those that are still getting hurt today. It certainly empowered me to not bat an eye and turn a shoulder when something is happening you don’t believe in.

Water Crisis: At first I was wondering why toilet’s in the student housing were never flushed! Then i realized it was to preserve water. They were in a serious crisis and I didn’t fully understand it still we were at our airbnb in St. James. I remember standing at the sink washing my hands, looking straight ahead at the 180 degree ocean view. After drying my hands, I stepped on the balcony to take in the view even more. A line of people about 100′ away caught my eye and I realized they were waiting at a public water source. The government has shut down water to certain neighborhoods - unfairly. These people weren’t stumbling out of overcrowded buses - they were coming with buckets out of private cars in nice clothes. I felt sooooo guilty that I had a water source right here yet these people are waiting for this small spigot down the street. Would the airbnb host downstairs be pissed if set a couple of buckets of water outside for these people? But also, how could the host bat an eyelash and not be wanting to do the same thing? This tore at my gut throughout this entire trip.

Safety: Cape Town is a very walkable, and even bikable city! Unfortunately i didn’t realize how much I had to worry about safety even during the day. I do look like the native Afrikaan, as many people spoke it to me before I spoke English back. However, I think the economic divide is still too much for there to not be some animosity between the various parties. It made me feel a little limited, that I couldn’t safely take the public train to the beach or rent a bike along the coast - all things I take for granted in my day to day life.

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