South Africa - The Conclusion!

I got a little lazy for awhile and blog!! But here goes my attempt to catch up! 

South Africa was great!! We did just about everything you'd want to do in South Africa in the winter time. We took a tour of the city from a sailboat, we did an all day long winery tour of the Stellenbosch region where I was quite tipsy from 10 AM onward, we spent a lot of time in the Victoria & Albert waterfront, went to the top of Table mountain in cable cars, too a bus tour of the entire area, went the the aquarium, and shopped the markets (one day just missing bill clinton by an hour!). We also went to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and our tour guide was an ex political prisoner. 

My favorite area was Camps Bay. The locals called it mini Miami, but if it was, it was REALLY mini. There was a strip of a block or two that had a bunch of restaurants and a few shops. There was this tiny shop called Sinnful Ice Cream that made their own and let me tell you, their coconut still haunts my sleep it was THAT amazing!!  We ate in the area after the tour of table Mountain. All the restaurants had outdoor seating and so we picked a place called Salt & Pepper or something like that. Dining in South Africa was great because not only was the food good, it was really cheap. They were big on their game meats so you could get a 200g fillet for the equivalent of $15-$17. Actually, I whole Ruth's Chris quality meal for that. It was pretty amazing. We ate A LOT of meat. Ostrich is a big industry there, so that was often on the menu as well. At a tapas place called Fork (which was my most favorite place we ate) we even at Kudu, which the waitress said was a type of Gazelle! Crazy. But actually, I think my most favorite tapa there was this giant ravioli with ricotta and a poached egg inside that had a bit of a kick to it. Amazing!! It was so good, I made Andrew eat there twice! 

I still can't get over the huge gap between the haves and have nots... it was terrible. Around the waterfront and the really heavily touristy areas, it wasn't that bad, but we stayed in the heart of Cape Town and you saw so so much. We were almost scammed at an ATM in the lobby of really nice bank! Looking back, we should've seen it, but the men were friendly and dressed nicely, so we didn't think anything of it. To sum it up, there were two guys chatting me up while the main guy tried to pull the scam on Andrew. Luckily Andrew had his wits about him because I missed the whole thing and at one point, the scammer actually had our bank card in his sleeve!! Never ever enter your PIN in front of someone! It really shook us and reminded us that we really needed to pay attention to our surroundings at all times. 


I really liked our hotel though. It was recently renovated and really really friendly staff. Breakfast was included in our rate and they had top notch breakfasts!! I had poached eggs and sauteed mushrooms every morning and toast with homemade jams and fresh fruit and cheeses. It;s funny, I'm not a breakfast person AT ALL, but on vacation, when it's "free", I'm ALL over it . haha. 

The second game played in Capetown while we were there was Spain V. Portugal. That was much more exciting than the Cameroon/Netherlands one! The fans were crazy and again, the weather was great and the stadium gorgeous. The vuvuzela horns though, WORST invention EVER!! This little kid probably 9 year old kept kicking my chair and blowing his in my ear. I'm telling you, I have all the patience in the world especially with kids, but this one.... it took all my will power not to rip the horn from his hand and stomp it to pieces!! 

All in all, it was a REALLY great trip. I bet Cape Town is incredibly beautiful in the summer, but I don't think I ever need to go back. We did and saw everything and for a beach, there are a lot of beautiful ones a lot closer!! Definitely a fantastic experience though!! 

I was also really proud to be an American when we were there :)