Taste of Cape Town

This weekend a bunch of girlfriends and I ventured to Cape Town for one of the best times that I've had my entire stay in South Africa. On Saturday we all woke up, got dressed, and headed to the city via our favorite driver, Calvin. Our first stop for the weekend was the Neighbourgoods Market, a local market where restaurants, bars, up-and-coming fashion designers, and organic farmers bring their goods to sell. I am so obsessed with this place, it's unreal. Our first stop was, of course, the fashion tent. When I imagine heaven, this is what I think it will look like; tons of designers bring one of a kind pieces just begging me to buy them all. Seriously, I think the clothes were speaking to me. I pranced around for about an hour until my friends successfully dragged me to the food tent. I can't say I was that sad, though..

There's a delicious organic hot dog stand at the entrance of the food tent, and since I am a big fan of instant gratification it's usually my first stop. The "hot dog boy" (a name we've given the cute owner of the stand) actually remembered us, which was pretty exciting. There's nothing like being a regular at a hot dog stand to make you realize you should probably renew that old gym membership, though. We wandered around the food tent for a while, enjoying all of the yummy free samples and adorable South African accents. The entire market is just the definition of "cute."

Yummy fruits and veggies brought in by local farmers.

These homemade, organic smoothies are probably the best I have EVER had!

Sam, Lo and I spent a lot of time at this honey stand. I swear if you combined all of the free samples we devoured it would total up to over a jar of honey. 

My mom would love this quiche!

YES PLEASE?! I want one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Who knew food could be so darn cute?

Real live bagels! These are the first any of us have seen in four months, and while it may sound weird, it was probably one of the more exciting parts of the day.

After eating ourselves silly, we walked around some of the shops that surround the tents. There are so many amazing places to spend money, I was definitely on sensory overload.

This is what basically all of the shops look like: precious. It really reminds me of Salado, which made me feel like I was at home! I love the chalkboard wall, too. I definitely want one in my house!

A for Amanda, duh.

Lo and I standing outside at the market!

After hours of spending a bit too much money, it was time to head to our hostel on Long Street, in downtown Cape Town. Long Street is basically like the 6th Street of South Africa. Needless to say, we were a bit excited.

Sam and I in our room at the hostel. The door in this picture led out onto a really awesome balcony that overlooked Long Street. Very "New Orleans" of you, South Africa.

The girls and I had the bright idea of pretending like we were in the city for a bachelorette party so we wouldn't have to pay for anything, and because a ring of mine kind of resembles an engagement ring I was the lucky bride-to-be. But you can't expect me to agree without a proper engagement!

Before the engagement. Sam's practically begging...

"Well, I guess so."

WE'RE ENGAGED! Just look at that happy couple.

After goofing off at the hostel for a while we decided to go grab a bit to eat, and celebrate our engagement, of course!

Me, Lo and Sam at a really awesome bar/restaurant on Long Street.

The view from our table was amazing. We could see the clouds rushing over Table Mountain!

The inside of the restaurant was decorated really awesome. It totally reminds me of Austin, TX!

On the way to our hostel from the restaurant we passed a MEXICAN FOOD RESTAURANT. I really can't stress enough how excited I was. I actually started doing a Mexican hat dance, I kid you not. Two dinners? Don't mind if I do.

We went to The Mexican Kitchen for some good ol' chips and salsa, and while it was clearly not actual Mexican food, I was still excited nonetheless.

After devouring a basket of chips in just short of 30 seconds, we headed back to the hostel to nap before the main event of the weekend: Taste of Cape Town. (I didn't realize until writing this that our weekend basically consisted of eating a ton of food. Um, oh well). Taste of Cape Town is a big event where countless restaurants and wineries bring some of their best dishes, in tapas sizes, for people to taste test. The girls and I bought the R160 tickets, which get you unlimited wine tasting (CHA-CHING!) and R100 worth of "crown points," the currency used at the event. Each dish was anywhere from 4-7 crown points, so it was a really great deal.

The girls and I waiting to enter Taste of Cape Town.

Counting our crown points, it got a bit confusing.

One of the menus at a restaurant was a map of Africa! So cool!

Sam and I goofing off with Lo's camera.

I will never understand how we pull things like this off, but somehow we landed a spot in the VIP section of the Patron tent. I blame the American accent..

Sam and I joking around, go figure!

After spending all of our crown points and tasting all that our stomachs would allow, we headed back to the hostel to change and go out for the night!

But not before channeling our "inner child" and jumping on the bed for a while.