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.

Would You Like Some Cheese With That Wine?

This Saturday Sam and I woke up at the crack of 10:00 and headed to the Stellenbosch Cheese & Wine Festival. After a few complications with our mode of transportation (i.e. we didn't have one) we arrived at the most glorious field of cheese and wine I have ever laid eyes on. We spent the entire day tasting yummy foods, yummier wine, and teaching a few lucky South Africans a thing or two about good ol' Texas two stepping!

Our new goat friend

We really enjoy taking pictures with livestock

Yes, this is taken from an actual menu. SERIOUSLY.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

The moment we had all been waiting for came at 7:30 in the morning on the 21st -- it was time to head to Namibia! For those of you who are geographically inept, Namibia is the country just north of South Africa, and the river we canoed all week, the Orange River, serves as the border between the two countries.

I had been on a workout kick for a couple weeks and decided I was determined enough to wake up at 6:00 that morning to do some kickboxing before we left for the ~10 hour car ride. Everyone was making fun of me, saying they were absolutely positive that I wouldn't get up in time, which made me that much more determined. After setting about 3 alarms I went to bed, planning to workout, pack, and shower in the morning. I'm sure you can all guess that my friends were correct, and I actually woke up somewhere around 7:23 in the morning. That gave me exactly 7 minutes to pack, shower, and get downstairs to catch the bus. Classic.

After boarding the bus, I quickly sealed the deal in a seat by myself (SCORE!) and proceeded to do what I do best on road trips: pass the heck out. I would like to say I enjoyed the scenery but to be completely honest, I'm quite sure I slept for 3/4 of the entire drive.

That evening we arrived at Felix, the base camp for our Orange River adventure. We all expected to be sleeping in beautiful, resort-style rooms before setting out on the open water. WRONG. Upon arrival we were told that we would be, in fact, sleeping outside. As in, not even in a tent. I would hardly say we were "roughing it", though. Felix has an awesome pool and a really cool outdoor bar so we had plenty to keep us occupied.

This is the pool and view of the Orange River from Felix.

Here are some more views from the site:

The next morning it was time to start our canoeing adventure!

Kenzie's sister, Torie, came all the way from Wisconsin!

We lined up all of our canoes, packed everything we needed for the week into a small waterproof bucket, and hit the river!

For the next three days we woke up, canoed all day, and slept under the stars at the nearest campsite. At our first campsite we unloaded our things and I immediately started hiking to the top of the cliff we were sleeping alongside.

The views from up top were amazing! (That's me laying down on the edge, one of my new favorite things to do, much to my friend Lo's dismay).

The view of our first campsite from the top of the cliff. That group of sleeping bags near the bushes is where my friends and I slept.

Home sweet home!

The first night we were all so tired from waking up at the crack of dawn that I think I fell asleep before 10 pm, which was good because the next morning was another early one!

We stopped at a sand bar in the middle of the day to swim and hang out in the water. Some of us played frisbee, while the rest decided to play a game of touch rugby with some kids from another canoe group. It was actually embarrassing how badly we got beaten by a group of 10 year old boys, but what can I say, South Africans know a thing or two about rugby. 

There were so many of us "pulled over" to play in the water.

Playing frisbee in the Orange River!

By the middle of the trip I started to get a little more brave, unlike Sami who was told that she could get stuck in a whirlpool for over 5 minutes. Thanks a lot, guide, for telling her that one...

After a bit of convincing I got Sami to teeter-totter with me on the canoe!

...And threw her a curve ball by flipping off!

When I wasn't flipping or scaring Sam by pointing out fake whirlpools, I spent most of the day serenading the group. "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..."

We arrived to the third campsite on Easter Sunday and were all surprised with chocolate eggs from the guides! After devouring about 7 of them, a few of us decided to play a nice, tame game of capture the flag. I'm sure you can guess how it ended, as most games do, someone got hurt. Poor Zach took one for the team and dislocated his shoulder, but not before capturing the other teams flag and sealing the win for TEAM AMERICA!

Setting up camp for our third night. Those were the waterproof buckets we kept all of our things in.

In true Amanda fashion, I hiked to the top of this really awesome cliff near where we were staying. I guess it's a control thing, but I really love seeing my surroundings from so high up! (And it's necessary to scout out snakes and baboons, of course).

The view from the top of the cliff our third night.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed back to base camp! We spent that night at Felix, hanging out by the pool and the bar until the wee hours of the night, got about an hour of sleep, and headed back to South Africa in the morning!