You don't need a holiday- you need Cape Town

A brilliant ad campaign found on buses all over Cape Town- I guess you could say I’m a huge pawn for advertising but honestly, I instantly fell in love with this city much more immediately than I anticipated. Ever since we arrived in Joburg, people have been asking us if we’d been to Cape Town yet, and when we said ‘oh no, not yet!” they told us that had to go IMMEDIATELY and that we’d LOVE it and never want to leave. And yes, they were right.

We left ridiculously early the morning after my birthday, arriving in Cape Town after only a 2 hour flight. The first view of the city were these huge, gorgeous mountains surrounded by fog in the distance. We stayed at Penthouse on Long, which was this awesome hostal that was a bit off the seriously hectic part of Long Street, where all the action is in the central part of Cape Town. Lauren and I dropped our stuff off, and started exploring the neighborhood around our hostal. We stumbled upon the Green Street market, which had tons of kiosks in this square, selling brightly coloured African jewelry and paintings, scarves, trinkets made from beads, and tons of other stuff. We found this adorable Dutch Coffeehouse where we knocked back some caffeine and then wandered some more around the city, checking out the used bookstores, touristy shops and finding an AMAZING Mexican restaurant (or maybe it was only amazing because I’ve seriously been craving Mexican food for about  3 months now).

Lauren chilling at Caveau, with fabulous pinotage wine

 We napped, then found went to this fabulous wine bar called Caveau, where the supposedly oldest vine in South Africa resides in the hotel attached to Caveau. Lauren and I enjoyed some amazing pinotage wine (my favourite type of South African red wine) and then met up with Matt, whom we met at Splashy and who lives in Cape Town. He introduced us to some local bars and then we met up with another Splashy friend Mike, and the rest of the night was a wonderful blur of Cape Town rooftop bars, divey Irish pubs, and culminating in a gay club that made me nostalgic for Boystown in Chicago.  Really a lovely, crazy night.

Splashy friends in Cape Town!

 Since we didn’t have a ton of time in Cape Town, Sunday we did the hop-on/ hop-off touristy bus that was such a great deal- it took us to some of the hotspots, like Kristenbosch botanical gardens, near the University of Cape Town, and we opted to take the Wine Tour bus, that took us to the oldest winery in the southern hemisphere, Groot Constantia that was unspeakably beautiful and the wine was phenomenal. We went to another winery, Eagle’s Nest, which we were nerdy excited for as our favourite show about attractive South African winemakers,Exploring the Vine, has focused on that vineyard. 

Really really excited to be at Eagle's nest

The tourist bus then took us along the coast back to the central part of Cape Town, passing all these glorious looking beaches, against the backdrop of craggy mountains. Beautiful. Reminded me so much of San Francisco! We spent the rest of the night at a kitschy restaurant, chilling and enjoying being on a mini vacay.

Gorgeous views at Groot Constantia

I think this is Hout's Bay. Beautiful!

I found Nelson Mandela at the Waterfront

Our last day (such a short trip!) we brunched, then hopped on the tourist bus again, this time going to Table Mountain, which is the “must-see” of Cape Town- a huge mountain that has views overlooking the city and the water. We were going to take the cable car to get to the top but the queue was absurd, so instead we took some pics, hopped back on the bus and checked out some more beaches, neighborhoods, the Waterfront, and ended up back on Long Street, where we did a bit of shopping, trying not to feel super sad at already having to leave. The pace is slower in CT than in Joburg but I loved the walkability of the city, the different nighborhoods, all the history, the gorgeous mountains and the WATER. I really miss living near the water, didn’t realize how much until I could smell it in the wind all around me.

View from Table Mountain. LOVE this city.
 

Overall, a short trip but a wonderful one. So so glad we got to go, and I’m going back in a few weeks before I get back to the States, which is all too soon...