A little bit of everything in Cape Town

This post is about a food-filled, fun-filled, friend-filled weekend (April 16-17 to be exact).  All you foodies (Swainer this one goes out to you) prepare to be jealous of my adventures! 

The weekend started with a goal: to explore things in Cape Town.  There were no set plans or agenda, just a desire to see new things.  Hannah and I decided to wake up early to get this adventure going.  We started with a stop at Old Biscuit Mill aka Food Lover’s Paradise.  About ten minutes away from where I live, this Saturday food market is unreal.  Local food vendors set up shop and it’s literally just a day of amazing food.  It’s a must-do in Cape Town.

Since we were up so early, we found in necessary to get omelettes.  They were quite tasty!  

We spent an hour or so browsing around (while enjoying some yummy food samples), then decided we wanted to go into the city!  At this point, Ali and Jesse had both called us wanting to meet up.  After killing some time browsing in the vintage/trendy clothing shops nearby, we all got together.  Neither Ali nor Jesse had eaten breakfast and Hannah was in search of some art museum, so we proceeded to walk around the area known as Woodstock.  Unfortunately, the art gallery was closed, but fortunately, we found a cute and yummy restaurant called Superette.  (Disclaimer: Hannah and I had basically eaten at 8:30 and by this time it was about 11 so it was totally valid for us to be hungry again.  I think…)  We enjoyed a relaxing breakfast – I got yogurt, fruit, and muesli of course – and we decided to carry on with our day.  By the way, I was really into the ceiling decoration!  Mom, you'll love this.

The area of Woodstock we were in was so cool!  It’s sort of the trendy, creative area of the city so there are really neat coffee shops and boutiquey stores.  In attempts to be frugal/active humans, we decided to walk into the city.  It was probably about a 20 minute walk.  

What started off as a chilly morning quickly became pretty hot.  My decision to wear dark pants and a long sleeved shirt was not ideal.  Luckily, we stopped at a market where Ali bought a green maxi dress.  She let me wear it for the rest of the day in order to spare me from my poor clothing choice.

We took a historical "pit stop" on our way into the city and decided to go on a tour of the Castle of Good Hope, a fort built by the Dutch East India Company during Cape Town's colonization.  The touring areas were limited, but it was interesting to learn about the landmark and how it was used.  It looked like they were setting up for a wedding later that day!

At this point, we decided to head down to the V&A Waterfront where we'd heard of yet another really great food market.  (Somehow I manage to befriend foodies everywhere I go!)  Hannah really wanted a bubble tea and this place is known for them.  Meanwhile, I discovered potentially the best frozen yogurt I've ever had.  Quite the find.

The day really consisted of a lot of walking so by this time it was about 4:30.  We had heard Cape Town Carnival was going on later in the evening, so Hannah and I decided to hang out near the waterfront until it started.  We had about 3 hours to kill so we walked around a mall and did other productive things such as purchase headlamps for our upcoming spring break camping trip.  The carnival was really neat!  I'm still a little confused as to what exactly inspired it, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  There was tons of live music, colorful floats, and parade dancers.  All ages were involved - both in the crowd and in the actual parade.  These are pictures of my favorite floats and costumes of the night!

We'd walked roughly 6 km, had eaten four different meal/snacks (oh yea, Hannah and I got sushi before the parade started), had been to two different food markets, a historical castle, and a festive parade.  I'd say that was a pretty eventful Saturday!

Sunday was just as spontaneous as Saturday.  After spending the afternoon by the pool, Fallon asked if some of us wanted to join her at a restaurant where we'd be seeing a friend of hers' band play.  I got ready within about 15 minutes (shower and all) and we made it to the train stop just in time.  A 30 minute train ride later and we were literally standing on the water's edge.  The train goes along the coast and the ride is stunning!  The restaurant entrance is legitimately right next to the train tracks, too!  The place we were at was called Brass Bell.  These pictures don't even begin to do it justice, but they help give some sort of idea!  I loved when water would come spilling over the wall in the back - it was like a mini waterfall in the ocean!  This is Fallon and Franny, two of my roommates!

These are my friends Jen, Hannah, and Fallon.

The music was great and the setting was beautiful.  I can't wait to go back!