Helen Mirren's: To be with another woman, that is French. To be caught, that is American.

Last night (full night, anyway) in Cape Town! I posted most of my pics from Cape Point on fb, but brief recap and a few others...

So this was Monday, which was a holiday for us, Women's Day.

I think I spent it fairly well, starting with some beach sites! Camp's Bay is the trendiest beach, but to be honest, I'm not a huge beach person unless we're gonna be in Thailand.

There is a long windy drive up Chapman's Peak, which is ideal for photos!

Even if you look like I do. At least I have my uber-cool Lund University shirt. ;)

Baboons! They are actually really aggressive since people have fed them too long, so what you can't see are the patrol guys who sort of scare them away with belts. Yikes.

The Cape of Good Hope. There was champagne, oh yes.

It actually started to get a little stormy, but cleared up shortly thereafter.

Yup, Cape of Good Hope, there it is.

See, I wasn't lying. It went EVERYWHERE, probably since it had warmed up a little. It was fun, though.

Pretty!

Got to see a bunch of pingus. This was just one.

More pretty. End of the day.

The next night I hung out with G, who took me to Woodstock Lounge near her house. They have a great fire and great wine, I would live there.

Also got to go to Mama Afrika, known for their music, local food and must-book-status. Here you see my ostrich steak, which was unreal.

Great band, I am blanking on their name and will come back to add it in! I bought their CD, though!

Love the rocking chair as well as the, why yes it is, a Coke bottle chandelier.

Ok, then I started a real blog entry earlier today:

Saturday, I started off the morning at Cucina Paparazzi in Cape Town with DM, where we had a leisurely English breakfast. The place has an Italian name but a heavily German menu, it’s a bit strange. But it’s near the book store, where we usually go after. I picked up the third Stieg Larsson book last time, to keep me company on the long-ass trip home. I’ve been trying not to read it, and even though I have made a small dent, I think it’s still bulky enough to entertain me on the way back to Beantown.

We ran into a couple other friends at the station, including one guy from my office who was insanely hung over. I was on the way to Biscuit Mill, this giant food and vendor market, located near Woodstock. (Woodstock is a little dodgy, from what I have been able to tell, but this was daytime and not a problem.) Woodstock is one stop past Cape Town. My hung over office mate lives in Woodstock and said he’d point me in the right direction, so we left everyone else behind on the train at Woodstock. I felt bad for him because he’s usually quite bubbly and sweet, and I really think he was just trying desperately not to vomit! But he pointed me in the right direction, which was quite easy. Main Road is literally one giant road that goes through the whole area, and it seems like everything is on or just off Main Road. If you walked straight down it forever, you’d pass my office, the main office, Biscuit Mill, etc. ad nauseum. But the trains and minibuses will definitely be better than walking!

Wow, Biscuit Mill. It’s only there on Saturdays and I wish, wish, wish I had gone there every other Saturday I was here. The crowds are truly insane, that is the only downside. There are several vendors who sell clothes, shoes, trinkets, etc. I picked up a really gorgeous scarf because I’ve been wanting to buy one since Sweden…in both countries I’ve seen countless people wearing them and now I want one, too. ;) I also got some handmade shoes that were too pricey! They are animal friendly, made from recycled materials and the guy who makes them only makes one of each pair, in various sizes. The ones that I knew I wanted were a perfect fit! They weren’t priced, so when I found out I sort of gawked and he made me a deal. I think they were a good price actually, all things considered! But it means I can’t be quite so frivolous today!

And I did buy both things after perusing the whole market and deciding I wanted them enough to go back and find them! In the middle of the beginning and end, there was food…and lots of it. I think there were too many people for me to get to eat and sample as much as I wanted, but it was still really worth my time. I ate fresh mozzarella made seconds before, which was just ridiculous. I wanted MORE, so it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t able to buy any. There were lots of sauces and relishes worth trying, as well as wine and beer booths (though I only had one wine and then a wheat beer with lunch that was so fresh the man pouring them from the tap had an intricate system of half-filled cups in an effort to get the foam under control as he tried to make a full one for each person).

A few looks:

This guy? He is making fresh mozzarella. I just can't put it into words. Jesus.

"Nom" just doesn't cut it somehow.

The crowds were the big huge downside. It was really almost impossible to navigate sometimes.

For lunch, I had a sausage dog—I opted for the frankfurter as opposed to bratwurst—with the vendor’s homemade curry sauce and fresh mustard. DAMN. This with my wheat beer? Such a good day.

I finally got a seat and people-watched and digested and smelled all the food. I could do this every Saturday and be quite happy forever.

Some people had oysters and champagne, I went the other way. ;)

Did I mention the crowds?

But it got closer to 2, when the Mill starts to shut down, and I wanted to try to get in Table Mountain. This is such an essential touristy thing to do, yet I’ve put it off every weekend or been defeated by weather or my choice to day-drink and people-watch on Long Street. (Hey, that was fun, too.) A lot of people climb TM, but it takes 3 hours up and you know, I am not in any sort of shape whatsoever. Are you kidding me? So you can also take the cable car, which is far pricier of course, but what can I say, I am a cable car kind of girl without a doubt.

In order to get to the cable car stop, you can take a minibus, but I also hadn’t done the Red Bus tour, where you can hop and hop off as it takes you around 20 or so stops. So I hopped on for 110RA (about $15 maybe, but it’s between a two and three hour tour, double-decker sight-seeing bus) and hopped off at TM. The cable car is 160RA roundtrip, maybe $25. It was really worth it though. I didn’t break a sweat and still got amazing views. ;) My old flatmates here did climb it and they said while they were kinda glad they did it, they wouldn’t recommend it or do it again! And honestly, even if they’d had the time of their lives, I’m just not in any shape to be embarking on that sort of hike! It’s not terribly steep, just kinda long.

But before getting there, I saw Parliament (which I've actually already visited and had a tour of)...