Stellenbosch

Tuesday afternoon I took the train into Mowbray to meet up with my friend from UCT. After catching up on all the adventures we've had  in Cape Town  we went out to dinner with a bunch of her friends. Eager to break passover, I ordered mass quantities of starch and I ended up eating way to much food. It was a relatively early night as we crashed at around 11 o'clock.

The next day we were scheduled to go into Stellenbosch - the winelands of South Africa. We ended up getting a pretty late start and we only got to Stellenbosch by about 1 o'clock. As I have explained before the weather this week has been far from perfect. Apparently the rainy season consists of spurts of rainstorms followed by sunshine. It is hard to dress appropriately but, on the bright side, we saw a ton of rainbows.

After warming up with some hot chocolate and some shopping we hired a taxi to take us to a few of the vineyards. By the time the taxi arrived, it was almost three o'clock and  90% of the vineyards stop wine tastings at 4 o'clock so we were pretty rushed for the latter part of the day. We went to J.C. Le Roux first- a vineyard that only sells sparkling wine. I had never been to a wine tasting before and I was pretty cool but honestly I have no idea what they were talking about. The three girls I was with had been going to a "wine society club" while at UCT and had just been to Stellenbosch the week before. I, oppositely, was completely clueless. I haven't "developed my pallet" to taste the subtleties of the wine. The wine was good and each wine tasted differently but I couldn't taste butter, or coffee, or cherry or anything but wine. I also didn't get the tannins and acidity stuff. Regardless, I had a good time.

After J C La Roux, we went to a vineyard outside of Stellenbosch that the girls had been to before called Fareview. Unfortunately we missed their last wine tasting time by 5 minutes. They did, however, give us two complementary tastings as well as an assortment of complementary cheeses to try. The cheese was so good, but we had to rush the wine tastings as the vineyard was closing soon.

Not satisfied with the day, we decided to check the guide book and find a vineyard that was open later. Luckily Steinberg, the vineyard right next door to Fareview, was open til 6. This would be our last stop so we decided to go all out and get 12 tastings. Wine tastings are surprisingly cheap. We spent 65 Rand, less than 10 dollar, total at the three vineyards. The wine really good but it was a good thing that we had a taxi because none of us were fit to drive after Steinberg.

Martin, our taxi driver, droves us back to Cape Town (about an hour drive) and I crashed back in Fish Hoek by about 9 o'clock. It was an awesome day. While I don't quite get the subtleties of wine, it was new and infomrative experience.

Britney Elsha Sam Kate

Elsha's Dorm....it looks like a prison

a Few Updates
Will got back from his weekend on Wednesday and we finally have hot water again.

I am scheduled to do shark cage diving with the UCT group on Saturday. Unfortunately the Rugby game that Will bought tickets for is also on Saturday. The game starts at 7 and I might not get back from shark cage diving until around 6:30... (W'er not going to  Seal Island, we're headed to Gaansbaai- about a 2 hour drive outisde of Cape Town) Its a jam packed day, I just hope I make it back in time for the game.

The draft starts at 2 am this morning so Ill be getting very little sleep tonight

Robben Island

The weather cleared up for the most part after the awful weather on Sunday for our trip to Robben Island on Monday. Actually the weather was quite strange. It was bright blue sky for hours and then it would rain heavily for ten minutes followed by another period of sunshine. Our tickets were scheduled for 3 o'clock so we chilled at the Waterfront for the early afternoon. The waterfront has a gigantic mall and I went for an epic search for a mug to bring back home. I came up empty handed though as it does not appear that the type of mug I want exists in South Africa. After the mall, Rosie and I had a severely overpriced lunch and then went to the fairy to take us over to the island.

The fairy help about 300 hundred people and seemed quite big. Even so, the swells of the Atlantic caused nausea for many of the tourists includes Rosie and myself. After a grueling half hour on the fairy, we stepped onto Robben Island.

The tour was broken up into 2 halves. The first half was the walking tour inside the prison. The second was a bus tour around the island. We did the walking part first. All of the tour guides are former inmates of Robben Island. His perspective was probably the best part of the whole experience. He explained the Afrikaans guards tried o create divisions within the prisoner community, especially with the political prisoners, so that they would fight against each other and not form a united front against apartheid. They censored mail, gave them different food, different clothes, different sleeping quarters- but the prisoners stayed united. On the tour we saw, Mandela's cell as well as some of the fields, yards and wards of the prison. While it was definitely a powerful experience, the tour moved very quickly and you didn't really have time to just stop and think, you were always on the move.

We then got on the bus for the second half of the tour. Before Robben Island was a prison, it was a leper colony back in the 17th century. It also served as a WWII outpost, none of the batteries were ever used but the island is covered in WWII weaponry and storage areas. What I found most shocking was that some of the former inmates and guards still live on the island. There is a school, a community center, as well as a church where people get married in every year (they have a life sentence hahaha).Unfortunately, while we were on the island Cape Town was covered by rain clouds so there were not awesome views.

On the way back, we decided to sit up on the top deck to get the fresh air. While it was freezing, we managed to avoid getting nauseous Unfortuntely, there is still no hot water in the house. When we got back, and we cold and tired we couldn't take the hot shower that we really wanted. Hopefully it gets fixed soon. Regardless,. it was a solid day, and if you visit Cape Town for any length of time Robben Island is a must on the checklist.

Today, I am finally seeing my friend from UCT. I think I'm staying over there in Mowbray tonight and tomorrow we're going to Stellenbsch- where all the vineyards and wine tastings are.

Cape Town under the weather

inside the fairy

Mandela's "yard"

Mandela's Cell

Our tour guide

Different food for different races

The leper colony cemetery

The prisoners primarily mined rocks

WWII battery

The fairy

The sunset going away from Robben Island

Some Late Pics From Simons Town and Day Before Easter Break

Today is Easter Sunday and the weather is the worst it has been since I got here. It is cold, windy and rainy. There is really nothing to do so I've decided to catchup on some pics. I've also started my annual mock draft as the NFL Draft is less than four days away and I'm really behind. It is obviously not a priority but I've done it that past 5 years and I'd like to get one done if I can. 

Today are some pics from Simon's Town when we stayed at Caine and Sammy's house and some pics from the school. The Kid I'm with is nicknamed Lolo and over the past two weeks We've really hit it off. He loves playing basketball and his English is well above average. The past few days he's been following me around and he's one of the students I've really gotten to know well.

The view from the Simon's Town house asdusk

Me and Lolo in the library

Lolo was the only own to show up for bball so we just shot around for an hour

Lolo having fun with the new whiteboard marker

These guys never get old

This dog was freaking out! he got onto the roof of the house to make sure he didn't go near his gate

TABLE MOUNTAIN

After the rough day yesterday, Rosie and I had decided to do Table Mountain today. Caine and Sammy had done it twice before and, having now done it, I can understand why they decided not to do it a third time.

We grabbed the train into Cape Town at around 10 o'clock. Before we took a taxi to the base of the mountain we went to the waterfront to buy Robben Island tickets- We're going on Monday!

Thankfully it was a great day- not too hot and crystal clear. As we approached the welcome center at the base of the mountain we saw that we were not the only ones ready to scale the mountain. There was a queue a few hundred yards long to take the cable car up to the top. But we were ready to hike.

After getting a little lost finding the base of the trail we were off!

The hike took about 2 hours. It was very steep at times and you definitely needed to use your hands. Rosie had some trouble because she's about 5 feet tall and the rocks that make the steps of the trail were about half her height. We were separated for most of the trip so that we could go at our own pace.  We both preferred it that way  because we could each get into our own hiking zone. I felt it very fitting to listen to Copland while hiking. While the hike was tiresome and my legs will surely be sore tomorrow.. I enjoyed myself very much.

When we both reached the top, we explored the "Table." I'll let the pictures do most of the explaining but we saw the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as well as Robben Island and all of Cape Town.

After about a half hour at the top, the wind picked up and we saw coming from the Atlantic side this massive cloud system approaching. Surely this the reason why shark cage diving had been postponed. It was awesome watching the clouds come in and crash into the side of the mountains. We took the cable car down at around 5 o'clock. The cables were surprisingly steep and the inside of the car rotated so that everyone got a great view going down. While it was cool, it was a little scary.

 We then got a taxi back to the train station and headed home. All in all it was a great day and definitely made up for yesterday.

I ended up taking an absurd amount of pictures (over 120) so enjoy:

The mountain fron the train station

Where the taxi dropped us off

If you squint you can see the cable car

We were headed toward that gorge where you see blue sky

Steep

very steep

It is so flat at the top

The Atlantic

Me, Rosie and Cape Town

The soccer stadium for the World Cup

Sitting on the cliff

Me being very stupid

These rodents were everywhere

You can see the beginning of the clouds

The cable car was sooo steep

Looking back at where we came from