My Cape Town Adventures: An African Valentine's Day

Though a tad belated, I wish you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Or "Galentine's Day," or "Single Day" or "February 14th," however you celebrate. I'm actually typing this at 11:30pm after our first day of safari, but since I'm a day late on my blog posts I figured I'd give an update of the three amigos' last day in Cape Town. I'll have plenty of time tomorrow between game drives to fill you in on Mala Mala, but to give a preview - it is by far the best part of my South African experience thus far and I honestly feel like I'm dreaming. I told Jess that I wouldn't be surprised if this entire past day has been a drug-induced vivid dream brought on by my anti-malarial pills.

Valentine's Day morning was kicked off with some gifts that the mama had packed in my dad's suitcase for the three of us. I received the cutest cards from both my parents and my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Harry, so I was really feeling the love regardless of being thousands of miles away from home. The three of us took a walk from our hotel down to the Greenmarket Square, an area not far from where I live that is known for being filled with vendors selling beautifully handcrafted items. We did a lot of browsing and a little bit of shopping; we all walked away with purchases, but not one of us bought something for ourselves! These popular marketplaces make for the perfect place to pick up souvenirs for loved ones back home.

After a nice lunch at the Long Street Cafe, we spent the afternoon on a guided tour of one of the wineries in Stellenbosch, a gorgeous town in the Western Cape. The town itself had a bit of a Portland-esque feel to it; it's much more relaxed and suburban than Cape Town. Our tour guide, Mark, was great (no surprise) and the wine tasting was superb. It ended with a chocolate stick dipped in a honey wine, so for those of you who are aware of my strong sweet tooth, you'll understand that I certainly left happy.

The timing of the wine tour was perfect and allowed us to finally reach Table Mountain before Dad and Jess' visit came to a close. Mark generously dropped us right off at the bottom of the mountain and we made it up to the top (half-price tickets, mind you) just in time to watch the sunset. We didn't have a great amount of time to spend there since we had dinner reservations at 8:30, but it was absolutely freezing up there, so after a half hour of snapping photos we were ready to make our way down. The hordes of people packed in line for the cable car resembled a large group of cattle; with the hundreds of people crammed together, you can imagine how completely shocked we were when we reached the bottom and ran into the doctor from Children's that I sat next to on the bus a day earlier! We laughed and chatted with him, his wife and the other people they were with (one or two of whom, I believe, were also physicians) and grabbed a photo with them, along with the doctor's business card. To quote him from the day before, "the world just keeps getting smaller."

I finished off the day sharing a delicious meal at the restaurant Mama Africa with my two lovely valentines. Among the three of us, we enjoyed some warthog, ostrich and bobotie - food which I can pretty much guarantee was not eaten for a Valentine's Day dinner by friends back home. We all talked about how much we missed my mom and wished she was there to share it with us, but with the community of people who adore her, I am not concerned a bit that she is constantly surrounded by people who love her at home.

Well folks, I CAN'T WAIT for our second safari drive tomorrow morning! It's now 12:05 and our wake-up call is scheduled for 5:30am, so it's bedtime for me. Stay tuned for an account of our Mala Mala adventures!

xo Em

Dad, Jess and I on the "topless bus tour"