Cape Town

Cape Town is an amazingly beautiful city. The massive Table Mountain seems to be everywhere as it is a very important part of the scenery here. I had the chance to go up there and see the breath taking views, as you can see from the picture below.

My visit in Cape Town was more about meeting people than seeing places as I went there to visit my friend Tevya. Although I might have wanted to see more of the tourist attractions in CT, I really enjoyed the time with South African people who I met through Tev and her boyfriend Shannon.

Right after I had landed to CT, Tevya and Shannon picked me up from the airport and took me to a "braai". (Braai is South African english and means a barbeque.) Within the first couple of hours of my stay in Cape Town I had already met 10-15 South Africans and had my first ever jelly shots.

The next day my social adventures continued. First I was taken to Tevya's bigsister's birthday picnic in Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, and I met the whole of Tev's family there. The pictures below are taken from tyhe garden.

I also attended another birthday celebration in a place called Paal, where we visited a farm, where they grow grapes for wine. And oh my, What did I eat there! Traditional African beef stew and lamb curry with rice and mielie pap (mielie pap is boiled wheat or something). The curry was just delicious (although I couldn't eat much of the sheep) and the beef stew was much like Finnish karjalanpaisti. These were the first foods containing red meat that I had eaten in 12 years. And to be honest with you, it didn't feel too nice to eat meat, but on the other hand, eating the local food is part of getting to know the culture.

We had another braai at Tev's and Shannon's, and I got to meet a bunch of new people again and hear (ordinary) lidestores that sounded unbelievable to me. But then again, it is amazing how people can get exited about ice breaker boat, snow and wolves.

Otherwise I was shopping, preparing my teaching material, seeing lizards (hih) and sun tanning. (An Indian guy told me to get a tan but he didn't realize that I actually already had a tan!)

P.S. Who is the king of the hill?