The first weekend in South Africa

In the first morning I woke around 9 o’clock. The window was open in my room and I could smell the flowers and hear the birds. I looked outside and everything was beautifully green and the sky was blue. I just realized that I am in the middle of summer on the other side of the world. I could hardly believe it. Yesterday I was still in the grey and rainy winter in Holland. It looks like I am in a beautiful tale. For breakfast I ate some fruit and after that we picked up Steff and her friend Phi from water polo training. We began our tour in the Woodstock area of Cape Town at the Old Biscuit Mill in the Neighbour Goods Market. It is a market that that has food stands, coffee stations, mobile bars and little boutiques. The market was split up into two big rooms. The first room is a bright room filled up with gorgeous food and designed home goods. The other room is basically the greatest small table collection of food vendors. You will find everything from hand crafted beers, smoothies, freshly prepared Thai food, Parisian sweets, cupcakes, ostrich burgers, wood fired pizza, local coffee and wine bars. We even could buy Belgian ‘wafels’ with chocolate. It was really wonderful to watch people wander through the tables and bargain with the vendors. It was very interesting, because each vendor offered something different and unique. I don’t think I saw two vendors offering the same thing.

 At the Old Biscuit Mill with Steff and Phi 

After this interesting market we headed to the Clifton's 4th beach. This is one of the most popular beaches of Cape Town. When you are standing there, you understand why. The water and the sky have an amazing combination of beautiful blue colours and the sand is white, different from The Netherlands. This area is well protected from wind, so it is very pleasant to be on the beach. A few friends of Steff, Izzy, Sidnee and Maddy, were already waiting for us.. The water was a bit chilly, but later on it was pretty good. We had a lot of fun. There were some people who were surfing there. I hope I also can learn to surf here. People in Cape Town are very proud of their beautiful Clifton's 4th beach!

Clifton 4th beach

In the late afternoon we went to the house of Phi. She had organized a garden party where we also could swim. I met there some other exchange students from Chile. It was a cool party and we were late at home. I was so tired and I even did not have time to unpack my bags.

Sunday we woke up quite late. We had lunch with Steff's family at Simons on a wine estate. It was delicious and the view from the hill was really beautiful. After lunch we walked around and visited the Groot Constantia Manor House, the first winery of South Africa. It was established more than 300 years ago by Simon van der Stel, who was a commander of the VOC. I think my father also would enjoy to visit this place and taste the beautiful wines of this estate.

Lunch  with Steff's family

Groot Constantia Manor House

Later we went to the pop concert at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. The Kirstenbosch has the reputation to be the most beautiful garden in Africa. In summer time there are often organized different open air concerts. I was so extremely lucky that I could go there with Steff’s families and friends. I could enjoy the concert of Matthew Mole & Tailor  from Johannesburg. Matthew Mole’s debut album "The Home We Built" entered the top of the iTunes chart on its release, making Mole the country’s first artist ever to achieve this. He said “Every song is about real experiences I’ve had, but also the way I've reacted to them, because of the way I was raised.”



Pop Concert at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Enjoying the music

In the evening we had a pleasant evening at home and I am very thankful for Steff and her family for this wonderful first weekend in South Africa.