On
the third day we went to a breakfast place near our hotel called
“Knead”. It’s a bakery like place that serves breakfast food and normal
lunch and dinner dishes. Besides an indoor area they also have the
outdoor seating area where you can see Table Mountain in the distance.
They are a chain of restaurants that have several locations throughout
Cape Town, but all of their stores are designed really well. When you
sit down inside, it feels really friendly and homey. Even though it’s a
chain store it feels like a local bakery that your neighbor opened. On
their menu there’s sandwiches, salads, pizzas, all day breakfasts,
omelets, burgers and hot dogs. I opt for French toast and a Nutella hot
chocolate! I’m a huge fan of Nutella, but seeing it one the menu in a
hot chocolate for is a first!
Knead all day menu: http://www.kneadbakery.co.za/menusfeb2013/kneadmenukloof.pdf
List of Knead stores: http://kneadbakery.co.za/kneadcafes-southafrica.html
After
a healthy breakfast, we walked to Green Market Square. I don’t even
remember how we got there, we just walked through a lot of different
parks. One with an open area and a statue in the middle, another was
just a small path with trees on both sides, and on the way there were
some old European style buildings. I just realized how much I missed
nature after living in HK for more than a year. South Africa really
reminds me of the US in a lot of ways. And the smell of green grass and
crisp air mixed with the smell of pine when walking through that path
full of trees. Green Market Square is this small outdoor market place
with a lot of small stalls selling traditional African goods, like
leather goods, animal skin goods, wood & stone carvings.. etc On all
four sides of the square area were 4 buildings, one of them being a
hotel but I’m not quite sure what the other 3 are. In the middle of the
square, there was a teenager band playing trumpets, trombones, and
drums. They weren’t the best at playing, but they all seemed to be
enjoying themselves and dancing as they played. That’s the vibe I’ve got
from South Africa: people enjoy themselves and are happy with the
smallest things in life. It’s such an easy thing to forget when you get
wound up in all the “First World Problems” you face when living in big
cities.
We decided to have a really chilled day, so then we called an Uber to go to Canal Walk.
Let’s talk about Uber
first. If you don’t know yet, it’s a taxi-calling app. You first choose
the grade of car you want to be picked up in, uber x (cheap one), uber
XL (vans), uber black (high end: Mercedes, BMW, Audi). This differs
depending on the country you are in. There’s also Uber chopper in South
Africa. You then drop a pin on the map of where you are (and where
you’re going to make it easier for the driver), and then the closest cab
will pick up your request. The map will show where they are and how
many minutes they are away. If it’s a really busy time, for example peak
hours or during weekends and holidays, the rate will be more than
normal. So just before you hit request, it will confirm with you “The
current rate is 2x or 3x, are you sure? If not would you like us to
notify you once the rate drops down to normal?” The max they can go is
4.75x of normal rates. Once the request is confirmed, you’ll see the
driver’s picture, name, type of car, and their license plate so when
they drive up you can recognize them. A good thing about Uber is that
you rate each other, you can rate the driver and the driver will rate
you. Which is why Uber drivers are usually really friendly. And since
you enter your credit card info when you first get the app, you don’t
need to have cash or your credit card, the app will just automatically
charge your card once the journey is finished. This is a big benefit in
Cape Town because all the local cab drivers try to rip you off by
claiming they don’t have change for your big note and then you’ll just
have to not get change back or find a place to break the note for
change. Since we got our phone service on day 2, Uber was the only cab
we used. We also met a lot of taxi drivers from other African countries
like Congo, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. They were all extremely friendly.
Canal Walk
is the biggest mall in Cape Town, and the 3rd largest mall in Africa.
There are over 400 stores across 141,000 square meter (or 1.52 million
square ft). I was there to hunt for a small cross body bag that could at
least fit sun screen and my phone and wallet. Across body bag is also
much easier when you’re running around trying to take pictures, you
don’t need to always take off your bag when you need something like a
back pack, and you won’t need to put down the back first to free your
hands like a normal tote bag (someone could easily snatch a tote bag as
well). Edgars is the equivalent of a Macy’s or Nordstrom in the US where
it’s a department store with open area and lots of different brands in
there. I found an Aldo Bag about half an A4 size and was only $499 Rand.
When it comes to casual clothing, Cotton On is the major brand in South
Africa. Their sub-brand Typo is their stationary and accessories store.
Canal Walk has a huge stand alone Typo will a lot of products I’ve
never seen before! Including this note pad titled “Today’s Rant”, and a
few columns to fill in like “starring” and the person or pet, and then
“Level of Annoyance”. There’s just a lot of creative and funky items in
Typo. As weird as it feels, it’s warm in Cape Town, but people are still
enjoying Christmas. So in this big area inside of the mall there was a
giant Christmas tree and then a bobsled slide for kids to go on. There
were some funny kids, screaming like their life was going to end, and
others that just had no expression on their face.
For
lunch we went to Cape Town Fish Market. I had some oysters, and then
ordered this traditional African dish called a Potjiekos. It was kind of
like curry where you get rice and then this pot of sauce. The sauce had
muscles in it and some potatoes, and was a bit spicy. I ended up having
to order a glass of milk to counter it. After getting back to the
hotel, jet lag hit again. I napped till 9pm, managed to get up and have
some room service food, and then went back to bed again.
Next time we’re going to Camps Bay and playing some mini golf.
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