Great Weekend

I had such a nice weekend, a perfect combination of sightseeing, sun, relaxation and fun. Friday after class I joined a few of my roommates in checking out Long Street, filled with cafés, restaurants, shops, and bars, and the nearby Green Market. Shopping on Long Street is great, there are many unique little stores and boutiques with cute clothing, it’s just a little pricey. While we were walking along, we saw a commercial being shot with a model in a bright pink dress and a skateboarder who cuts in front of her. On Saturday, my roommates and I went to back to Long Street for some museum visits and sightseeing. We got there around 11AM and had lunch at a cute coffee and lunch café. After eating, we walked to Company Gardens, which is a large outdoor garden area where there are many museums. We first went to the South African National Art Gallery, which was great. There were many contemporary works as well as some old, but I liked the newer exhibitions much more. There were several video installations that were interesting, as well as a collection of Andy Verster’s work, a South African artist I had never heard of before but really enjoyed his work. Another one of my favorites was a large piece drawn in candle smoke (soot) composed of many eerie, dreamlike faces called “Smoke Portraits.” If you're interested, I put their website links on my blog so you can check out their work. After the art gallery, we took a little break and relaxed in the gardens before making our way to a second museum, the Slave Lodge. The Slave Lodge is the building, now converted in to museum, where many of South Africa’s slaves were housed. It was very informative about slavery, in particular the history of slavery in South Africa. My favorite part was a room that was a replication of the sleeping/living area on the slave ships. Essentialy, it was a slab of wood that went about halfway up the wall, and slaves would be packed in tightly and tied underneath it and on top of it. They had a recording of a woman’s voice telling her thoughts on the slave ship journeys and I really liked it; It was a good exhibit. They also had a very large exhibit on the life of Steve Biko which was interesting. After our museum visits, we went to the Green Market, a huge collection of African art, clothing, masks, tapestries, jewelry, dishes, etc. I bought a rug/tapestry that I really like, I’m going to hang it on my wall. Saturday night I went to dinner with Conor at a café in Obs called Café Ganesh, very cute décor and I had excellent spicy calamari. Sunday was HOT. Very, very hot. Probably somewhere in the low 90’s, but remember, no air conditioning. I went to a coffee shop in Rondebosch with my roommate Aviva, and had the first iced coffee I’ve ordered here that wasn’t made with ice cream! (Not that I’m complaining about the ones made with ice cream; They’re very good) We did some reading and homework at the coffee shop and then went to the UCT pool to swim and lay out. At night, some of my roommates and I went to a restaurant called “A Touch of Madness,” an old Victorian house converted into a restaurant. We sat outside and while we enjoyed our food (I had stuffed portabella mushrooms)we listened to a live band play bluegrass and jazz. What a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.