Day 14/15 – Being Back Home
I’ve been lucky in my life in that I went through college
and five years of adult life without losing a phone (or computer, or laptop, or
everything else). I figure most people probably have the one experience.
Somehow, over the last 36 hours, I lost a phone, got it back, and thanked my
lucky stars I can continue my life without having lost a phone. Anyway, that
was a central figure of these two days, but around the phone caper, there was a
lot of scenery to imbibe, food to digest, and fun to be had.
The first day started perfectly, with some classic
meandering around the Waterfront, all the while staring at Table Mountain
perfectly situated in the distance. To fill time before today’s hike towards
Camps Bay. The first stop was a quick perusal of the Two Ocean’s aquarium, a
place I went to on my first trip, and was as busy as ever. The one new addition
that I realized was a jellyfish exhibit with psychedelic lights. After the
aquarium we headed to the area of the Kloofs, for first lunch and then the
trek.
Lunch was at Arnold’s another place that I had been to
previously, but one that remains strong in reputation and, as we soon realized,
quality. It also has a perfect view of Table Mountain, being close to the road
that leads up the peak. The menu is simple, but unique, with various African
meats (Crocodile, warthog, kudu, etc.), all prepared fairly simply but
incredibly tasty. I tried another Ostrich Goulash (safe bet to combine a really
tasty meat with one of my favorite preparations), a bowl of Western Cape
Mussels, and then warthog ribs; each dish very well made.
The trek we went on took us from the base of Table Mountain,
around it back-side (essentially the reverse side of where I hiked yesterday,
towards Camps Bay, the first suburb south of the city. The hike, called the
Pipe Track as it follows an old pipeline out of Cape Town, is stunning
throughout, with a clear view of Lion’s Head, the rock formation that leads
southwards towards the Cape of Good Hope and the Atlantic Ocean glimmering to
the right side throughout. The hike itself has nice trees, incredible views, and
is fairly easy throughout. After first Salt Lake City and now Cape Town, I’m
starting to really fall for hiking, but then again the visual stimulation of
both Cape Town and Salt Lake City are hard to top.
After the hike, we then went to the city center, to imbibe ‘First
Thursday’, Cape Town’s monthly festival of art, music and drinking, with the
first two livening up the day and afternoon, and the final being the showcase
at night. The first stop was central square where there was a market craft fair
that was very professional, with multiple singers & buskers who all seemed
more talented than those around Cape Town regularly.
Our dinner was at Janse & Co, a posh small plates eatery
in the heart of Cape Town, one that wsas right next door to an incredibly
crowded bar, giving me a good sense for how crowded First Thursday can get. The
dinner we got was where you pick six dishes from a set of about 12 choices + 3
dessert options. All the choices seemed good, so it was a really tough pick to while
that list down to five.
A chose a beet & turnip dish, a mussels & oyster
dish, a wild-caught raw salmon dish, a linefish dish with some weird buy really
tasty cucumber cracker thing, and then a lamb dish, with a Hazelnut &
Banana desert. All the dishes were exquisitely plated, excellently made, and
tasted great. I could have had five more if I could. Cape Town’s food revolution
has been amazing.
Following dinner we took in First Thursday in style, first
going to a bar a few blocks away from Long Street called House of Machines, a
coffeeshop by day, and cocktail bar/lounge by night. It was very crowded,
though some of the locals said it was always fairly crowded and that this isn’t
too much more than normal. After having a couple cocktails we went to Long
Street, which was way more crowded that previous days. There was a giant line
outside Sgt. Peppers – though I’m really not sure why that place seems to be so
popular. Beerhouse was having a silent EDM party (where they give you the
headphones), which was fun for like a couple minutes. We settled down at The Waiting
Room, a two-level house club, one that had a really chill vibe, but
surprisingly closed at 2am, which is when we befriended a group of about 5 Cape
Towners (and one French colleague of one of theirs) who took us to some
underground fog-machine-type place to ride out the rest of the night.
It was at the waiting room where I lost my phone, leaving it
in the bathroom. I realized in about a minute, but that was enough time for it
to be taken – in the end by a nice good Samaritan, but obviously my mind went
straight to the worst outcome. After asking the bartenders and bouncers, and
calling it a few times to no avail, I mentally just resigned myself to the fact
that I would have to get a new phone, and was lucky that I had my work phone as
a back-up for the last few days of the trip.
It was a weird feeling getting up the next day without the
phone. I tried calling it a few times and texting it, and then got the idea to
check Google Maps timeline feature which laid out that it was taken from the
bar to a residence and now that person was on the move. I don’t know if this
made me feel better or worse. What definitely made me feel worse was when the
Robben Island tour we had was cancelled due to rough seas – this being the
third time I’ve attempted this to no avail. They gave us a voucher for
tomorrow, but I don’t have too high expectations for that one actually working
either.
Anyway, around this time, I got a ping on my work phone, a
WhatsApp message from the person who took my phone. Apparently for all the
right reasons (looking out for the fellow man). She said she was out of the
city for the day, but we set a time to meet at 5pm for me to get my phone back.
In an instant, the day’s outlook brightened up considerably.
With some extra time, I took a walk through Central Cape
Town, to a lovely five block park that they have which, like any good area of
Cape Town, has great views of Table Mountain. After this, we went Westward
towards Constantia and Kirstenbosch, first for lunch at Foxcroft, a great spot
near a few wineries, and then to the botanical gardens.
Lunch was amazing, a set-menu style where you pick two
tapas, one main and a dessert. The tapas choices were either two meats or two
veg, which I was very on-brand picking the two meat dishes, one a yellowtail
crudo and the other a pork belly dish. Both were excellent, small enough to not
be overwhelming and heavy. The main was linefish, which was exquisitely
grilled. Foxcroft is not in Cape Town Central, but its remoteness, seated
outside among the greenery and calm air.
After lunch, there was more remoteness and greenery and calm
air, with a trip to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which in reality is more
just a large park with tons of flower, trees, creeks, ravines and endless photo
opportunities. It may be one of the more tranquil settings I’ve ever been to, a
great place to just go for a picnic or nap (I chose nap). I even also saw a
real life live snake for the first time – not sure if it was supposed to be in
the park or not, but it was fairly long (maybe 4 feet); I had no idea if it was
venomous, but in reality it looked a bit cute.
After our sojourn in Kirstenbosch, I headed back to the
Waterfront, wanting to take in one Sunday sitting in the waterfront looking at
the sun recede behind Table Mountain, with the idea of doing the opposite
(going up to Signal Hill watching the light recede from Cape Town as a whole
tomorrow). I took a seat at Den Anker, a Belgian bistro that has a perfect view
of Table Mountain and Cape Town ahead of it. Cape Town is just perfect looking.
Den Anker itself isn’t that great of a place, but they captured the market on
amazing outdoor views of the city, with tons of patrons doing exactly what I
was doing every few seconds: whipping out a phone to take photos of the city.
After a leisurely time at Den Anker, letting the sun fully
set causing Table Mountain to disappear (it is amazing how dark that area of
the city gets), we rested up before heading out to dinner at Homespun by Matt,
a really well reviewed restaurant in Table View, a beach town about 20-25
minutes from the city. Of course, during the day, there are great ocean front
views, but none at night; no worry though, the restaurant made up for it
easily.
Homespun by Matt was incredible. Their menu was perfect,
such brilliant sounding dishes. The waitress was also incredible, giving Bon
Appetit level description of her favorite dishes, even being able to sway my
selection of main to one she recommended. My starter was beef tataki, which
interestingly was lightly deep-friend on the outside, creating a really
interesting crunch and soft mix. For the main, I picked a grilled kingklip dish
with mussels, a perfectly South Africa main dish.
After dinner, I took a quick nap (night after night of 2am –
or 5am – before we headed back out to Long Street. Despite it being Friday, it
was significantly less crowded than it was on First Thursday, which I was fine
with as First Thursday was a bit overwhelming – especially for me with the
phone incident. We went to both The Waiting Room, which was far more hip-hop
focused, and then Fiction, a nightclub institution on Long Street, which had a
techno collective in which was fairly good if a bit standard. What’s nice
though is instead of seedy underground, the Long Street clubs are all on the 2nd
floor, with good outdoor verandas, which it must be said double as smoking
sections late at night.
Before we knew it, it was close to 3am, and the night had to
be ended to ensure we could take as much advantage of the last full day of the
trip. Can’t believe it is already here, to be honest.
