How to do it the South African Way - Today: By foot & By car

A short lesson about Cape Town's streets:


If you're on foot take your time!
If you want to cross the street be quick!
If you travel by car drive fast, overtake as you like and watch the mini busses!

Indie music in Cape Town

Just discovered:

http://www.howdoesitfeel.co.uk/capetown.html

Noon Gun Tea Room & Restaurant

Today we went to the Noon Gun Tea Room & Restaurant. The food was yummi (I had "Chicken Breyani", spiced rice with lentins, potatoes and chicken) and the service was also very good - very nice waitress. But the best was the quietness up there and the view down the hill with the Table Mountain in the background.  I will show u...

Milnerton - Rival to Blouberg Beach

...we've seen a great sunset at Milnerton Beach with the Table Mountain in the background. Have a look:

World of Birds - Hout Bay

Although it's quite some weeks ago that we went to World of Birds, I want to tell you more about it now. 

Actually, I didn't expect it to be that nice. It's a well-kept park with nice different areas. There are not only birds to see. In fact, we've also seen penguins, monkeys, turtles, a porcupine, a wallabie, meerkats,...

How to do it the South African Way - Today: Tips

At the beginning of our trip, we often wondered how much tip we give to which people...but as time goes by, we know the score:

• Parking: R2-5 (depends on the length of your shopping tour)
• Petrol station: R2-5 (when they clean our windows, we mostly give them 5 rand)
• Restaurants: about 10% of your bill (as long as the service is good)

Of course, there are also a lot of beggars on the streets. Depending on my mood I give them a bit of my change sometimes. Some of them are also very happy to get some food. So if anything of your food is left, ask them if they would like to have it. It's better then dumping it in the bin anyway.

My first Big Issue

Today we finally bought the Big Issue for the first time. It's a magazin that is sold on the streets. Every vendor buys these magazines for R9 and sells them for R18...a good kind of job creation!

Garden Route - Part II

4 days of Garden Route (at least a part of it) and we've seen a lot. This route is full of beautiful landscape and we have seen a lot of animals. 


Our first stop was Wilderness where we went to the...

...Map of Africa. Just go a bit further the road and you will be rewarded with a great view to the ocean.

When we went on with our trip towards 

Garden Route - Part I

Thanks to SAYTC, we had the chance to go Garden Route this weekend...and it was stunning!

Deborah & Marlene were asking me to join them on a SAYTC meeting in Wilderness at Friday. And because Monday was a public holiday (Human Rights Day), we spent a great long weekend at the Garden Route.

OUR ACCOMMODATION

The Wild Farm Backpackers - Wilderness (5% Moola Magic Discount)

Our first stop was The Wild Farm in Wilderness, a great backpacker with a beautiful surrounding. The way up to the Backpacker is pretty long, but as soon as you arrive, you're rewarded with a great view. Our double room was very nice, the bathrooms were clean and the staff was very nice. They baked fresh bread for us and a lot of the food that you can get there is from their own garden. I can definately recommend this accommodation to every traveller passing through Wilderness. 

Albergo for Backpackers - Plettenberg Bay (5% Moola Magic Discount)

After staying 2 nights in Wilderness, we spent another 2 nights in Plettenberg Bay at Albergo for Backpackers. "Plett" is not only a great place to stay, also Albergo is very recommendable. We had a nice, big room with en-suite bathroom and the staff was unbelievaly nice. Every evening they have a fire in the garden to make braai (important in SA!). But what impressed me the most, was the fact that this Backpacker is a Fair Trade certified accommodation. In SA, tourism establishments can be certified by FFTSA (see: http://www.fairtourismsa.org.za/). It's so far the only organisation worldwide that applies fair trade principles to the tourism industry, which I think is a very important concern...and Albergo is a great example for that. The very nice owners, Mirjam & Lesley, care about the environment, their community and support different projects. Soon they will even start their own.

Definately: Thumbs up!!!

Patricia @ work - SAYTC goes Indaba

Deborah just came back from ITB 
(to see which SAYTC members were joining her, visit africatravelnetwork.blogspot.com) 
and now we are already planning the next trade fair presence for SAYTC.

In May SAYTC will attend Indaba, one of the largest tourism fairs in Africa...and I'm already looking forward to join Deborah and Marlene at this event!

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

Now it's time to tell you about Cape Town's probably greenest place...


Kirstenbosch was one of our first destinations. And wow, we were really thrilled. See for yourself:

Kirstenbosch was also the place where we celebrated my sister's 30th's birthday with a surprise picnic!


Moreover we went to one of the Summer Sunset Concerts to see Goldfish.
It was really cool. Very nice atmosphere and a great venue for a concert. But I recommend to go there pretty early to get a nice place on the lawn. Just bring yourself a well equipped picnic basket and relax.

The 1st month's sightseeing list

Because it took me a while till writing the first posts, I will now just write about the most memorable things we've seen and done in our first month in Cape Town:

• Neighbourgoods Market Woodstock: very nice food, but a bit too expensive for my wallet
• Two Oceans Aquarium (saved already the first 5% with Moola Magic)
• First visitors from Germany
  Hallo Dandra & Maatus, Hallo Oma Rosi, Opa Helbert, Fabi & Tante Brina
• Camps Bay: Great beaches and many yuppies!
• My sister's 30th birthday in Kirstenbosch- a super beautiful Botenical Garden
• Table Mountain
• African food with live music @ Marco's African Place: A very nice place...the waitress thaught us Xhosa and the music was nice!
• Robben Island
• Goldfish LIVE *Summer Sunset Concert in Kirstenbosch*
• Boulders Beach
• Cape of Good Hope: We were that lucky to see ostriches, an antelope and even zebras!!!
• Sunset at Signal Hill
• Blouberg Beach with view of the Table Mountain

Little by litte I will write about them more detailed and also post some pictures!!!

My first working day at SAYTC

It was Monday, the 14th of February, when I started my internship at SAYTC. 

I was very excited to meet my new colleagues Deborah & Marlene in Woodstock for the first time. 

To let you shortly know - SAYTC  is a non-profit, membership-driven organization who markets South Africa globally as a preferred youth tourism destination. It represents and supports the following four sectors:

- Backpacking South Africa

- Tours & Transport South Africa

- Education South Africa

- Volunteering South Africa

And to also let you know: My colleagues are very nice!

Straight away, I became a Moola Magic Discount Card which I can recommend to every traveller in SA.

 http://www.backpackingsouthafrica.co.za/index.php?option=com_order

This card saves you a whole lot of money because it offers over 200 discounts on accommodation, tours and transport (also 5% on Baz Bus) throughout South Africa.

Parking in Cape Town

Something that was also new for me was the "car park attendant"...the guys who show you where to park and who will have a look at your car whilst you are shopping.  

But actually after one month parking a lot, I can't imagine to not see them again in Germany. They are mostly very nice guys who work very diligently.  I've never seen people who help you to park with that much enthusiasm. So I gladly give them about R5 for their work.

But that's what I like over here in general: People are working definately slower in SA than in Germany, but they do it with much more passion!

How it all started...

Wow...time flies. It's now more than a month when we arrived in Cape Town. 

It was the 11th of February when our trip in South Africa began...

As soon as we picked up our car, we drove towards Observatory, which is our current home.

http://www.capetown.travel/attractions/entry/Observatory/

We were very happy when we saw our nice apartement and couldn't wait to explore the surrounding. And that's what we did.

Our first adventure was the first purchase at Pick'n'Pay, which is directly next to our flat. I'm always excited about the products of foreign countries, so I was at that time...and I was very glad to see all the nice ripe fruits compared to back home. The mangos and pineapples taste SWEET...yeah! I was also very happy to see that the staff was really nice - especially to Bennet.