Castle of Good Hope and other Misc. Adventures

Yesterday I went to the Castle of Good Hope with a few friends. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Summer has returned to Cape Town, so it was quite warm out yesterday. It was a neat place to explore. There were museums and lots of nooks and corridors to wander through. From the roof of the castle you could see all of downtown and had a great view of the mountains. The museums had a lot of relics from the initial Dutch occupation of the cape.

Cannon

Table Mountain seen from the roof of the Castle

City seen from the roof

After the castle we had lunch at a cute restaurant called Milk, Bread and Honey. It was delicious. From there we wandered to the Company Gardens area, which has a lot of the museums and other such institutions. On the way we stopped in St. George's church, a very old church. There were lots of stained-glass windows and an enormous organ. I bet it would be a great place to attend mass if I were to attend mass.

As it should be

We stopped into the National Library, but there wasn't much to see. There was a soccer exhibit about the history of soccer in South Africa. From there we went into the Company Gardens, which I've mentioned in previous posts. It was such a beautiful day to spend walking through the city, and the gardens was a perfect way to end. The rose garden was so beautiful, with some of the most enormous and brightly-colored roses I've ever seen. There was also a well with a spout that came out of a nearby tree, which I thought was interesting. We sat on a bench in a courtyard for a while, just enjoying the twilight and nice weather. On the walk back through the gardens we came across a group of ducklings attempting to hop over the edge of a pond to join their mama, but the lip was a little high so they kept jumping and sliding down again. It was precious and eventually they all made it in.

Parliament

Rose garden, looking measly, with Table Mountain in the background

A close up does the rose garden justice

In other news, there are two youtube videos everyone needs to check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhM-cpSwrmM
The first is the new Nike football commercial, because it is awesome and was totally worth the absurd amount of internet credits I spent to watch it. The second is the of the FIFA 2010 World Cup Anthem. It's a jolly song, and I like it. It's FIFAmania here. There are literally flags EVERYWHERE, and not just South African ones. All the cars have these little mirror covers of the South Africa flag. It feels like every store, regardless of it being a clothing store or grocery store or whatever, is selling soccer things. Clothes, flags, whatever you can possibly think of. I am currently wearing my bright orange sweatshirt with the World Cup logo on the front. At Green Market Square downtown, there is a huge market for bootleg jerseys and miscellaneous FIFA gear. And yet, I was by the Greenpoint Stadium two days ago and they are still doing construction. The train station that lets you off at Greenpoint is still being worked on, bridges are still being built, sidewalks repaired, homeless people being rounded up and removed from the city (no joke), and buildings being painted (or built). The World Cup starts on June 11. That's nine days from now, and they're still finishing up. I have the feeling they'll get everything done, though. Cape Town is just that kind of place. This city is alive right now, with the World Cup just over a week away. It's exciting times over here.

-Sarah