Michelle and Bryan had been in Joburg for a couple games and flew down shortly after we drove in. We started tackling the wine surplus and swapping South Africa stories before heading down to the game at Greenpoint. Walking to the stadium was amazing! The main street was only open to pedestrian traffic over a mile out, it was a full-on parade of fans. The game was brilliant, I was afraid that Spain would let a Portugal goal slip in but they stayed strong as a whole.
We had just a couple days to explore Cape Town so we designated one day to exploring the city and the next to drive the cape/peninsula. We walked the Bo Kaap area, which I think is populated with Cape Malays, a community in South Africa whose earliest members were slaves transported by the Dutch East India Company. In addition to the pastel and neon-colored buildings and insanely steep cobblestone streets, it seemed suddenly quieter and calm. A man from the neighborhood stopped us and told us stories of living there and what we should do while we are in Cape Town. So randomly friendly, I love it. We also toured through an art studio called Streetwires where over 100 previously unemployed people had stable jobs creating art from wires, beads and recycled materials. There was some awesome stuff. We went down to see the artists and it was a jamming craft party. They each get a commission on their products and you can find them all over.
The walking tour was overtaken by a two and a half hour lunch so all we had time for before dark was checking out Green Street Market. At first I felt so tense because the hassling and hustling was too intense ("Looking is free sista. I give you good price. No pressure.") but then you give in to it and you actually get a little assertive with bargaining. I think we all came out pretty good in the end; we got some good stuff and supported the locals (at least I hope we did). We topped off the evening wandering the V&A Waterfront and then got groceries at the SPAR to eat-in. Bryan and Todd grilled an awesome dinner of shish kabobs and we ate on the roof top deck. It was wonderful. So glad the whole group was finally together.
