My family and I live in Cape Town, apparently one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Who am I to agree or disagree? I am just a local. I prefer just to continue with my life and not let this accolade go to my head. As a result we just get stuck in the rut and forget to live. We curse at tourists for moving slowly and causing traffic on places like Chapman’s Peak. We look at Table Mountain and wonder why there’s so much traffic going towards it. Then there are those irritating cyclists, they are all over the place. The Argus Cycle tour only comes once a year, do you have to train all year round?
Weekends are the worst, same old same old, now we do not even venture outside, we just order in, in fact there’s a food order service called Order In. At the Waterfront there are just too many people, it seems like they do not know what they are looking for, newly weds holding hands, mature couples - making sure that their spoilt brats are left with nothing, by going on an around the world cruise. And today of all days the cruise ship is docked here, Oh my word, this is just a shopping mall, people! Nothing irritates me more than having to say excuse me excuse me all the time.
But then on a good day, I wake up with gusto and decide to be a tourist in my own city, I then remember how lucky we are, all those people inland and outside of the country flocking to our city is not just a fluke, our city is worth coming to. And what a better way to make them keep coming than by sharing my own experiences.
For example we know that some people come from places with currencies that are actually worth something, but you do not have to splash it and finish it off all at once just because you can, you can still enjoy some local delicacies at next to nothing prices. This is where you now need to get off the Red Bus and walk the streets of Cape Town, venture to the Parade and discover the “Great Gatsby”, but do not make the same mistake I made when I first discovered this, let’s just say it is meant to be shared.
Otherwise there are some great fish and chips places, especially if you visit places like Hout Bay and Kalk Bay. If you are still young and the idea of hopping from one happening place to another is still your best idea of fun, then Long Street is for you. Great Fun Places are all at a walkable distance, note I said WALKABLE (some people’s idea of walking distance is something else).
For us the people with life experience, there are some more chilled forms of entertainment. I have been lucky this year to have seen a few world aclaimed productions at the Artscape Theatre, first it was Matilda, then Chicago, it touched me when the poor sod started singing Mr Cellophane, how can one live such a sad life?
Then we have the CTICC, where now and then there would be some weird expos, I have not been to one lately, but then there are other things happening here, like the Cape Town Jazz Festival, which runs over two days, with lots of world acclaimed artists, both local and international.
This is just what you can have in Cape Town, there are other places within driving distance, note I have not mentioned Stellenbosch, and deliberately so, because it deserves a post of its own, and so does the French Corner, otherwise known as Franschhoek, not to mention Hermanus or Darling, Evita Bezuidenhout’s stomping grounds