Cape Town Day 2: Ready, Set, Shop...

Today the weather was not so nice for heading up to Table Mountain, so we headed into the city to shop. We hit up the V&A Waterfront. One of the guide books mentions Cape Town is proud of the gentrification which has taken place at the V&A. It was a nice enough shopping center but it is just clothing shops and stuff. A bit too manufactured and Disneyesque for our liking. Got plenty of that stuff in the States. If we haven't found kitschy African stuff by the time we are back we will head to one of the many African crafts shops at the V&A.  

Next we tooled on over to Long Street, City Bowl area. This area reminded us a bit of the Market area in San Francisco with some buildings looking as if they were plucked right out of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Parking was interesting. Pull up to any open street parking spot and before you can get out of your car a parking attendant is there to take your parking toll. You decide how long you want to stay up to the maximum allowed for the area and you're all set.

We found a few really cool little shops with music and African themed tees. Noosha got a little art too. After a while it started to sprinkle a bit so we ducked into a cafe for a milkshake and chai tea. Nice little cafe with a strong alt flair.  Two girls purchased an awesome photo of the Beatles circa Sergeant Peppers right off the wall of the cafe just to give an idea of the place. Next we strolled into a music store specializing in African music. We purchased an album playing in the store by Goldfish. Cool stuff.

Given the increasing rain we decided to drive around a bit looking at neighborhoods and get some photos for Nick Green of the new football (soccer) stadium being built for the 2010 World Cup in SA. Nick is the husband of Kayla, whom I work with at the City; he writes the 100 Percent Soccer: Soccer In and Around Los Angeles blog. 

The following are a few pics of the stadium:

On the way back to our B&B in Camps Bay we stopped off to grab some food for another late lunch. Our original intention was to hit up this African place we spotted but they were not open yet. So we headed a few door down to this little place called Caveau Deli. Think of the best artisan cafe in Napa. Noosha had fresh handmade ravioli with butternut squash and feta with creamy butternut squash sauce and I had fresh handmade pasta with this amazing sauce with bacon in it (that will come as no surprise to some of you), a leak and mushroom quiche, and a Syrah. Every bite was perfect. This place is a perfect 10! Oh and the best part...the bill was US$22.  We are still full now and contemplating heading back for a dinner of dessert at Caveau.

Tomorrow we are headed to Kruger National Park. We’re not sure if we’ll have internet connection there, so don’t worry about lions having eaten us if you don’t see a post from us for a few days. :)

-Brian the epic blogger, with edits and final comments by Noosha the contributing blogger