Cape Town Places: A story in colors

A trip out to Cape Town from Stellenbosch is about an hour by car. To wander the streets of a new city with absolutely no aim but to get lost and find strange interesting places is something that I like to do. It's a bit like an "escape room" type exercise, only in this case it's outdoors and the goal is to see if I can use another route to find my way home.

The Central Business District

Anticipating that I will probably get lost in an unfamiliar city, I tend to pick one large main road or street to walk along back and forth, whenever I visit someplace new. In the economic center of South Africa, the CBA, I follow Long Street to Long Market Street, like Dorothy's yellow brick road. I choose one direction randomly and just follow it.

THINGS I LOVED...

The Architecture

Cape Town is the embodiment of South Africa's rainbow culture. Like most growing metropolitan cities the world over, old architecture shares space with new commercial buildings; modern concrete and glass, 18th-century European style buildings with elegant molding, and bursts of color create a kaleidoscope effect that draws your eyes upward to admire and appreciate.

The Street Art

Art in South Africa for me is vibrant and captivating, more so in the splashes of color that seem to bounce off the walls and spill onto the pavements. It's an unexpected but pleasant surprise, to turn one corner and spot it, like artificial flowers in the concrete forest. I might not have had the time to see all of it but the glimpses are satisfactory.

The Unexpected Little Japanese Cafe Round the Corner

When I discovered Mochi Mochi, it was like finding a quirky old friend in a place you least expected them. While I've never been to Japan before, it has always been at the top of my dream destination list. However, cute little dessert shops were everywhere in Xiangtan and Changsha, the cities I lived in while doing my graduate studies abroad in China. The aesthetics and ambiance are so nostalgic and familiar to me that I wanted to never leave.

and more shops...

The museum off the beaten track

If it says museum on the tin, I'm definitely cracking it open. For many wanderers, maps are our cup of limpid tap water. I'll usually ditch the GSP for whatever wonder catches my eye first, especially on an impromptu walk. In a city as culturally rich as Cape Town, and with a history just as poignant, I knew I was bound to run into a museum one way or another. The South African Sendinggestig Museum is a modest but never the less beautiful museum, on the inside as well as the outside. Built in 1804 and renovated in the 70s, you can still feel the quiet sense of refuge it must have provided the slaves who once congregated there for prayer and community.

I only scratched the surface with my impromptu tour. Have you been to Cape Town? How did you find it? Do you know any interesting places in the CBD?

Pat.