More Spring Break

So I just finished a week of spring break with my lovely parents. Unfortunately I'm not posting pictures cuz it takes way too long here but apparently in Vietnam our homestays have way fast internet so maybe I'll post some then.

Our first stop was Swellendam. We drove there through some beautiful country side and stopped for lunch at a vineyard that looked like it coulda been straight out of Napa Valley. Swellendam was a really cute little town and we stayed at the cutest little bed and breakfast. The room was really as cutesy as it gets. We went to dinner at a place that was empty except for us but had good food and ambiance so we stumbled home with full bellies and went to sleep.

The next day we drove to Knysna which should have been a cute town but was just...not. although our B and B was very cute. We went and checked out the waterfront which ended up being too touristy for us to eat at and settled instead for a cheap ass indian restaurant. We filled ourselves with ciders and lentils and then went home and watched a Chuck Norris movie, Lone Wolf McQuade.

The next day we drove a little outside Knysna to an elephant santuary where we got to pet and feed previously abused elephants. It was fun and...kinda dirty. We drove on to Plettenberg Bay, a town by the sea and bought books and ate fusion food at a place called Fu.shi. We continued on to Monkeyland, a monkey sanctuary for abused monkeys. It's a forested, gated area you walk through and see all kinds of crazy monkeys, apes and lemurs. Cute! Across from that was Birds of Eden, a santuary for abused birds (who are these people abusing all these animals? we even drove by a PORCUPINE sanctuary) and saw all these beautiful birds like parrots, flamingos, bats?, etc. As we were leaving this beautiful little bird came flyin straight at us and I yelled "duck!" but it flew right to dad and landed on his shoulder and wouldn't get off cuz it was determined to eat his sunglasses. We sat there for a while waiting for it to leave so that we could leave and eventually we had to just make him get off. Sad. We drove back to Knysna and went to dinner at this place, 34 South and had lovely mediterranean tapas and I bought some hummus for the road. Protein!

The next day we left Knysna for Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of South Africa. Oudtshoorn also happened to be having the biggest Afrikaans music and arts festival in south africa while we were there which turned out to be pretty much a hick kinda festival. White chicks walkin around in cowboy hats and jean mini skirts, country music, bad art, hot dog vendors and lots of people selling crap. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting. We bought nothing and watched no music but...it was internesting to walk around in. Our bed and breakfast was the only place in town we could get on such short notice since the whole town was booked for this festival so the B and B ended up being the most expensive place in town. It was nice and I had my own room. It had a pool and we played some dominoes and swum and just hung out. Our dinner the first night was recommended by our host (who we think perhaps was paid to recommend it) and was pretty lackluster. The next day we did a long drive over this pretty pass and then went to the Cango Caves which you can tour through. When touring the caves one can do the standard tour or the adventure tour in which you go through all these small little tunnels crawling on yoru stomach and stuff. For reasons beyond me, mom adn dad opted for the adventure tour. It was pretty rough I would say! They lead you to these realllly tight little tunnesl that you are crawling on your belly through and then there's this part called Devil's Chimney where you enter a hole in a wall and then you have to climb up through a tunnel and it's sweaty and damp and..ugg. But we all made it (although someone on the tour in front of us apparently got stuck). We got out of there and went to a safari place to get a little safari tour but we missed it so we had to settle for getting a drink on the water front and watching hippos. That night we went to the best restaurant in town and had a grand ol time.

The next day we had to leave Oudtshoorn for a long drive through wine country to Franshoek. We stopped at the side of the road at a nice little lunch place on a vineyard and enjoyed food and wine while we played with the owners dog. We arrived in Franshoek about 4:30 which gave us little time to hang out and enjoy the really cute little cottage we were staying at. We went into town, walked around, and had drinks while we waited for dinner (Singapore Slings and Caipirinhas anyone?). We went to dinner at this asian place that was so good. I got some pad thai and soup and whatnot and tried to enjoy the last night of break with my parents. Overall, it was a pretty good break.

This morning we woke up at 5:30 in the morning, yikes! to head back to Cape Town/the airport for my parents. They dropped me off at the backpacker I'm staying at and peaced out. Now I'm just biding my time today until everyone else gets here and we go to Vietnam tomarrow!