IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA!!!! Cape Town 2012: DAY TWENTY ONE:

Finally got to sleep in today!! Well until 10 o'clock anyways. Then it was up to make my way to Stellenbosch for the weekend!!! There was about fifty of us that boarded the buses to go... and we found out that all our taxi drivers aka saviors were coming with us also to drive us around once we were there. Like what I am going to do when I get back to Athens and want a ride?? It was only like a 45 minute drive to the infamous college town..much shorter than I expected! Once we got there, we all checked into our hotel, which was MUCHHH sketchier than the ones we stayed in during adventure week. But, I mean it was still nice. So much about Stellenbosch reminded me of Athens and made me miss it so much!! I can't wait to be back and see everyone! There are all these cute small houses similar to those in Athens, and the downtown resembles Athens so much!! It has a small town, historic feel. The roads are mostly one way and lined with little shops and cafes. It was so pretty there!! Anyways, after we all checked into our hostel, we piled into our lovely cabs and made our way to our first winery of the day... brandy. I had never had brandy before so this was certainly an experience. I was confused as to why it was called a winery, but we learned that brandy is actually a form of white wine. In case you were wondering! And, I learned that brandy is disgusting haha....well straight brandy anyways. When we got there, first the landscape was beautiful: the rolling hills covered with vineyards and mountains in the background, always mountains...so jealous we don't have that back home...But, when we got there we were given what appeared to be mango juice and led to this oak room with a bunch of tables set up with individual trays of brandy. The first we tried was a ten year brandy, the strongest one we had, apparently it was supposed to taste woody, with a scent of tobacco and coffee. Yea... I didn't really get that impression.... STRONG. That was the impression I got, incredibly strong. Then we had the twelve year brandy, which was a little better, didn't burn as much. It was supposedly sweeter with a hint of vanilla. Once again... didn't get that impression. Then, we found out that the yummy mango juice we were chugging after taking minuscule sips of this brandy was actually mixed with brandy. Brandy chased with brandy..... mind you it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We were supposed to be casually sipping on the brandy, you know like Chuck Bass style, but I just had to take it like a shot. It was too much to taste repeatedly. But, I started a trend and everyone started shotting it. After we were done with the brandy, our amazing cab drivers surprised us with a type of tailgate haha. They all opened the trunks of their vans and had coolers FULL of beers and....Smirnoff ices... so, clearly their was, once again, a lot of icing going on. By the end of this trip everyone was so paranoid haha. We all got our beers and crammed back in the vans to go to the next winery. There was even icings happening in the moving cab. We asked Corbis, our cab driver if South Africa had an open container policy...he said probably and laughed haha oh well! The next winery was a wine and cheese place. We got five glasses of wine for 3 dollars!!! Score! They were all so good!! I almost bought some to bring home but I figured with my luck the bottle would shatter in route. After this winery, we went back to the hostel to get ready to go to dinner at this tapas place in town called Buena Vista. It was so good! I had the best chicken quesadilla EVER. I don't really know if it was as good as I think it was, or if I just really missed mexican food, but the guacamole was to. die. for. After dinner, we were all pretty... happy.... I mean we had been drinking for like a solid eight hours. We went to this club called catwalk. It was basically like a rave, strobe light fest with a hookah bar haha. I talked to this guy who basically informed me that everyone in South Africa hates Americans.... yikes haha. Although the entire conversation was voided when he concluded that there was one redeemable American out there... Kanye West... to which he proceed to act out the "Imma let you finish" scene. Dear lord. Then, Bradley taught me how to salsa. I am getting so cultured!!! We ended the night at a bright and early 4 AM with a McDonalds run. So American of us, I know haha. Fun Fun night!! I wish we would have been able to stay in Stellenbosch longer.

PS. forgot to include this in my blog from Friday... I learned the Rasta (no idea how to spell that) handshake today, which evidently, makes me a true Rasta or Rastafarian. This little boy (12 maybe) cam up to me and was like "Can I teach you a handshake I made up for us?" He was adorable so I was like sure why not! We learn the handshake, do it a few times, and then this older boy comes up to me and informs me that what I learned/thought was this cute, innocent handshake, was actually the sign of the Rastas.... uh oh.