Welcome to Saturday in Cape Town everybody. It's a little gray today, but still nice and made for a beautiful afternoon of market hopping. This morning, a large group of us went over to the Old Mill Market in the center of Cape Town to experience the local food and shopping in this gorgeous square. The market only sets up on Saturdays from 11-2 and the locals flock there for groceries, lunch, clothes, art, etc. It was like a smaller crafts fair combined with an outdoor mall combined with a fresh food market the likes of which I have never seen before. We honestly walked around all the food stalls for at least 30 minutes before settling on what exactly we wanted to get for lunch. I went to the vegetarian stall and got an amazing wrap with hummus and all different types of vegetables and a coos coos spread. Sounds strange, but it made my day. I bought a large loaf of ciabatta bread for the week because I could not resist its smell and I can assure you, it's the kind of bread one must mention on a blog. Good thing I'm hiking mountains all the time or I would come home from the trip weighing an extra 100 pounds!
Next, we did some shopping around the market and I found my South African gift to myself -- the most beautiful hand crafted canvas and leather backpack I have ever seen. The guy who makes them does them in his small shop here in Cape Town with only local materials and takes them around to various markets like this each week. I really wanted a unique South African bag and while this one doesn't necessarily look like how one might picture a bag from Cape Town, it is definitely one of a kind. It will be glued to my body for the next 4 weeks. Everyone seemed to find little treasures today!
Around 1:30 we all piled into another set of taxis to go to the Green Market. Now this market had a lot of cool stuff. It's another square in the city filled with tents with everything from jewelry to soccer jerseys to used books to scarves. It's not a fixed price market and everyone had fun stretching their bartering muscles today. I'm not sure how good some of us were at it, but most everyone felt like they got a good deal so kudos to the American tourist. I chose to just look today as I know I will be back there at least once more before the end of this trip.
I am now back at my apartment and sitting on my back porch with a big blanket, enjoying the sound of the ocean. Maybe a walk later? Cooking in with some of the other students? Probably going to keep things low key tonight which is just fine with me.
Here are some pictures from the Old Mill Market this morning -- pretty crazy place, huh? And the lady who made my lunch said this was a slow day!!
https://picasaweb.google.com/gcgwood/OldMillMarket#
And look at that, the sun just came out! I think I may go take that walk now actually…
- Grace Greenwood
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