Exploring Cape Town/Long Street

Today was our day off from orientation, so I decided to do a bit of exploring in the city. The main tourist area in Cape Town is along Long Street. To get there from Mowbray (my suburb), I take a shuttle to upper campus and another shuttle to the Hiddingh art campus. I was lucky to sit next to a local student from the art school and he gave me tips of things to check out. The first area I explored was the Company Garden. It is a botanical garden that originated as a crop company established by the English when they first colonized the area.

Walking further into the city, I found a funny Cuban bar called the Che Bar. It was decorated with Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup style pictures of the dictator. They had a great cappuccino.
I had a lot of fun exploring the area. There are tons of beautiful buildings and new skyscrapers (well they are tall for Africa). The city is surrounded by the cape mountains and brightly colored houses rise above the city in the suburbs. I visited markets with hand-made crafts bartered by people from all over Africa. One man, who goes by the name Phillip, was selling radios crafted out of soda cans. I really liked those and think I might go back to purchase one later.

My last roommate moved in this evening. We now have a complete house, with 2 girls and 3 boys. The others are all German speaking (3 Germans & 1 Austrian), so maybe I can improve my German skills while in Cape Town :)