South Africa part 3

Culinary South Africa

Our trip was based on culinary experience and South Africa offers plenty of possibilities to eat the world around. 

We started with Portuguese style restaurant, that actually offered a bit of international cuisine, with a Portuguese accent. They fancied green hot chilli avocado pizza with danish feta that our "tour leader" took. He said it was excellent.

Green hot chilli avocado pizza

Near to our hotel at Gardens district we also found very modest Italian restaurant with wooden pizza oven. And not far from that we had really spicy thai diner. Also Indian restaurant, vietnamese and many other options are available. And the main ingredients are excellent quality. 

One night we decided to have an elegant diner to witch we even dressed up. Between down town and waterfront in an area of old storehouses there is an elegant restaurant where I tasted the most delicate ostrich carpaccio and ostrich filet. 

For some reason "these elegant restaurants" seem to save with inner lights and we needed the flashlight from our smartphones to be able to read the menu. 

springbok carpaccio 

We also learned that in some restaurant desserts are the largest portions of the whole menu. It is highly recommend to think what you order as a main course if you want some sweet afterwards. That one below was a regular size. 

To continue our culinary trip, we also tasted some Belgium style cuisine at the Waterfront and at Camps Bay we had a sunset smoothie one night and another night Italian diner. Again light in the restaurant was optional, while food was excellent also the way it was set in a plate. 

In every restaurant we met only nice people, ready to serve us. 

Salmon salad with avocado

I had the best Vodka-Lime sorbetto ever, and I hope they take it as a regular to their menu adding some ginger in it. Fits to the name of the restaurant too. 

Talking about cocktails; I am not a cocktail lover, but time to time, I like experiment by tasting some. The best Bloody Mary ever is to be found in the area of Cape Town. Two memorable ones: one at Camps Bay at the restaurant we dined and the other one at Sea Point. 

We also had some beautiful oysters at the V. A.  Waterfront and Turkish diner with a lots of mezes at the area where old warehouses are.

No need to take them all

Just about 40 minutes by driving to the winery area there is this typical Dutch look alike village called Stellenbosh to visit. We followed the food steps of our tour leader, to whom the visit in South Africa was already his 5th one. And again our gustative pallbearers were not disappointed. 

monster hamburger

An other winery town near Cape Town we visited was founded in 1685. We could have done a wine tour, wine and culinary tour or just wine tasting. We took the last one. And then enjoyed our lunch in the restaurant. 

A bit further a way, where we stopped on our way back from the region of Eastern Cape, there is this little jewel called Franschhoek. We had diner and breakfast in this Italian style restaurant where they write Bruschetta without "s", because locals don't seem to be able to pronounce it as Italians with the "s". 

They served dishes that were like in a competition of Master Chef:

Driving towards Cape of Good Hope we stopped in a small town where Pinguin colonies are to be admired. Its called Simmons Town. We all ordered mussels with creamy sauce, but unfortunately just one mussel was bad and one of us (not me) got ill. 

The day after me and the Croatian lady headed to the African Restaurant in down town I was suggested to visit, and we enjoyed lovely South African beer and delicious dishes.

Visiting a "friend of a friend" at Betty's Bay, nearly 2 h driving from Cape Town, we had lunch in a small village called Kleinmond (small mouth). Mussels and oysters are to be found everywhere in the cost line. 

Here we ordered oysters to start with that were excellent and some fried fish and calamari with chips. The portions in this restaurant are huge ! I could barely eat those calamaris and some chips. I took the fish in a doggy bag but forgot it to the house of our friends. Calamaris were cleaned with perfection. This is something I learned while working as a student in a Greek Restaurant in Helsinki, that nowadays do not exist anymore. The rule was to take out the whole skin, the marrow bone that looks like a piece of plastic and the chewing gum type inner skin. Many restaurants leave the last skin or buy bags of nearly cleaned ones and it makes eating calamari like chewing a gum. 

I didn't know what to do with all that food we didn't eat, but as a hint to the travellers to South Africa, you may take remaining food with a doggy bag and give it away to the parking assistants, or in some case to the waiters to take back home. Make sure you don't give away something already started, to be educated. 

In Hout Bay that is about 1 h driving from Cape Town and where swimming could be possible when there is not much wind, with the water temperature of nearly 18°C we had again this lovely meal in a restaurant, where dishes were combined as if the chef was a winner of the Master Chef competition. 

avocado scampi salad

On our way to the Garden Route we slept few night over at the Oudtshoorn: A town of universities and restaurants that shut their doors at 9 pm. When we arrived it was nearly 10 pm and all we had left about the choice was a gas station. They had a lots of these english type of pies. We had few bottles of wine from our visit to winery and bought those pies, and some cheese to go with it. 

The evening after, we were more prepared and walked from our hotel to the restaurant that had the most delicious popotie pie ever among other delicious dishes. Popotie is something like Caribbean and African mixture.

In our stay at Knysna, a small pearl in the Indian Ocean at the Eastern Cape we enjoyed oysters, more oysters, some sushi and delicious king prawns, but most of the times "termites" arrived before I could take a picture of any of those dishes. 

One night we were so tired by all that travelling that we just stayed "at home" and enjoyed some wine with some cheese and chocolate, cause we rented such a beautiful house at the Thesen Island  

white chocolate goes with white wine

South Africa has excellent wine and beer to flush down all that good food and has nothing to envy Italy, France, Chile, Australia, Spain or other wine producing countries. 

It was markable fact that wine is not over charged in the restaurant and the price of a good wine in a winery is exactly the same in the liquor store. 

Next time in South Africa I shall go and visit all those wineries and I can swear there are plenty to get drunk at. 

Cheers !

pink panther

Photos by author; please ask permission to copy and paste 

For group reservations, contact www.kairos-travel.eu

South Africa part 2

How to get around

To start with it, the common language used in Cape Town are either english of afrikaans. 

Those travellers coming from countries with limited language barrier can explain them selves easily with gestures and with a vocabulary with only 50 words. This is a common fact. 

I was travelling with 3 Serbians and one Croatian  and each time they used gestures, I got a hint of what they were talking about, due to my language skills of nearly 7 languages, and none of them is Slovenian nor Russian. 

So to arrive to the Cape Town, I could take a bus, a taxi or a shuffle bus most hotels offer by booking it in advance, or hire a car. We took a cap. Our driver Andy fit us all with our suitcases in a family car of 5 and we had really a good time during the trip to our hotel that was situated jus under Table Mountain in the district of Gardens. 

I usually have this huge amount of energy after a long flight that can be associated of adrenaline, and thanks God our flight landed in the afternoon, so that we only got ourselves settled to the hotel and headed to a diner. 

To visit Cape Town we walked mostly; nearly 12 km each day, from our hotel to V.A. Waterfront. The trip isn't that long. Only 3,5 km but walking here and there the daily balance was over 10 km anyway. And that is good for the health. 

Cape Town has hills and it is challenging to walk around. 

Taxi from our hotel to down town cost 50 rand and to the waterfront 100 rand.  

We took one of those hop-on-hop-off busses to get an idea of the town. There are 4 routes to take, and by purchasing two day ticket the company gives more benefits. We took just one day ticket. 

Other way to get around is to hire a car. We took one Volkswagen Polo for 6 days and payed proximately 2000 rand for it. But again, VW Polo is really small for 5 adults to sit on it. 

Later on to visit the famous Garden Route, we hired a larger car; Toyota Cruiser and payed 6000 rand for the hire of 6 more days. Gasoline cost nearly 35% less than in most EU countries, or like in US or in Australia. If you add the insurance, get ready to pay like the car hire. 

Check out your travel insurance. Some companies include car hire. (Not a boat or heli thought) 
Check also out that the car rental really fits all your requirements. We insisted by telling the the car would be delivered at the airport instead to down town and later on, so that if there were to add an extra day, we would have payed that straight away. This wasn't taken in consideration, and at the airport we got charged more. 

There is also trains that go to various places. We didn't took any, but Simmons Town where is a settlement of penguins, a rail way goes direct from the Cape Town, and if you wish to take sun while in the cost line get out at St. James and swim in the rock pool. 

Just do not bring any guns or do anything else mentioned in the chart

There is a train that goes from Cape Town to Johannesburg and it takes 24 h travelling through savanna. You may just sit in a train and admire the African wild life. 

South Africa has huge amount of mountains and although we tried to "compare" them to something we have seen elsewhere, I advice not to do so. Comparing is impossible. They are unique and beautiful. 

Most roads go through these massive rocks and roads are not always straight. The speed limit is in a highway 120 km/h and in smaller roads up to 100 km/h  In one of the roads we had no one, it was straight for kilometres to go on and it felt like in the moon. We took a little speed up to see how it is to drive fast in such road.  

The large emergency pad in the left is used by bicycles and by letting faster cars to pass by. I wouldn't use it near areas where there is some settlement, because most of the local population walk from work or shop to home. It is a common use that slower driver pass faster to go by without any request like flashing lights. 

This brings me to think of those who loves mountain bikes. In January there are several competitions to partecipate with. One we saw was from Oudsthoorn to Mossel Bay: A distance of proximately 80 km. 

In case you don't feel custom by the left hand side driving, there are plenty of travel agencies that can provide tours to visit national parks, safari and so on. Even for several days. The price is affordable.

I counted that the fatigue for two travellers by getting around hiring car and one of those tours are nearly the same. In that case I don't have to drive, or think of the roads I need to take. 

I also have the assistance of a local guide, food, drinks and bed where to sleep in.

I trust at tour leaders and tour guides: I'm one of them. 

All photos are from the author; please ask a permission to copy and paste elsewhere. 

Group reservations throughout www.kairos-travel.eu 

South Africa part 1

General Information 

I was planning to skip this part and leave it up to you wether you like to go and check out the information regarding this land, but I must admit that I hate when other writers do so. 

South Africa's official name is The Republic of South Africa and it is as big as 1.221.037 km2 large country. What does that mean? That is proximately 3 times Germany, or Finland, Germany and Italy all together. Or just about 1/8 out of Brazil  and for 23 times South Africa could fit in Australia.

It has a lots of cost lines; nearly 3.000 km or 1.739 miles. 

Although all that cost line, swimming is not recommended  due to the cold water of Southern Atlantic Ocean, that has the temperature about 12-15°C. 

Only 8% out of the population of 55 million are white, and 80% are black. There are some so to say coloured people and few asian. 

There are 11 official languages in South Africa. In Cape Town and the areas we visited, most people speak afrikaans (old dutch) and english. But the language distribution is a bit different elsewhere; only  13% actually speak afrikaans, and just nearly 10% english. The most spoken language is zulu; nearly 12 million out of 55 million inhabitants speaks it. 

South Africa's flag designed by Frederick Brownell looks like this: next to it the Coat of arms 

  

South Africa has three capitals; Pretoria that is executive, Bloemfontein is judicial and Cape Town legislative. Jacob Zuma is the president of South Africa, while the deputy president is Cyril Ramaphosa. 

The political system has parliament; lower house and upper house (a bit like in UK). 

South Africa become independent from UK in 1910.

The first european to set his feet in South Africa wasn't a dutch guy, but the Portuguese Bartolomeu Diaz in 1487 at Walfisch Bay in the western cost. Dutch and english arrived only 2 centuries later to take it all over from Portuguese.  And just like in those American Western movies, also here white men robbed land from aborigin population. There are to be found in museas testimonies of that battle between zulu and dutch at the Boer camp. 

(Boer family is known by mining diamonds.) 

Not only zulu wanted to get rid of Boer Republic, but also British that in between 1880 and 1902 fought 1st and 2nd Boer War. 

South African currency is rand (ZAR), and the to European South Africa is nearly 35% less expensive to spend holidays, comparing to most EU countries.  

I payed nearly 900€ to my flight ticket, because we bought it just a month before departure, due to the circumstances of other participants. But I noticed that Emirates, KLM and Turkish Airlines offers better deals if booked in advance of 4-6 months. We flew with Turkish Airlines, to fit different countries of departure. I must say that my first experience with TA was more than successful. Flight attendants are extremely kind (but not to be fooled at) and beautiful to watch. 

Food on board was excellent and it was enough. Wine and juices were included also in my short flight from Milan to Istanbul. 

Just a small story about Istanbul Airport: It had been snowing a lot few days before our departure, and I wasn't really sure wether we could make it. Arriving to Istanbul, the whole airport seemed to be in total chaos  But.... Living in Italy I can assure you that Turkish and Italians are quite similar in case of emergency. They totally ignore German style procedure and byrocrcacy. They work hard as mules, and fix everything necessary later. So planes left just about few hours of delay. 

In South Africa I learned that some of the passengers in our flight from Istanbul did not get their luggages on time, but again that wasn't our case. 

(It depends a lot of the airport handling company: in Italy I got a huge transfer tag in my luggage) 

Let's get started with, at MXP airport

We didn't take a car from the airport, because we chilled at Cape Town down town for few days. Later on we took a small car and I'll tell you about later in the part 2. 

Arriving to the Cape Town Airport we took a taxi. As we were 5 and with the driver 6 we expected to get a mini van. Nope. We all got in to a family car for 5 with all the luggages and our journey couldn't get more hilarious start !!! 

Umbria part 3

Perugia

Perugia is the capital of the Region Umbria and the same name province with short cut as PG. 

Perugia is famous of the chocolate Perugino. The very same where it is a hidden small message for lovers. 

A bit like Chinese good luck cookies. 

To visit Umbria is like to dive in the medieval period. Every town and village has its own little secrets and its own character. Lets not forget that before the unifying of Italy due to Giuseppe Garibaldi, these small towns were real nations with their own governments. 

And so was Perugia. At the period of  (Saint) Francis in the 12th century the city was in war with Assisi. And it took Francis to march up to Trevi; to an other nation again, to figure out what he really wanted. 

The view from Perugia to Monte Subasio, where Saint Francis spent one year  to find the meaning for his life. 

Ever since I visited an exhibition of Etruscan life in Venice, I have got this curiosity of ancient cultures, such as Etruscan, Cretan, and old Egyptian culture. There must be some sort of connection. Last discovery was the culture of Sardinian Nuraghi people. They all developed at the same time, with same kind of architecture and they had similar tools to build houses and create art and jewerly. 

And I also discovered something that could be useful today. The only thing that remains from the past, are stones like granite and marble and jewerly. Statues made by iron are to get rusted if in touch with air and humidity. 

old Etruscan doorway

Those houses, where ancient Etruscan people lived were made to last earthquakes  weather circumstances and the use of humans that lived in it. There still are several Necropolis to visit in Perugian area. It is incredible how solid was the ancient cemetery. 
Just one thing destroyed everything: The Roman culture. The very same we still live today. 
We live in a culture that destroys more than builds. 

Perugia is a "real world" to show how many cultures and civilisations have used the city, starting indeed of Etruscan. Roman walls are add to the Etruscan ones, and renaissance fortress just build on top of a mediaeval city. 
To bring water to Roman soldiers, Romans built the city water supplies. 
The so called acquaducts. 

Roman period acquaduct as todays bicycle road. 

To live in Italy and being able to admire this country as an open air museum just for free is a huge privilege.
And just for free I could indeed explore Perugia, passing throughout a passage that leads along the mediaeval city called Rocca Paolina because it was signed by Pope Paolo the III and situated inside these renaissance walls and visit this beautiful city on a top of a hill. 

Medieval town in Rocca Paolina

I can walk, or "swim" as locals say, the long main street Corso Vannucci with modern shops, bars and restaurants in medieval and renaissance styled houses. 
To sit down in one of the bars in main street terraces is not overpriced. It doesn't matter wether I have my "aperol spritz" in a bar filled with locals or in the most touristic area. Price is nearly just the same. 

thirst.be

It might occur that sometimes we don't pay attention to where we are. The restaurant or bar keeper do pay higher price of the area he or she occupies in a main street compering to those in a corner behind "god's back". And therefor prices of drinks and food might be a bit higher. I must admit that I pay that 1€ more for the view and peaceful atmosphere. 
So why not just admire the Fontana Maggiore build by Nicola e Giovanni Pisano at the 4th of November Square, while having some cappuccino and briosce. It was build in the 13th century and although the sculpture maker's name might lead to Pisa, his birth place is still unknown. Together with his son the sculpture was completed in just three years. 
At the same square is to admire Palazzo di Priori, built later in the same century.

fontana Maggiore and Palazzo dei Priori

I have gotten an extraordinary occasion to sit in the Sala dei Notari (Notary Hall) for two days, when the Astrological Association Jayavidia organised an international astrological event in the summer of 2016. Together with the most capable and famous astrologist from the United States, Great Brittain, France and Italy. 

Sala Notari

And to crown the view of man made constructions the maestous San Lorenzo's Cathedral in this very same square built much later than the other two; only in the 18th century and with baroccan style. The main entrance actually faces Piazza Danti. 

cattedrale.perugia.it

I took an extra day off to visit Perugia closer, and in one of the narrow streets just behind the main street I found this gorgeous little wine house  that offers also excellent food. I found it's furnish really peculiar. 

Also the restaurant next to mini metro station, that looks more like a cable car, I had several excellent meals, not to mention the view this place gives. 

And then... Do not forget to eat the cakes. This selection of various cakes are from the bar bakery in the main street just across of Palazzo Priori. 

Diving in one of those medieval narrow streets there are plenty to discover. And just to mention one, there is this Etruscan Well I wanted to visit, but it wasn't  open to the public that day. In the same neighbourhood I found an interesting house instead. I belongs to a marquis Bourbon di Sorbello and besides it's marvellous furniture, still original 

turismo.comune.perugia.it

it has a magnificent view from the terrace 

It appears that the latest Marquis is still alive, around 60 years old and not married. 

Interesting. 

To visit Perugia with time and pleasure, I advice to sleep two nights and spend three days in it. Perugia is also a University City and it has a section to foreign students. Nearly 20.000 students abroad study in Perugia. 

Perugia also has a great source of truffles, and it has a huge selection of fairly high quality wine. It is said that the Umbrian bread is without salt, because they didn't want to pay taxes to Romans to buy salt, and therefor an excellent to taste olive oil. Umbrians are proud of their olive oil that is said to be one of the best in Italy. 

Best period to visit Perugia would be late may or beginning September when the temperature is pleasant. In case you plan to visit in July, plan your trip timing to Umbria Jazz Festival. Most musician travel from one Jazz Festival to an other one, so those that play in Amsterdam for instance, are to be found here too. 

Booking a day trip from a local travel agency it is possible to visit other places near by, including Orvieto and Assisi. 

Car drivers should pay attention to where they park, since Perugia is a narrow place and not all the parking lots are for the visitor. 

Hotel and restaurant prices are among the average. Jus to give you an idea: To eat in outside of big cities, I pay €25-30 that includes starter, main course, bottle of water and a glass of wine. Those that do not like to sit down and spend one or two hours for lunch may opt to a pizza slice that are easily to be found anywhere.