Hotels and Hot Chocolate

As hard as it may be to believe, amidst my frequent feelings of guilt and the like, JoJo and I were able to squeeze in many laughs and a great deal of fun while in South Africa.  Even with an analytical mind and heavy heart, it is easy to find joy and happiness when you are amongst your closest friends. Although there were lots of memorable and comedic moments during our trip, two particular moments stand out amongst the rest.

The first moment occurred while JoJo and I were traveling from Johannesburg to Cape Town.  We unfortunately were not able to get on the same flight –we actually were supposed to take the train instead of airplane, but that is a whole other story. Nevertheless, we traveled to the airport together and after we went our separate ways in the airport, I decided to stop for a hot chocolate once I got through security.  I made my way to a very European-looking café, and ordered a hot chocolate with whipped cream.  After almost leaving my wallet at the counter, I patiently waited for my drink.  A few minutes later, ‘hot chocolate!’ was called from behind the counter and I went up to retrieve my drink.  In addition to the steaming hot to-go cup, the man serving me handed me a small chocolate piece of candy.  I walked away thinking what a nice touch that was – adding a little piece of candy with the drinks.  I thought it was so precious that I took a picture

My hot chocolate, before mixing in the chocolate.

of my hot chocolate and little complimentary sweet before heading to my gate.  When I got to my gate, I sat down, and took my first sip of what I hoped would be delicious hot chocolate.  It was absolutely horrible.  It was literally the worst hot chocolate I had ever tasted in my entire life.  While sitting there in disbelief at how someone could mess up hot chocolate so badly, I remembered that when the man handed me my cup, he had asked me if I wanted some sugar.  I realized now why he did and wished I had taken him up on the offer.  I tried another sip, and it was so bland and tasteless that I decided I needed to walk back to the café and get some sugar if I had any chance of reviving this disappointing drink.  I did just that.  As I opened up the lid of my cup, I was surprised to see white liquid inside.  Where was the chocolate?  Why wasn’t my hot chocolate a brownish color of some sort?  I, personally, would like to blame this on the color of my hair, but a few seconds later I realized the ‘problem’ with my hot chocolate: it wasn’t hot chocolate at all.  It was hot MILK, without any added sugar or chocolate.  My genius self was holding the chocolate part of my ‘hot chocolate’ in my hand.  I am so used to America’s powered, hot cocoa mix that it never crossed my mind that that piece of candy that I thought was such a nice touch was actually how my warm milk was going to transform into hot chocolate.  Of course the disappointing taste of my earlier sip now made perfect sense.  I added the chocolate piece, stirred my drink and was amazed at what a difference real chocolate in hot chocolate makes on the deliciousness scale.  I drank every last drop.  Oh, the things you learn while traveling.

JoJo and I made it safely to Cape Town.  Because we flew and did not take the train, totally my fault by the way, we arrived to Cape Town one night early.  As such, we had to make additional arrangements for that extra night because the hotel that JoJo had already booked for the duration of our stay could not accommodate a day early. For that first night, we stayed at a hotel that had fairly decent reviews on TripAdvisor as we awaited our actual reservation. The hotel turned out to be just fine and was a short ten minute walk from what we later learned to be the ‘prime’ location for eating, shopping, etc in Cape Town. Once we finished checking in, we decided to head out for dinner and explore Cape Town a bit. We kicked off our weeklong mission of trying as many restaurants as we could at a Mexican restaurant on Long Street, the main drag in Cape Town, where we found and proceeded to take advantage of 50 cent shots. :)

Dinner was good, and since it was not completely dark yet, we began to wander around. We were hoping to stumble across the Greenmarket Square, which we had read transformed into a massive, outdoor market with the best souvenir deals.While walking, we talked about every-and-anything, including if we should just stay at the hotel we were currently because of ease and location.  After a bunch of twists and turns, we stopped on a particular corner because we came across the side of a hotel that looked very quaint and inviting. Since hotels were on our mind, I jokingly said that we should stop in to this hotel so that JoJo could watch me maneuver my way to the best deal of the century– since my bartering skills just are/have become that good.  After such a strong comment, JoJo of course wanted to see me put my money where my mouth was. 

We walked around to the front of the hotel, and stopped DEAD in our tracks once the entire front of the building was visible.  It was absolutely grandeur. It was a beautiful cream color, with a hint of blue - simply elegant from top to bottom.   I pulled my foot from in my mouth and humbly recanted my previous statement that I could get us the deal of the century at this establishment.  We made our way back to our hotel for the night, ohhhh and ahhhing about that hotel, and laughing at my premature confidence. Luckily for us, while we were admiring the stunning hotel, we found Greenmarket Square, as it stood with its entrance directly facing the Square.

After returning to our hotel, we continued our hotel conversation from earlier, trying to decide it was wise to move to our originally booked hotel tomorrow, which was a fair distance from the most ideal part of town.  We hopped back onto TripAdvisor and started looking at additional hotel options as well.  We came across this super awesome, modern yet charming hotel with a rooftop pool!, sauna, and dope looking rooms that JoJo hadn’t even entertained the first time around because it was wayyyy out of our price range.  However, for whatever reason, the price had been reduced by TWO–THIRDS of the original price at the time we were looking!  It looked TOO good to be true!!! The only problem was: from the map provided and our limited knowledge of Cape Town, we couldn’t figure out exactly where the hotel was located. As fabulous as it seemed, JoJo and I agreed that location was an important part of our ability to make the most of our week in South Africa.  But this hotel was just too good to pass up! After much debate, and down to the last ten minutes of eligibility of cancelling our other reservation, we decided to move to the stellar-steal-of-a-price-with-an-unknown-location hotel.

View from the top of our hotel!

The next morning, after leaving our bags at the desk, we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast our first hotel provided – you already how much I enjoyed this breakfast from the ‘before’ and ‘after’ breakfast pictures in my most recent most post, which were of this meal.  We made our way back to Greenmarket Square, excited to see it in its full glory. In retrospect, it was really cool to see the open space of the market at night, without all of the stands, before actually seeing it transformed into the market it becomes during the day.  We did some serious damage in that market. As it turns out, nearly ALL of the ‘South African’ souvenirs found in the market, and throughout the rest of the country, were made in East and Central Africa.  It was very difficult to find anything truly South African, as there is such a high rate of immigrants from other African countries bringing their countries’ token souvenirs and selling them in South Africa for a much higher price.  We decided all of our purchases and skillful bartering of those items deserved a meal to refuel. We sat down at one of the many outdoor restaurants right on the Square. 

View from our room of the market and surrounding square. 

As we waited for our meal, we admired the majestic hotel from the evening before that we could see from where we sat on the other side of the square.  JoJo went to take a picture of the hotel, and as she zoomed in with her camera, she caught the name of the hotel, which we hadn't even bothered to learn the night before. As it turns out, that hotel from the night before that we had just been drooling over and the hotel we had booked last night online was one in the same! We couldn’t believe our luck!! It had literally the most ideal location, and, if the interior lived up to the pictures from the website, the inside of the hotel was just as perfect.  We couldn’t contain our excitement.  We ate our lunch and rushed as coolly as we could pretend to be over the check the place out…before going back to the first hotel to get our bags – we just couldn’t wait!

Another shot of the rooftop view!

It was everything the pictures made it to be and more! All of the travel related stress slipped from our memory.  Being able to stay in that hotel in that location made up everything up to that point totally worth it!!  Coming ‘home’ every night to the Inn on the Square was the icing on the cake for our Cape Town adventures!

Hotels and hot chocolate aside, the remaining highlights of our trip are too many to count.  However, I would be remiss in sharing any of our trip without mentioning and including pictures of a few particular stops. 

JoJo and I visited Table Mountain, a must do in Cape Town.  We made the smart choice of planning to take the last cable car up to the top, which allowed us to have a bird's eye view of the beautiful sunset. 

We also took a day trip to the Cape of Good Hope, the most southern part of Africa and the world, excluding Antarctica.  We drove down the coast from Cape Town to the Cape, stopping at Boulders’ Beach, see pictures below for the appropriateness of the name, famous for the penguins that inhabit this beach.

We also made a quick stop, well okay, we went once and it was so good we made our driver stop on our way to the airport at the end of our trip for one last taste, at the famous Charly's Bakery.

Although there is really no way to sum South Africa up in a few words, sentences or even stories, it was surely a trip that I will cherish for a long time.  South Africa showed me some of our globe's finest natural beauty, gave me a great deal to think about and allowed me to experience all that with one of my best friends.  That makes me quite a lucky girl, in my book.