South Africa – a country of wine

Not only France is the country of wine. South Africa belongs among top ten world wine producers. Stellenbosch is situated in the area called Cape Winelands – a short look around is sufficient to discover why. Indeed, everywhere around Stellenbosch you will find plenty of wine farms.

One of the favourite activities, not only of tourists but also of locals, is wine tasting. If you don’t have any plan for Saturday afternoon, what is better than going to a close wine farm with few friends to enjoy few glasses of a good wine on the sun?

And that’s what we did last Saturday. From the wide range of wine farms that are situated around Stellenbosch, we chose the closest one where we can easily get by bike (to get to others, you usually need a car). After having cycled only ten minutes from my house, we arrived to the target of our journey – the Lanzerac Wine Estate.

Because it was a beautiful sunny day (it is still winter here but last weekend the weather was comparable to summer in Europe… a nice summer day of August), we preferred to taste our wine outside enjoying thus also the view over vineyards. At Lanzerac wine estate, you can choose among several tasting options. And not only wine is offered to taste. The most of us chose the option where you taste three wines (one white, one rosé and one red) as well as three matching chocolates (most of which, surprisingly, had the same colour as wines – white, pink (!), only the red wine was accompanied by a brown milk chocolate).

Enjoying the sun on the outside seating, however still without a drop of wine, we began to complain a bit about the slow service. Nevertheless, soon after this, the waitress came, apologizing for the slow service due to a big number of visitors. And as an excuse, she served us a free glass of wine! Hopefully we will have to wait next time as well.

The waitress presented each wine and then we finally could taste. At the end, we could visit the wine cellar with a guide who explained quickly the production process.

And how much does it cost? Prices of local wine are very accessible even for not very affluent students. In supermarkets you can get a bottle of quite tasty wine for only 30 rand (About 2.5€ / 60 CZK). This tasting of three different wines and chocolates cost us only 40 rand.

Having spent such a nice afternoon, we decided that we would do some other wine tasting soon. And for few of us, this “soon” was yet sooner that we had expected. We were to Cape Town yesterday and after having discovered the best food market I have ever seen (Old Biscuit Mill market that equals to a food paradise – but more about it in some other article), Lee (my great buddy, a South African girl studying at Stellenbosch University but who comes from Cape Town and thanks to whom me and my friends have already discovered plenty of great places and activities J ) suggested us that we can go for a wine tasting to a wine farm called Constantia Glen.

This time, we got six different wines for 40 rand (but no chocolate). And the quantity of the wine in the glass was not that one people usually imagine when they hear “tasting”. Indeed, regarding the quantity of wine in our glasses, we had enough to drink during the whole afternoon.

This wine tasting is kind of a favourite sport here around Stellenbosch as somebody remarked with a lough yesterday.

We have been wondering if we can visit all wine farms in Stellenbosch surroundings throughout the upcoming year. It seems that it will be quite difficult because they are really numerous but for sure, we will visit few others soon ;)

So, if you see somewhere a bottle of wine made in South Africa (and if possible in Stellenbosch), buy it and cheers! ;)

Lion’s Head and other fabulous mountains for (not only) hiking lovers

As I have already written in the first article, South Africa offers beautiful nature. Every province is different; let’s thus speak about the region where I currently stay and which I have already could discover a bit.

Around Stellenbosch you see mountains everywhere – if you have nothing to do, the best way how to occupy your day is going for a hike with your friends. And even if you have only few hours free on Monday before your class, you can go for a short hike to the closest mountain – that close it is. That’s why I have already been three times on this mountain called Stellenbosch Mountain but not on others that are located a bit further. And it is also a good place for running if you find the flat land too boring. I have to say that Stellenbosch is really well situated because although the mountains are everywhere around, the town is on more or less flat land so going to the campus by bike is pretty easy.

Furthermore, Cape Town is quite close to Stellenbosch – it is about 50km, about one hour drive. There are several peaks in this city – Table Mountain and Lion’s Head belong among the most well-known.

Last Saturday, we decided with a group of friends to hike Lion’s Head. One German friend has just bought a great car that can hold up to nine or ten people so we arrived by car up to the foot of the mountain where we began our hike.

The top of the Lion’s Head is a favourite place for watching the sunset. And that’s we had planned as well. We brought some food so as we could do a picnic on the top while watching the sunset. And the hike was definitely worth it. When we successfully climbed up to the top, we could see the sea of clouds (on the place where normally is supposed to be normal sea). Watching the sun going down and enjoying our picnic, we didn’t see the time passing. And suddenly the sunset was there. Actually, we spent more than one hour like this but it seemed to be only ten minutes.

The top of the Lion’s Head was quite crowded – it is not that vast and because it was only a day before the Full Moon and weather was very nice, the Lion’s Head attracted lot of visitors.

And then it was the time to go down … at nigh … only under the moon light. The most difficult part of the trip. You have to be careful because some parts of the path are not very easy to overcome if it’s dark but if you take your time, it is not that difficult as it had first seemed to be.

Even people who are not really nature and hiking lovers fall in love with the landscapes of the Western Cape.

The Table Mountain is next on our hiking schedule!

  

New Start in South Africa!

It was Wednesday, 9^th July 2014, when I first stood on the African ground. As a student of the French University Sciences Po, I have to spend my third year of the Bachelor degree abroad. Since I follow the program focused on Africa, this continent is going to be my home for the next year. I chose Stellenbosch in South Africa for the final destination of my African adventure. It has been almost four weeks I have been staying in this lovely town and everything and everybody around me ensure me about the rightness of my choice – undoubtedly a very rich year full of unique experiences and meetings is waiting for me.

What am I going to do during following eleven months, do you ask? I am exchange student in the Stellenbosch University – one of the best South African Universities where I am going to spend two semesters . During the summer holidays (that is to say in December and January) I am going to Cameroon to do an internship within the NGO called Kedjom Keku (I will write something more about it later). Thus, I am going to discover during the following year two completely different African countries about which I am going to tell you.
 

I would like to discover the most facets of the South African life as possible during my stay in this country. That is one of the reasons why I decided to participate in VCE – the Voluntary Community Engagement Programme organized by the university within which (mainly international) students go to the primary school in the local township Kayamandi every Friday and teach children – well, it’s not really teaching, the children are about six year old so our task consists rather in playing with them and communicating with them. Thus, apart the student life where I encounter rather people from the richer part of the population, I should discover also other side of the South African reality.

I have so much to say but I don’t want to put everything into one article – it would be too long and unreadable. Thus, today I will note just few points in order to foreshadow the content of the following articles and thus the things that have struck me the most so far. So, here they are:

            Inequalities and contrasts: rich / poor, black / white – the spatial segregation within the city

This topic is very broad and I will mention it again and again undoubtedly in following articles. You can see big contrasts everywhere. At one moment you think that you live in paradise: people (surprisingly the most of them are white) are sitting at cafés talking with their friends with a beautiful view on mountains (and much more beautiful things)… But then you walk just few streets aside and you will see lot of beggars and homeless people and poorer people in general (who are surprisingly mainly black).
 
Well, it’s a complex issue linked to the recent history… so to be continued.

(Un)security

A dream life behind the bars? – Indeed, the bars are everywhere: on windows, doors… first you can feel like in prison but finally you get used to it…

Also, you can’t walk alone at night as people are used to do in Europe. No, only in groups. And this even though the security agents are almost everywhere in the city ensuring the security. But don't worry about me, Stellenbosch is one of the safest place in South Africa ;)

The security issue is pretty interesting... some article about it will follow.

Eleven official languages

South African culture is the mix of the multiple different cultures. Even the Constitution ensure the place for eleven official languages. The Stellenbosch University is bilingual: English and Afrikaans. Walking throughout the streets of Stellenbosch, we can thus hear English, Afrikaans or isiXhosa – three languages widely spoken in the Western Cape (it is the province where Stellenbosch is situated).
  
Beautiful nature

The nature is really amazing. Everywhere around Stellenbosch are mountains, the squirrels climbing on the trees in the city centre (or doing a slalom between the cars) are a normal thing here and the Atlantic is very close… it’s a perfect place for hiking and nature lovers.

Friendly people

The most of the people I’ve met so far were very kind and friendly – whatever their background has been – from students up to security agents and policemen.

Great university campus and student life

Studying here is a pleasure, the campus is beautiful and there is everything one needs: there are lot of computers that students can use, a student centre with lot of restaurants, shops, banks, poste and even a cinema (just like a shopping mall), a stadium, gym, huge library and so on… 

Also, there is a huge range of student societies that one can join. For example, I have joined a hiking society thanks to which I spent an amazing weekend in the mountains near to the town Hermanus.

Delicious wine

The Stellenbosch wine is one of the best South African wines and it is really delicious and for very good prices! There are many wine farms that offer the wine tasting around Stellenbosch. I have not had the opportunity to do it yet but it’s on my schedule already ;)

Braai

The Afrikaans word for the barbecue that all even non-Afrikaans speaking people know – international students included. Actually this word is used by everybody even when speaking English (or even when I speak French with my French friend). It’s the most favourite activity together with watching the rugby matches of the South African people.

To conclude this first article that is supposed to give you just a short overview of my first remarks, I have to share with you one remark we have done with my international friends: everything is reversed here. First, the seasons. It’s winter now. And when we entered one bar last Saturday, there were even a snow (ok, only a fake one made up from the polystyrene) inside and a Christmas tree! But actually you realize that it is winter only inside the buildings – the most of the time it is warmer outside than inside… and so while in Europe during the winter you go inside to get warmer, here you prefer to spend the most of your time outside. Then, the road. The South African drive on the left like in the UK. 

Anyway, everything around me makes me thing that I have really chosen the best destination I could for my third year abroad – a beautiful country that offers plenty of exciting activities to do but that also has to face lot of challenges yet. Thus, it seems that I will really enjoy it but as well learn a lot.