Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
Being at South Africa gives you the great chance to taste different dishes from all of Africa. If you don’t always want to dine at the waterfront of Cape Town you should consider the city center and especially the Long Street when looking out for great food. There you’ll also find Mama Africa, a well-known restaurant serving African food which is easy to spot – because of the nice paintings on the outside.
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Between the city center of Cape Town and Signal Hill you can find a special city quarter that is mostly known for its colorful painted houses: Bo-Kaap. It has narrow and steep streets and is obviously not the prime location to built a city quarter on (even though it is really close to the city center); it is the place that the so-called Cape Malays were allowed to settle in. They’re a Muslim group whose ancestors were enslaved by the Dutch East India Company and brought to South Africa.
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The South African Museum was founded in 1825 and is a wild mix of 1,5 million exhibits connected to South Africa. You can learn about regional stone carvings, sharks, land-bound animals, dinosaurs, the life of Nelson Mandela and visit a planetarium connected to the museum. In fact, the South African Museum is a combination of a natural history museum and an archaeology museum which feels a bit odd at the first moment as these types of museums are typically separated in Europe.
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Walking through the Company’s Garden at Cape Town you’ll discover the South African National Gallery at its southwestern end. It is an art museum that was founded in 1871 and that exhibits African and European art. The collection started with works donated by Sir Thomas Butterworth Bayleys and was extended with European artists over time. Thereby this was a special place showing foreign art and the curators are aware about the effects of colonialism on their collection. Since 1990 the focus is to add South African artworks and especially paintings by black artists to the collection.
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The Company’s Garden in Cape Town is a historic public park located in the heart of the city, originally established in the 17th century by the Dutch East India Company as a supply garden to provide fresh produce to passing ships on their voyages to the East. Over the centuries, the garden has evolved into a lush, green space surrounded by significant cultural and historical landmarks, including the South African Museum, National Gallery, and the parliament buildings.
Continue reading “Squirrel paradise”
District 6, once a vibrant and diverse neighborhood in Cape Town, holds a poignant place in South Africa’s history. Prior to the 1960s, District 6 was home to a thriving, multicultural community of Black, Coloured, and Indian South Africans, with a rich cultural and social fabric. However, under the Group Areas Act of 1950, which enforced racial segregation during the Apartheid era, the government forcibly removed over 60,000 residents from the area, bulldozing their homes to make way for a whites-only residential zone.
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The Castle of Good Hope, located in the heart of Cape Town, is the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa and one of the city’s most significant historical landmarks. Built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, the castle was initially constructed as a defensive fort to protect the Cape Colony from potential attacks by sea. Its star-shaped design, featuring thick stone walls, bastions, and a moat, reflects the military architecture of the time. Over the centuries, the castle has served various roles, including as a military garrison, prison, and governmental headquarters.
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Ethiopian food is known for its rich, flavorful, and communal style of eating, centered around injera, a type of spongy, sour flatbread made from teff flour. Injera serves as both a plate and utensil, with various stews, wats, and vegetable dishes placed on top, and diners use pieces of injera to scoop up the food. The cuisine is renowned for its bold use of spices such as berbere (a blend of chili and other spices) and mitmita, which infuse dishes with a distinctive warmth and depth. Common dishes include doro wat (a spicy chicken stew), kitfo (minced raw beef), and a variety of lentils, beans, and vegetables.
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Table Mountain, one of the most iconic landmarks in South Africa, stands proudly above Cape Town, offering breathtaking views of the city, the Atlantic Ocean, and the surrounding Cape Peninsula. The mountain, which rises to an elevation of 1,085 meters, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of the Table Mountain National Park. Visitors can enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, including hiking and mountain biking, but one of the most popular ways to reach the summit is via the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, a modern cable car system that has been transporting tourists to the top since 1929.
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Are you in for some art? The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), located in Cape Town at the historic V&A Waterfront, is one of Africa’s premier art institutions dedicated to showcasing contemporary African art. Housed in a transformed grain silo complex, the museum features a stunning architectural design by Thomas Heatherwick, blending modern aesthetics with the building’s industrial heritage. MOCAA boasts an extensive collection of works by some of the continent’s leading artists, encompassing a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation art.
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