Hello again from Cape Town! This place is amazing!! We've been here now for almost 2 weeks and are trying to change our ticket so we can come back and spend some more time after our safari!

We took an over night flight from London and arrived into CT around 9am on Oct. 12th. We were so happy when pulled up to our flat... we totally lucked out and found a loft apt. for rent right on the Buitengracht St. (the main st. in town). The apt. was huge, in a completely secure building, and had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked downtown and Table Mountain. We were off to a good start. We didn't do much the 1st day because we were pretty tired from the flight and we happened to ask a woman where we could get our hair cut and she got us in that afternoon. After a bit of pampering we just went to the grocery store, stumbled upon the best coffee shop and chilled out at home. The coffee shop, Sundance, had really yummy blended iced coffees we became regulars here... We've become friends with the people who work there (Seandor and Alice) and were even asked if we'd like stock in the company :)

The next morning we went over to visit Acceleration (Stephan, Jacques, and Filip), got the skinny on what to do in Cape Town, and got on our way. We've now done just about all they recommended...thanks guys.. you totally set us up to have the best time here. We also joined a gym and rented a car. Toni from Europe Car also became our friend and told us to go to a place called Five Flies for dinner that night.. we went and had one our best dinners. Highlight of that dinner was trying their local Fairview Brie cheese... get some!

Friday we drove over Table Mountain to Camps Bay beach.. it had been way too long since we had seen sun so we needed some quality beach time. We loved Camps Bay so much that when we had to move out of our loft.. we moved to a cottage a block from Camps Bay beach. The water is cold, but the sand is white & soft and the views from that beach are stunning... you have the ocean with huge rocks and crashing waves on one side and huge beautiful homes with both Table Mountain and Lions Head in the background. We are not usually huge rock fans, but their mountains are really unique and incredibly beautiful. Check out the pics!! That night we went out to a great sushi restaurant in the Cape Quarter (very trendy district) and then out to what everyone said was their hottest club.. Opium. We showed up in the knee high boots we picked up in Germany and Dublin (not exactly back packing :)) and Rach managed to make friends with the bouncer (David) and get us in free! He gave us a tour of the whole club and hooked us up with VIP access to the best part of the club. Didn't make it too late of a night, but managed to get some good dancing in and make a few friends that we would later hang out with. David was the 1st and we also met Jason and Greg (another Jason who works on a yacht in the Southern Coast of France.. strange!).

Saturday morning we went for a run on the board walk. Started in Mouille Point and ran through SeaPoint... such a beautiful run... you're along the ocean the whole way. Later we checked out what's supposed to be the hottest beach, Clifton No. #4. Chilled out for a while and then walked (along with everyone else) to a bar on the beach called La Med. Cool bar with stunning views... had a couple glasses of South African Chardonnay and then went to the gym and then home to get ready for dinner. We tried to make it a mellow night, but while having a cocktail waiting for our dinner reservations that night, we managed to get ourselves invited to a Camel promotional party... free drinks and food all night.... we had to go :) The event was fun and Grant (works for Camel) & Kat (his girlfriend.. goes to school in Stellenbosch ... wine region) were really cool! We hung with them, had a few cocktails, and some how ended up at Opium again to test out our dancing shoes.. yep.. they worked The next morning came REALLY early. We had to be out in Durbanville (about 30 mins away) to meet Filip and his wife. Filip works for Acceleration, an old client of mine, and has become a friend. Him and his wife Esther offered to take us out for the day and show us Franschhoek wine region and a town called Hermanas where you can watch the whales. We had the BEST day with them. They were the greatest tour guides and such gracious hosts.. thanks guys! Franschhoek was breath taking as was the drive through the mountains to Hermanas. We didn't taste any wine in Franschhoek because it was Sunday and the wineries were closed, but had coffee and cake at a great cafe outside. Don't worry though.. we did get to taste some more local wine at lunch in Hermanas. We sat at a small cafe tucked in the rocks! It's right on the ocean so you can see the whales while you're eating.. amazing. We got lucky and happened to be here during whale season. They swim right along the coast so you get great views of them... they are HUGE! Didn't get to see any of them breaching or doing other things whales do, but did get to watch several of them. Apparently they come here to have babies before heading back to the pole. Filip and Esther drove us back along the coast and through some beautiful passes and beach towns. We then went back to their place, had a glass of wine, some coffee and their favorite dessert...can't remember the name right now, but super yummy... kind of like a creme brulee but with crust and without the burnt top. Oh yeah, Filip also talked us in to tasting some local liquor that tasted like rocket fuel... again can't remember the name, but will add it later.

Monday we drove out to Simons Town and went to Boulder Beach. This is the beach where all of the Penguins live... very cool... you can lay on the rocks and swim with them and they let you get very close to them. Loved it! We met the nicest woman who lives and works there.. Jean. She told us all about how Penguins feel the hot and cold like humans so they go through a molting process (shed their feathers and get a new coat) after they have babies and before they head back out to sea to get back their strength. You'll see some penguins in the pics that are either in the bushes (where they molt and have their babies) and others that have come out of the bushes but still look pretty shabby because they haven't fully gotten their new coat yet. We also learned that they haven't always lived at Boulder Beach.. they used to live on Seal Island (off of Hout Bay) but that since they've stopped clubbing seals.. there are too many seals there now and the penguins were pushed out. On our way home we took the coastal route... really is amazing. Chapmans Peak drive absolutely blows your mind.. wish we could really capture it in the pics. We stopped and had the famous Calamari at the Chapman Peak hotel, then hit the gym, and headed out to meet some friends.

Tuesday we got in another run along the boardwalk and then drove out to the Stellenbosch wine region. We went to a place called Delair that EVERYONE said we had to go to, but weren't that impressed. Wine was ok and views were great, but felt very touristy. After there we decided to just pick a small one out of our book and we got so lucky. Found an absolute gem!! Showed up at Sylvendale, sat in huge comfy leather chairs, met T.S who managed the place, got served and educated on several of their wines (yummy sauvignon blanc and DV red). T.S. even let us try one of his personal bottles of wine.. his favorite chardonnay. After here we headed to our favorite dinner yet.. Moyo!

Have to run now if we want to get a work out in before the gym closes. Come back soon for the details on Moyo (traditional African Buffet, dancing, etc!) and the rest of our Cape Town experiences! We've been to the townships, up Table Mountain, hooked up with the best tables for sunset, met lots of locals, been invited to a traditional Xhosa tribe wedding and more! We leave tomorrow morning to fly to Joberg and start our Safari in the Pilanesberg National Park! So excited.

Love and miss you all.
Rach and Steph

Hi everyone! We are writing from Cape Town. So, lots to catch you up on since our last proper entry in Germany. From Germany we went to Ireland for 4 nights, then to London for 4 nights, and then flew to South Africa.

We arrived in to Dublin late in the afternoon on October 3rd. As you can imagine, we were all a little beat up and tired from Oktoberfest....that weisen really got the best of us! Jules was still traveling with us (she stayed thru Ireland and our first night in London.) We decided to power through our tiredness and get out and see some of the city. Since we'd been so unhealthy at Oktoberfest, we all were craving something nutritious and managed to find a sushi restaurant in one of the hipper parts of Dublin. Dinner was great and we turned it in early - we were in serious need of a good night of sleep. The next few days we spent our time walking around and exploring the city. Dublin is old, but beautiful, and quite trendy. We found the best shopping street ever (shocking!), visited Trinity College, St. Patrick's cathedral, Christ Church, and, of course, the Guinness Brewery. Our favorites were the shopping and brewery tour! :) Our evenings were all very fun, but we kept it somewhat mellow the entire time. We visited a cool restaurant/bar we were told to go to, Cafe en Seine, twice, and of course, tried out a few of the local Irish pubs. On our last full day in Ireland, we took the train out to Dalkey and Killiney, two gorgeous towns on the sea just outside of Dublin. Bono (of U2) owns a home nearby (we walked right past it!) We walked from Killiney to Dalkey, where we had a great lunch at the famous Queens restaurant. We then strolled thru Dalkey and explored the town a bit. It was so cute and quaint! We took the train back to Dublin after our afternoon up the coast, got in a work out, and then headed back out on the train to Howth, a small fishing village about a 1/2 hour outside of Dublin (the opposite way of Dalkey) for the evening. We had the freshest and most amazing seafood dinner at a restaurant called Aqua and discovered what is now our favorite dessert, toffee pudding. It's heaven!!! The next morning we had an early flight to catch to London, so we called it a night after dinner and got some rest.

We arrived in London on October 7th and took the train from Heathrow all the way to the other side of the city to where we were staying. London is very spread out and it takes forever to get anywhere! Two of Rach's dear friends, Diane and Rob, took us in for our 4 nights in town. We had the best time with them - they're great hosts! Steph decided to stay in our first night there to chill out and do some laundry. Rob, Rach, and Jules went in to the city to meet Di for her "leaving do" - a last day of work party - Di got a new job! The party was a good time and Steph had a nice alone night at home. On Saturday we got up early to watch Rob's favorite team play rugby. We then had to say farewell to Jules :( She had to head back home to CA and reality - yuk! ;) Later that afternoon Di and Rob took us down to the coolest local farmers market right along the Thames. We all had yummy lunches at the market and bought some fresh fruit, veggies, and pies for lunch the next day. We walked all along the Thames, over some of the famous bridges, and experienced Saturday as local Londoners. We all really enjoyed ourselves. Later that night Rob, Rach and Steph met up with Caroline, another dear friend of Rach's, in town for dinner. We ate at a fantastic restaurant, had lots of wine, and then went out with some of Rach's DoubleClick London co-workers to a trendy club. On Sunday we were all pretty tired from the night before so we were mellow in the morning/early afternoon. We cooked our veggies and pies (they were to die for!) from the farmers market and then mustered up the energy to walk over to Greenwich. Rach and I loved Greenwich! The town is full of cute restaurants & shops and tons of good people watching. That night Rob and Di took us to their favorite local Italian restaurant for some serious Italian food. The waiters were authentic, the food was fantastic, the portions were huge, and the dessert was to die for. We could see why it was their favorite! Monday ended up being a "research" day for us...not super exciting, but necessary. We headed back to Greenwich to the internet cafe and researched what we wanted to do while in Cape town and where to stay. After numerous hours, we finally found something and booked it. Di and Rob were awaiting us when we got home that night with a fully prepared Indian curry dinner and a yummy bottle of wine. We all chatted and had a great dinner together. I'm telling you, Rob and Di were the absolute best to us!! On Tuesday, our departure day, we got up early, worked out, went to the store to replace a few things for Rob and Di and then headed off to the airport. We had a looong flight ahead of us to South Africa - 11 hours to be exact....wow. So, off we went! Goodbye Europe.....SA here we come!

Hi everyone! We are writing from Cape Town. So, lots to catch you up on since our last proper entry in Germany. From Germany we went to Ireland for 4 nights, then to London for 4 nights, and then flew to South Africa.

We arrived in to Dublin late in the afternoon on October 3rd. As you can imagine, we were all a little beat up and tired from Oktoberfest....that weisen really got the best of us! Jules was still traveling with us (she stayed thru Ireland and our first night in London.) We decided to power through our tiredness and get out and see some of the city. Since we'd been so unhealthy at Oktoberfest, we all were craving something nutritious and managed to find a sushi restaurant in one of the hipper parts of Dublin. Dinner was great and we turned it in early - we were in serious need of a good night of sleep. The next few days we spent our time walking around and exploring the city. Dublin is old, but beautiful, and quite trendy. We found the best shopping street ever (shocking!), visited Trinity College, St. Patrick's cathedral, Christ Church, and, of course, the Guinness Brewery. Our favorites were the shopping and brewery tour! :) Our evenings were all very fun, but we kept it somewhat mellow the entire time. We visited a cool restaurant/bar we were told to go to, Cafe en Seine, twice, and of course, tried out a few of the local Irish pubs. On our last full day in Ireland, we took the train out to Dalkey and Killiney, two gorgeous towns on the sea just outside of Dublin. Bono (of U2) owns a home nearby (we walked right past it!) We walked from Killiney to Dalkey, where we had a great lunch at the famous Queens restaurant. We then strolled thru Dalkey and explored the town a bit. It was so cute and quaint! We took the train back to Dublin after our afternoon up the coast, got in a work out, and then headed back out on the train to Howth, a small fishing village about a 1/2 hour outside of Dublin (the opposite way of Dalkey) for the evening. We had the freshest and most amazing seafood dinner at a restaurant called Aqua and discovered what is now our favorite dessert, toffee pudding. It's heaven!!! The next morning we had an early flight to catch to London, so we called it a night after dinner and got some rest.
We arrived in London on October 7th and took the train from Heathrow all the way to the other side of the city to where we were staying. London is very spread out and it takes forever to get anywhere! Two of Rach's dear friends, Diane and Rob, took us in for our 4 nights in town. We had the best time with them - they're great hosts! Steph decided to stay in our first night there to chill out and do some laundry. Rob, Rach, and Jules went in to the city to meet Di for her "leaving do" - a last day of work party - Di got a new job! The party was a good time and Steph had a nice alone night at home. On Saturday we got up early to watch Rob's favorite team play rugby. We then had to say farewell to Jules :( She had to head back home to CA and reality - yuk! ;) Later that afternoon Di and Rob took us down to the coolest local farmers market right along the Thames. We all had yummy lunches at the market and bought some fresh fruit, veggies, and pies for lunch the next day. We walked all along the Thames, over some of the famous bridges, and experienced Saturday as local Londoners. We all really enjoyed ourselves. Later that night Rob, Rach and Steph met up with Caroline, another dear friend of Rach's, in town for dinner. We ate at a fantastic restaurant, had lots of wine, and then went out with some of Rach's DoubleClick London co-workers to a trendy club. On Sunday we were all pretty tired from the night before so we were mellow in the morning/early afternoon. We cooked our veggies and pies (they were to die for!) from the farmers market and then mustered up the energy to walk over to Greenwich. Rach and I loved Greenwich! The town is full of cute restaurants & shops and tons of good people watching. That night Rob and Di took us to their favorite local Italian restaurant for some serious Italian food. The waiters were authentic, the food was fantastic, the portions were huge, and the dessert was to die for. We could see why it was their favorite! Monday ended up being a "research" day for us...not super exciting, but necessary. We headed back to Greenwich to the internet cafe and researched what we wanted to do while in Cape town and where to stay. After numerous hours, we finally found something and booked it. Di and Rob were awaiting us when we got home that night with a fully prepared Indian curry dinner and a yummy bottle of wine. We all chatted and had a great dinner together. I'm telling you, Rob and Di were the absolute best to us!! On Tuesday, our departure day, we got up early, worked out, went to the store to replace a few things for Rob and Di and then headed off to the airport. We had a looong flight ahead of us to South Africa - 11 hours to be exact....wow. So, off we went! Goodbye Europe.....SA here we come!!

Sawubona from Cape Town (that's hello in Xhosa- one of the 11 languages spoke in South Africa)
We are still having a blast.. surprised? :)

We are at one of Rach's friends houses (Filip, formerly a client and his lovely wife Esther) in Durbanville, right outside of Cape Town. They took us all over today and showed us how the locals spend their weekends. We first went to the wine region and had coffee in a beautiful town called Franschhoek, then headed to watch HUGE whales in Hermanus and had lunch at a cafe in the rocks (they come to the warmer waters to have babies before heading back to the Pole), and then drove back along the beautiful coast and stopped in another wine town called Stellenbosch. We wish we could capture the beauty in a picture.. rolling hills of vinyards, wild animals along the roads (baboons, zebras, ostriches, antelope, meerkats, pelicans, spring bucks and more), humongous unique rock mountains that surround the whole area, and local african restaurants ... we're going back to have our faces painted and dance with the locals after dinner!

We know we still owe you info from our last few countries and our first few days here... promise that will come soon so keep coming back :)

Miss and love you,
Rach and Steph

Hello from London!!
We've now been in an English speaking country for the last 8 days... feels strange :) There is even Starbucks here in London... hate to admit it, but we've had one every day. We couldn't find to go coffee any where through out Europe and boy did we miss it!

Tonight is our last night in London and tomorrow we fly to Cape Town, South Africa! Again, we have so much to write about between our last night in Munich, Dublin, and now London. They don't have the ability for us to upload pics here at this cafe so please check back in the next few days to see pics and here all the latest stories!

Jules, sorry you had to go home. We are missing ya heaps!
We love and miss you all. Hope you're doing great.
Rach and Steph

Hello from Munchen!!
We are here at Oktoberfest and can´t believe its here already. Sorry for the delay in updating our blog...finding internet has been more difficult than you´d think!

Since we last wrote we have been to several islands in Croatia, all through Italy and have now had 3 successful days at the Weisn (festival).

After Dubrovnik, we headed to the island of Korcula. The woman we rented our apartment from in DBV (Nicole) coordinated a ride for us to the ferry a few hours away in a town called Orobich. We had the best ride to the ferry... we sat up front and chatted with our driver, Ante, for about 2 hours. He gave us a full history lesson on what life was like in Croatia during their homeland war.. just 10 years ago. For the almost 5 years when Croatia was under attack from Slovania the people lived in their basements to try and hide from the bombs... we can´t even imagine what it must have been like to live through that. He said the whole reason for the war was because Slovania was upset that Croatia wanted to be its own country and profit from it´s own tourism dollars. We arrived in Korcula and Ante was nice enough to drive us to town and help us find an apartment... we scored and got one right in town. It didn´t end up mattering though because the weather was bad so we took a 6am ferry the next day to the island of Hvar!

Our 3 days in Hvar were amazing. We got off the ferry completely exhausted and hauled our backpacks to 3 different apartments before finding one that we could sleep in. Lets just say we got our exercise for that day :) The best part of that story is that the 2nd apt. we looked at was 20 mins from town... we couldnt bear the thought of carrying our bags all the way back to town so we rented a car for the day, moved our bags, and then set out to explore Hvar. This was one of our favorite days... the island is beautiful and its known for its wine so we just had to go wine tasting. We didnt think much of the regular reds & whites, but we loved their apertif wine called Prosek. Its a sweet dessert wine. We actually bought a few bottles to send home to friends and family, but they got too heavy so they were left in Split only 2 days later. Its the thought that counts right? :) That afternoon, just before heading back to our apartment, we stumbled upon a great restaurant through the longest tunnel we have ever seen (it was pitch black, one lane, literally a mile long and it looked like they just carved out it right out of the rock. It was nuts!!) The restaurant is at an exclusive yacht club, which is apparently a pretty hip spot for the Croatian government and other big wigs with yachts. We had a good time conversing with the staff and watching one guy gut a huge tuna. After we got back to town, we went for a run along the boardwalk and saw the most beautiful sunset. We then went to a yummy fish dinner and then out to Carpe Diem, a really fun bar we visited that night and the night after. We met some great Ausie friends that night at the bar, Jon and Grant, who we ended up traveling with and hanging out with for the next few days. Our time in Hvar was great and we were sad to leave, but we needed to move on....Italy here we come!

We took a ferry to Split from Hvar, where we needed to catch our next ferry to get to Italy. Originally we were going to spend one night in Split and then catch an overnight ferry to Venice. When we arrived in Split, however, we found out that that only ferry line that goes to Venice just went out of business. Sweet. Neither of us were stoked about taking an overnight ferry, so since we couldn´t get to Venice anyhow, we looked in to flights, found one that wasn´t too expensive, and were off to Venice later that afternoon.

Venice was beautiful! We stayed in Maestra, a little suburb that is much more affordable than Venice. We were only there for one day, but we managed to pack a bunch in and have a great time. We walked around the better half of the afternoon and saw all the sights. St. Mark´s Piazza is beautiful, but there were so many pigeons in the square that we couln´t stick around for too long. We both hate pigeons because they are basically flying rats. We were quite grossed out that some of the kids were feeding them and purposely letting them fly up land on their heads and bodies (see pics) YUK! That night we met some locals (the Italian coast guard and a gondola guide) and some fun Brits. Together we experienced some true Venitian osterias (little bars with great appetizers and wine). We were out a little later than we wanted and managed to visit the only dance club in Venice with our new friends.....it was a great time.

The next morning we rented a car and drove down the coast to Rimini - it is a very popular place for Italians to vacation during the summer. By the time we got there not much was going on, as the tourist rush was over. We met another American, Chris, who lives in Munich and is in the army. We all went to dinner together at the most amazing Italian fish restaurant. The dining experience was awesome - our waiter, Luca, was super sweet and spoke wonderful english and the food was excellent (we experienced our first true Italian 5 course meal)!

We got out of Rimini the next day after a few hours on the beach and headed to Tuscany. Our poor friend Chris followed us to the freeway and managed to get rear ended by a motorcycle. Luckily the two Italians on the bike were not hurt, but Chris´ bumper and that guys bike had seen better days. WOW, Tuscany is gorgeous!! We now understand why everyone raves about it. We visited some of the little towns - San Gimignano, Ceraldo, Greve (Chianti region). Many of the towns are enclosed in walls, similar to some of the Croatian towns we were in. We wine tasted two of the days and met some of the nicest winemakers. Unlike Napa, everything in Tuscany is done by hand and by the family members who own the vineyards. We lucked out and were there at harvest time, so we got to see people out in the vineyards picking the fruit and drove behind farmers with tractors full of freshly picked grapes. It was pretty cool :) We visited Sienna one of the days too and actually were tourists for a few minutes...we made it to the Duomo. Rach didn´t have her shoulders covered so she had to wear a blue plastic bag-like garmet - she looked quite hot!

We drove to Milan to catch our flight to Germany. We stayed at a nice hotel in a very sketchy neighborhood. We tried to update our blog, but didnt want to stay at the internet cafe because we were surrounded by transvestites surfing porn....yes it´s true. We are still here at Oktoberfest now and are having the best time ever. This place is nuts!! Rach has a few friends that live here in Munich (Tyler and Becca) and a bunch others came to meet us here. Aaron, his bro Josh, Julie, Reeve and several others flew all the way out to hang with us. Love you guys! We all met up on Thursday and have been playing ever since. We´ve basically tasted the beer at most of the tents (Hoffbrauhause, Paulaner, Hippodrom, Lowenbrau and more)! We have been so lucky... people have had lots of table reservations so we never had to stand in line and we were always at a table. You can only order beer in most tents if you´re sitting. Aaron some how managed to score a reservation at the Hippdrom... the hottest tent. We had 2 hours to go through $300 worth of strong German beer and traditional German food (Pretzels, radishes, sausages, and more!) If you haven´t experienced the Weisn atleast once in your life... you are totally missing out. There are people from all around the world coming together to celebrate. Everyone is chanting, singing, and dancing on every surface they can find. Its a riot. We have lots of good stories, but you´ll have to hear them in person if you know what I mean ;)

From here us girls (Julie too) are headed to taste more beer in Dublin. Ay ya ya!!

Stay tuned for our next adventures... we will try and update the blog again before this weekend!

We love and miss you all.
Rach and Steph