Day in Central Cape Town!!!

We spent our day today in Central Cape Town. The weather has been beautiful, blue clear skies and wonderful temperatures. We started off the day by going to Charly's Bakery, a famous bakery in Cape Town. The bakery had very brightly colored cakes, cookies and cup cake that were delicious! 

Our next stop in Cape Town was to the District Six museum. The museum is dedicated to District Six Cape Town that was demolished by the Aparteid Government in the late 1960s. The museum is focused on the culture of the district and it's community. The museum was established as a meansto remember    that lost community culture. It was really incredible for us to walk
through the museum and read so many personal stories from District Six. We were really able to comprehend the community and culture that was lost there. We then got a tour of what used to be District Six and saw what the government put in place of the district, which was extremely powerful. 

After our visit to District Six we went to the Slave Lodge museum. This museum was incredibly powerful for all of us, the museum is inside a converted slave lodge, which oldest slave lodge in South Africa. The museum is structured following the Atlantic Slave trade, and the history of the enslaved people. It was really powerful to walk through the exhibits and hear those stories while walking through an actual slave lodge. It made us realize the true horrors and pains of the slave trade. The museum also featured exhibits on Oliver Tambo, history of music in Apartheid Resistance, as well as historical clothes of South African women. It was an extremely powerful and interesting museum for everyone. 

Our final stop today was to the Bo-Kaap museum and neighborhood. The museum focused on the history of Muslims in Cape Town and the growth of the Islamic neighborhood there, or the Bo-Kaap region. The museum had many different artifacts and it was really incredible for us to learn about a different side of South African and Apartheid history. After the museum we experienced a traditional Indian meal, and we were also able to cook a portion of the meal which was really fun for all of us!! It was a really great cultural experience for everyone! We then got a walking tour of the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. We saw the multi-colored houses Bo-Kaap is famous for, as well as the schools. We also visited a spice shop and tasted as well as purchased many traditional spices. We finished our walking tour with a visit to the mosque in the neighborhood, it was the oldest mosque built in the Southern Hemisphere. For many of us it was the first time visiting a mosque and it was a really great cultural experience. 

Overall an incredible day in Central Cape Town and now we are off to dinner at a traditional African resteraunt!