More Odds and Ends - Cape Town, South Africa

Driving: Where do I start? 
-Traffic lights are called robots so if you are asking for directions they might say, "turn left at the 3rd robot".
- Slower drivers almost always (99.9% of them it seems like) know to stay to the slow lane (here that is the left lane) while the faster drivers are in the fast lane. So much better than in Minnesota where there is usually at least one person who feels it is their duty to drive 55 in the left lane and enforce the speed limit.
- There are not a lot of divided highways and a lot of roads are just two lanes, one in each direction. You will often come upon someone driving in the breakdown lane or shoulder if they are slow moving so you can pass them. If someone is trying to pass you it is a good idea to move onto the shoulder (if there is one) so they can get by you.
- There are a lot of traffic cameras everywhere so speeding will get you a ticket. If there isn't a traffic camera, and you will know because the speed limit signs all have the camera icon on them if there is one, then that seems to be permission to drive as fast as you want, which can be pretty crazy.
- There are very few sidewalks and people don't seem to use them anyway, there are tons of pedestrians in the streets, some pushing carts loaded with stuff. Pedestrians also cross anywhere, they don't care to cross at an intersection or crosswalk if it's even 10 feet out of their way, so you have to be very vigilant while driving.
- Don't be too fast to take off at a red light when it turns green, there is always a car or two trying to turn at the intersection and they will run the light.
- There are people trying to sell you stuff at many intersections, just ignore them.
- There are round-abouts and I am still not that enamored with them.

Bathrooms: as in most of Europe and other countries, they do a better job of conserving water here. There is a big flush and a little flush button on most toilets. Figure it out. Many of the bathrooms in restaurants, malls, gas stations, etc. do not have a hot water tap.

Paper products: I first noticed this when we were in Peru and have seen it also in Mexico, but paper products can be expensive and they are almost all one-ply. One-ply toilet tissue, napkins, flimsy paper towels. It's not as bad here, many restaurants have decent paper napkins but some of them give you a napkin that wouldn't keep your fingertips clean, let alone using through the whole meal.

As you're driving along in the countryside it is not uncommon to see whole families of baboons along the side of the road.

Speaking of the countryside, parts of it look almost like northern California or Wisconsin, rolling farmland, pine trees, shady roads, it was a little disconcerting to drive in.

Parking in ramps in the heart of downtown Cape Town is so much cheaper than ramps in Minneapolis! We paid about $8 to park for 5 hours in a ramp!

Liquor is cheap in restaurants and cafes, Don paid about $3.50 for a shot of Woodford Reserve at a very posh bar at the Taj Hotel. A glass of wine has usually been around $2.50 to $4.00 at most places we've had a meal. Don paid $8.00 for a bottle of very adequate gin at the liquor store and I have a wonderful bottle of port that was about $7.00.

We haven't seen romaine anywhere, not in the restaurants and not in the store. Rocket (arugula) is on most sandwiches and in most salads. Avocado (avo) is abundant in salads and is listed as a topping for pizza in most places.