I had a great birthday weekend! On Friday a bunch of us went out to Club 31. It's on top of a huge building in downtown Cape Town. I thought it kind of had a European feel to it and it was a beautiful night so the view was great. We had a great time dancing the night away until 4am!

The next morning we had to be up bright and early. We signed up to go on a tour of the Cape Town winelands (See Cape Town Winelands Tour photo album). After such a long night it was difficult getting up but we managed to be ready when the tour bus picked us up at 9am. We went to four beautiful wineries. My favorite was Tokara, which is in Stellenbosch. They not only had wine, but also amazing olive oils. After eating a good portion of the samples I decided to buy some. Hopefully I can wait to open it until I go home this fall. It's so tempting to open it now! At the last winery we got to sample many different types of cheeses. That one was my second favorite winery. Overall the day was great though! Our lunch that was included was absolutely delicious and the views throughout the tour were breathtaking. By the end of the day I was exhausted, but I also couldn't wait for the night to come!

We all took a much needed nap after the wine tour and then went out to dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. The food was great! I had veggie curry. We then went home to get ready but found out that the power had gone out (Electricity is different here. You go to the store to buy it. Our 17 bedroom house usually buys 100 rand of electricity a day, which is about 12 US dollars). After running around our neighborhood, we finally found a store that was open and sold electricity. We ran back home and quickly got ready.

Only 2 hours until my birthday at this point!

We went to Long Street in downtown Cape Town to celebrate. The first bar we went to wasn't too busy but the bartender was really nice. He gave me a few free birthday shots! He got off work right after midnight and took us to another nearby bar. This one had lots of people and lots of dancing! Our bartender friend had some connections and got me on stage with the band! The band and the audience sang me happy birthday! One of my friends got a video of it. It was a little embarrassing but also such a great memory!

The next day, (my actual birthday) I was exhausted! And sick! Over the course of the weekend I managed to get a bad cold. We ended up just hanging around the house all day and watching a movie. It wasn't a very exciting day but it was definitely an exciting weekend and a great 21st birthday!