Freedom Day

Hand Holding

Scooby Doo

Today is a public holiday (Freedom Day) in South Africa to commemorate the first multi-racial elections in 1994. To celebrate, we went to South Africa's premier food marketing event, the Cheese Festival. It is held at the Bien Donne farm, between Franschhoek and Paarl. 

The festival was crowded but orderly. The organizers had lots of stuff for kids to do: bounce castles, video games, cartoon characters, etc. 

It would have been much nicer to be there without kids, so we could take our time sampling the food. But, even so, we were able to spend several hours of an overcast day doing something interesting, so it wasn't all bad.

One observation: South Africa has yet to learn the fine art of gouging patrons for food once they are on the premises. We bought lunch (pizza, kebabs, and cool drinks) for the four of us for about R120, or $13. That wouldn't be possible in the U.S.

--Matt