As we were on the train to Adelaide, Jeff spotted his first Dingo! Skinny little things, they are. It was just walking around on the edge of the small town Cook in a junkyard looking area and of course a good portion of our stop in cook was him trying to find it again-the animal lover he is.
Our train from Perth to Adelaide was one to remember; complete with several loud snorers (one who slept all day and night it seemed), a silent but deadly farter, an out of tune loud hummer, the people who sneak into the bathroom to smoke and think nobody will notice while the car slowly fills up with second hand smoke strong enough to wake you from your slumber and getting shut down when trying to buy the nicer James Squire beer from the first class car (us dirties better stay in coach, apparently). Let's just say we were happy as clams to arrive in Adelaide Friday morning where we would stay for the next few days.
We decided to wing it on the accommodation there (we did know of a place that would have rooms available if we couldn't find anywhere better) and by using the free wifi at Hungry Jacks while drinking our much needed coffees we found a place called Hostel 109. Now as you may remember from the WA post we wanted to find a nice place this time to make up for a shiesty experience.
Quite the walk it seemed but it was all worth it when we arrived to the nicest greeting from Malcom (the co-owner) who showed us to our room and around the facilities. The place was extremely clean, had free wifi and a giant very well stocked kitchen. No bodily fluids on these bathroom floors (or bedroom floors for that matter)! Jeff went to ask how we could get to Mount Lofty and without hesitation he offered to drive us himself to the top! He said he likes to show off Adelaide to visitors and especially the hills. So we hurried and grabbed our cameras and off we went up the windy road stopping to photograph koalas up in the trees along the way! Malcom even drove out of the way to show us where we would be coming off the mountain from the trail so we wouldn't get lost on our way back.
He dropped us off at the top and after spending a little time at the lookout we started the trek down the trail. Who knew that there was a little hostel up in the wilderness there? Halfway down we came to Cleland Wildlife Park where you can walk around inside with the kangaroos and emus and give them food and such. We didn't want to go in so we followed a perimeter track where we could still see inside. A few different times we came across some wild big red kangaroos on the path right outside the fence that were pretty scary. I swear one of them stared us down like it was ready to box or kick the living daylights out of us if we came one step closer. Yikes!
We walked the rest of the way down the mountain passing by waterfall gully and down through a narrow and windy road. We spotted heaps more koalas and after 18km total of walking and a short stop for a much earned beer we made it back to the hostel. Using what we had in our packs and the lovely kitchen provided we grilled up some cheese and chicken sandwiches with tomato and passed right out.
Day 2 in Adelaide we slept in and then wandered around the city for most of the day. Every city has their own CBD which is central business district so that's where we spent most of our time. We walked to the Botanical Gardens stopping by the museum, art gallery, university, and national wine center where we took a tour. The wine center is in a giant wood barrel shaped building and has heaps of interesting information on how wine is made and where it comes from around Australia. We went through the botanical gardens towards the zoo and strolled by the Torrens River where we saw a group of adorable baby ducklings :) Afterwards we made our way to the Central Market since we were told that the last hour before closing is when you find the best deals as they are trying to get rid of things that need to sell. For $10 we got: 5 bananas, 2 onions, 4 potatoes, container of strawberries, 2 corn on the cob, bundle of asparagus, 2 capsicum (bell peppers), 3 tomatoes, dozen eggs and 3 avocados. Let's just say we ate like kings in Adelaide. Our dinner that night was potatoes, eggs, capsicum and onion with a side of grilled cheese and tomato with avocado and a box of goon :) we got a little goofy and feeling good with our bellies full and I took a funny video of Jeff naming all of the places we have been to and animals we have seen in an Auctioneers style.
The next day we slept in again and made a delicious brunch of scrambled eggs with onion and capsicum and cheese with toast and avocado and a strawberry banana smoothie. And coffee of course :) We set off for Glenelg on the tram where we met an interesting lady named Liz who rambled about energy, pyramids, energy pyramids and so on. She was very nice but it did seem to go on and on and on. And on. In Glenelg we took a stroll along the beaches with pretty cool buildings and an interesting shark sculpture you could stand in. It was a pretty windy day so we didn't stay long but it was definitely worth the trip! In Australia some of the parks have these "automatic toilets" that are really interesting. You push a button for the door to slide open and when you get in a robotic voice tells you you have 10 minutes to take care of your business before the session terminates and the door will open. Well you better be done with whatever you're doing unless you like the spotlight! When we got back to the hostel Jeff went out on a wild goose chase to get our tickets printed for our next rail trip while I prepped veggies for my first "Veggie Slice". The Veggie Slice is basically a bunch of veggies chopped up with eggs and flour and baked into a lovely scrumptious baked thing. It turned out SO good! Pretty proud being my first time making it AND using a celsius oven.There were some other people staying in the hostel that got to smell it cooking so I was really worried it would catch on fire and everyone would hate me. But in the end everyone in the kitchen was peeking over at it saying it looked delicious and I left out a few samples :)
Next morning we got up very early to catch our train to Melbourne and walked across town to the train station. Call us paranoid but as we were walking this group of 3 guys came across the street towards us and nobody else was around. They looked like they were up to something (could have just been on a 6:00 am friendly stroll?) so Jeff mumbled to me to get out my pepper spray. We slowed down to see if they would continue to walk down this ally a little ahead and they seemed to be slowing down too. Now Jeff told me that our plan if someone ever tries to do something to us is that I spray the hell out of their faces with my pepper spray while he beats the daylights out of them and then we run! Doesn't sound like something either of us would do but if the time came I know we would protect ourselves. Anyway, they ended up just walking down the alley with no sort of confrontation. Must have been intimidated by our toughness.
Our train ride was about 11 hours so we did a lot of sleeping and also watched the movie Taken. We went over the Murray river, past these fields of bright yellow plants, past heaps of sheep and around the outskirts of Grampions National Park. Plenty more kangaroos and some deer too! We arrived in Melbourne and grabbed some quick groceries before heading off to our caravan park.
To get there we had to take the tram for about 30 mins then walk for 15 before arriving. The managers even waited for us to make sure we got checked in and showed us to our camp. It was our first time camping on mesh and the stakes took a firm pounding but the neighbors let us use their mallet to get them in and Dumbledore was looking striking as ever in the glow of our headlamps. Dinner consisted of gourmet instant noodles with capsicum and onion with grilled cheese and avocado and tomatoes.
Next morning we walked to the station after a morning of weet bix with bananas and coffee. We connected for a little bit in town so Jeff could check some 49ers stuff and I chatted with family and then walked to catch the free tour shuttle across the Yarra River to the Shrine of Rememberance and then onto the botanical gardens. We spent a couple hours walking around the gardens before heading to the Arts Precinct where unfortunately the ACCA was closed. Fortunately for Jeff though as we were walking back to the shuttle we found this badass art/playground installation. It was a series of 5 hectagon balls attached to each other with hand and foot holds for rock climbing. Jeff called it the perfect bouldering masterpiece and I enjoyed watching him get so stoked to climb around it.
We stopped by the Sports Precinct where we walked around the Cricket Ground and Rod Laver Stadium where the Australian Open happens! Plus, I saw photos of Pete Sampras (my childhood sports crush). We stopped by the Fitzroy Gardens and saw more cute little ducklings swimming around a little pond. After a long day of walking we grabbed 2 large pizzas at Dominoes and scarfed them both throughout the night. We got pretty excited about the hot tub there and jumped in right as it started to rain only to find the temperature was barely above body temperature so it wasnt quite as enjoyable as we had hoped. We survived a night of heavy rain in the tent with only a tiny bit of leakage in a couple corners.Of course the next morning all of our neighbors in their caravans asked us how we were doing and offered things like hot tea and clean towels but we were prepared. I love how fellow travelers seem to look after one another in those settings though.
The next day we took down camp and headed to Southern Cross Station to check our bags for the 7:00 pm train that night. We took a train to St Kilda for some beach time and afterwards went back into town to head to the University of Melbourne where our friend Elanna studied abroad. Unfortunately Victoria Market was closed that day so instead we went to the Docklands (driving down Dudley street!). We walked through harbour town which has a ton of shops and a big dinosaur statue. Lunch at Victoria harbor consisted of crackers, tuna and cheese while a couple made out the whole time in front of us. Afterwards we walked by the Etihad Stadium and past the Cow and Tree sculpture to this really cool park with interesting toys that reminded us of Super Mario! On the way to Batman Park I was walking a little ahead of Jeff and a biker almost ran over him while turning to check me out. I know this because Jeff told me after it happened. One point for me to Jeff's 20+ points (of getting checked out). Batman park wasn't as cool as it sounds so we decided to find dinner and head back to the station.
Now when you are traveling on a budget you get used to eating ramen, peanut butter sandwiches and the occasional gourmet tuna, cheese and avocado sandwich. So when you're walking around a city that has heaps of restaurants of wide varieties and smells, just about anything sounds DELICIOUS and completely urgent to eat. So when the thought of dumplings from a Chinese Restaurant on a cold day pops into your head and you're hungry and exhausted (ok, and I'm a little cranky) you feel like its completely justified. So we started looking for a place since we had been seeing these great deals on cheap dumplings for days and waited about 10 mins for the city circle free tram that would take us close to Chinatown. When it finally shows up it is completely stuffed full of people. The doors opened and everyone glared out in a non-inviting way as if to say "go ahead, get on this trolly. I will let out a silent but deadly fart and you will painfully suffocate"." So we decided to walk instead. You know, because we HAVE to have these dumplings. About 1 block into the 10 block journey it starts to piss rain on us but we keep on going at what I like to call Kanaley pace since we are hell bent on these things. Of course when we get there they're all completely overpriced and we couldn't imagine paying so much for a small plate of fried whatever-goes-in-a-dumpling. At this point I'm feeling cranky and tired and pretty much act like it's the end of the world and eating a peanut butter sandwich would be such a disappointment. I think I pouted the whole walk back and what do we see as we are walking up to the station? "DUMPLING WORLD"! Are you kidding me? We got 15 dumplings AND a bowl of egg and tomato soup for $10. SCORE!
Our ride back to Wollongong we had to take a train to Moss Vale first and watched Jurassic park before trying to fall asleep. The high pitched chatty kathy's next to us had a different plan and decided 3:00am was the perfect time to converse about things like how many ml were in their coffee and how much sugar they should use (and more random crap). I considered doing a sneaky "SSHHHHHHHHH!" really loud with my eyes closed so they might not know it was me but decided against it. We finally did fall asleep and were supposed to have a wake up call 5 mins before arriving in moss vale but it was more like 30 seconds. After scrambling like maniacs to gather our stuff we were standing there on the platform, shoes untied, trying to decide where to hang out at 5:00am until our 6:30 bus to Wollongong when a lady starts yelling to us that we need to hurry and our bus was about to leave! We tried to tell her no and that our bus wasnt for another hour and half but eventually ended up taking the earlier bus- meaning we would arrive in Wollongong pretty early. We knew Nancy and Hedley would come get us but we didn't want to wake them up if they were still asleep so we decided to walk to their house. What's a few more km's at this point? We arrived at their house and had a lovely day relaxing and catching up on rest.
It sure felt good to be back in the Gong!
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