The past couple of days have been great. December 26th here is a national holiday called "Boxing Day". Hardly anything was open but luckily we arrived at our hostel without much of a problem. Originally we had canceled it and planned to stay with my friend James whom I met traveling Europe this summer. James, however, typed his mobile number wrong by mistake and we were unable to reach him until later that night. We ended up meeting him the following day; all works out in the end.
Here's an outline of what we did since arriving in Adelaide:
December 26:
- Flight arrives at 11:45am, we arrive at our hostel around 2:00pm.
- Immediately upon arrival, we are told there is a soccer match about to be played (our hostel versus a neighboring hostel). I quickly change and gear up for my international debut.
- I play soccer in the scorching heat for about an hour with other travelers from Ireland, England, Germany, Australia, Hungary, Switzerland and The States (me). Probably a few other countries as well. Our hostel won 2-1 and I was very proud of my performance.
- We made a trip to the supermarket later that night and made a delicious meal that consisted of rotini, cream sauce, chicken, salad, and some veges.
- We met some great people at the hostel and talked with them for a few hours that night. Overall, a much better hostel experience than in Sydney.
- We had an early breakfast (7am) and walked around what we thought was the royal botanic gardens. We've seen some extremely colorful, noisy, and exotic birds already on this trip.
- James met us at our hostel around noon. We walked around Adelaide and James bought a few things from the city. The after-Christmas sales were crazy and everyone was out shopping yesterday.
- A friend of James met up with us and we all drove together to the real Adelaide botanic gardens. We sat there and talked about Australian and American life, told some stories, and listened to each other's funny accents. Elisha and I hadn't laughed that much since before we arrived in Australia. Great blokes.
- We drove to where James is living: showered, took a nap, and had some dinner.
- We went to another friend's house and we stayed there for about 4 hours total. It is great knowing a local anywhere you go and being able to have a real cultural experience. We had some drinks with our new Australian friends and it was just a very cool thing being in a foreign country and playing games with 15 Australians (all our age).
- We went to a pub and were very tired by this point. Elisha, James and I took a taxi home around 2:30 (hopefully we are over jet-lag now, but only time will tell).
A tree at the royal botanic gardens
At the Adelaide Botanic Gardens
Cheers.
Thanks for the update, honey. So glad you are having a great time and is so good that you are meeting people your age- such fun. Will write later as off to a holiday party soon.
ReplyDeleteLove Mom