Glenelg part 2 and Roller Derby-Day Four

(Again...trouble with downloading photos...just text)

There is an annoying bird that wakes me up every morning here. It’s called a magpie and its black and white. It pretty much is like a crow but much more vocal. It wakes me every morning at around 5:45 am and it sounds like a dude whistling. At first I thought it was Boone, and I thought he was crazy for being up that early. But later Sarah told me what that annoying sound was.
Well, today was a very low key day considering the big day I had yesterday. Sarah had an important roller derby game today so I woke up a bit early so I could leave the Law’s to themselves and I could roam around Glenelg. I had a great breakfast at one of the local bakeries. It was “the works” breaky with eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, and bread. Pretty typical breaky here but the bacon is different. It looks more like ham and it’s way more fattier. And of course it’s awesome. So I filled up and went roaming in the local stores, along the shore, on the pier, in the square…very relaxing. I got Sarah some good luck chocolate for the game and some pastries for breaky tomorrow. Sarah and Boone were already getting ready for the game so I changed and we headed off to the Adelaide Showgrounds.
Sarah started the league here in Adelaide and it has really taken off. There are leagues it the cities of Melbourne and Brisbane and they’re pretty intense. But Sarah brought a more community and comradery aspect to the league here. All the girls are fantastic and genuinely enjoy the game and each other. In this first season in Adelaide they’ve been able to have 800 to 1000 spectators at each game! And all the girls are such characters and from all walks of life. This last game of the season is between the only two teams thus far in the Adelaide league, The Salty Dolls and the Mile Die Club. Next year they might have enough girls interested in playing for three leagues. The crowd at the games really get into it and are sometimes shocked to find out how hard-core it is. It really is a tough sport and the girls really do get hurt. In fact, one of the girls during this game fell face forward and suffered a minor concussion. Hard-core, I tell you.
Sarah (Barrellhouse Bessy) played her best game but unfortunately her team (Mile Die) lost. But the after party was in a cool little pub called the Electric Light Hotel. Now, pubs here are called hotels. I’m not really sure why but if you read about a hotel in Australia it’s possibly just a pub. Anyway, the girls unwinded at the pub and mingled and recovered. Really good people. We headed back to the house right after 10 pm to get ready for the next day. Getting ready for KI. So awesome….!!

Cleland and McClaren Vale-Day Three

(I'm out in the boonies--so I'm having trouble downloading photos so I'll update the blogs with photos when I can--otherwise its just boring text)

So I’ve been itching like crazy since I got here. It is extremely dry here so my skin is going crazy. It’s not as bad as Arizona but close. So on this morning the goal was to find some good lotion and gather up supplies for our stay out on Kangaroo Island (KI). We want back to Central Market to get breakfast and resources. I love Central Market. I love market shopping. It’s just vendor after vendor. We went to Sarah’s favorite breaky (that’s what breakfast is called) spot. It’s very popular and we had to wait just a few minutes to get a seat which was fine. We all ordered the green eggs and ham which is eggs scrambled with a basil pesto over rye bread and a side of prosciutto. It seemed like the used a whole stick of butter for each plate so Paula Dean woulda been proud. As we devoured our dish, Sarah made a plan of action to gather our goods. Boone was supposed to help but, big surprise, he doesn’t like shopping. He only wanted to participate when we got the meat. I had to laugh…we followed the division of labor roles (gathering-produce and hunting-meat) unintentionally.

Anyway, we got lots of cheeses, crackers/wafers, fig spread, avocadoes, bacon, pasta (stuffed ravioli)…You can pretty much get anything here. They have a yogurt shop, a mushroom shop, a kangaroo meat market, a fish market, an Asian market, etc., etc. Fantastic! So after we did our shopping were set to go Cleland Wildlife part which was a great place to see native animals. It’s just outside of Adelaide in the hills. So basically, Adelaide is bordered by lovely jade colored beaches and lush hills and slopes. Poor bastards. We detoured to the Eagle of the Hill which was a closed-up abandoned tourist trap, but I was able to take a fabulous photo of the city and the ocean. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. Well we could have, but I’m pretty sure the dude in charge of passing out great days would’ve said, “You have the best day…don’t get greedy.”

Cleland has wallabies, wombats, kangaroos, bandicoots, bilbies, dingoes, and of course koalas. I got to pet so many wallabies and kangaroos it was unbelievable. Roos are like deer back home, (hence the meat market) and there are two different kinds in the park. Brownish/gray fuzzy ones and the most recognizable ones, the large short-red haired ones. The wallabies look like roos but they are much smaller and so cute. We even got to see a couple with little joey’s! We also got to see an echidna in its little habitat going nuts over some ants. Crazy looking critter! It’s the only other mammal that lays eggs like the platypus.

We also got to see the wombats, and even a Tasmanian devil, which I must admit really cute. Then we got to go to the Koala’s. They are in an area that is not like the other sections of the park. The park is spread out and divided into different sections so the wildlife is free to roam. However, the koalas are a bit special since they are really sensitive and can be quite mean. The only way you can see one up close is with a ranger and only with four people at a time. So we took our pictures. I coulda held one but that was an extra 15 bucks. Pass. Instead I was able to get up close to a ferocious bandicoot. It was quite scary but I think I handled myself pretty well.
We spent a good two hours at the park so we ready to go do some wine tasting. Sarah volunteered to be DD since she had a big roller derby game tomorrow. The wineries are all up in the Adelaide hills in gorgeous country with lush trees, bright green pasture, slopping hills and valleys. I wish I coulda enjoyed it but the beautiful winding roads made me sick to my stomach and I had to make Sarah pull over so I could hurl on the side of the road. Blah. Pretty disgusting but it wasn’t long before we got to the first winery and once I got there I proceeded to taste every wine they had. The winery is called Woodstock and my favorites were “The Stocks” shiraz, the sweet white, and the awesome fortified shiraz (port). I was able to settle my stomach and we proceeded to Sarah and Boone’s favorite spot in the wine country of McClaren Vale. It’s a great outta the way spot off the beaten path that shows the hills, city, and ocean in one view. It was beautiful. We even got to see kangaroos in the wild hopping along the landscape. We stayed just long enough to be able to make our reservation at Russel’s in Willanga.
Now Russell’s is a pizza joint in the little town of Willanga that you need to make reservations for months in advance. Whenever we told people were going they were 1) envious, 2)salivating, 3)angry. One of the roller girls was particularly upset since she had never been herself and exclaimed “What! You’ve only been here five minutes and you’re going to Russell’s!!” I felt very privileged. And it was phenomenal!! The restaurant is in a quaint rustic house of an undetermined age with two large brick stoves that they cook the pizzas in. Words can’t really do it justice. I’ll try. Three course meal. Fresh baked bread with olive oil and duka (crushed nuts), fresh salad, pizza one was half margarita and half seafood (mussels, shrimp, squid), the pizza boad had half chicken and half lamb, and were given three deserts. Rhubarb tart, flan, chocolate cake with baked pears. This has been the highlight of the trip. So delicious. We were enjoying each others company, the wine, the food. I felt very lucky. And I still have 10 more days left….:-)

Adelaide - Day Two

On Friday morning, Sept. 26th, I went to work with Sarah at the University of Adelaide. She works for the National Wine Centre as an events coordinator. We took the city tram (little commuter train on tracks) to the northern portion of the city where the university is. Adelaide has three universities, The University of Adelaide (UA), the University of South Australia (UniSA), and Flinders University. UA and UniSA are intertwined and you can't tell which one starts where. But the campuses are awesome with beautiful buildings and architecture. Once we got off the tram we had to walk through Rundle Mall, a huge outdoor mall. Stores I ain't never heard of. But they did have a Target. No Wal-Mart.

So as Sarah went to work, I got to visit several of the museums which are free! All museums are free in Australia. So, the first one I went to was the South Australian Museum which houses several natural history exhibits and an awesome Aboriginal exhibit. The Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery has one of the most extensive collections of Aboriginal artifacts in really good condition and the displays are so remarkable. They've organized the artifacts by function so you have displays by hunting, fire, water, string, food, play, medicine, and so forth. Norman Tindale at the age of 20 in the 1930s traveled the whole continent to visit with every Aboriginal Tribe he could and was sometimes the first white man to be seen by the tribes. He took pictures and collected artifacts. I really enjoyed the exhibit and pretty much spent as much time in this section of the museum and forgot about the other stuff in it. I had to make may way down to the Art Gallery of South Australia before meeting Sarah and Lucretia (her office mate) for lunch.




The Art Gallery of South Australia was fantastic but I must admit I breezed through it. One wing was entirely Australian work from settlement to modern times. The other wing contained collections from around the world. I had some favorite pieces but I really wasn't allowed to take photos.








I met up with the girls for lunch and we went down to this fantastic cafe called Aroma. I ate a delicious combo platter of spinich ravioli and sweet potatoe salad. Yum! After lunch, Sarah recommended I go to the Botanical Gardens to take a nap.











That sounded like a fabulous idea so I did. The Botanical Gardens were fantastic and it seems to be a favorite spot for students and city dwellers to hang out, have a picnic, have a nap, and relax. The grounds are very spacious and the vegetation was beautiful. So I took Sarah's advice and had a lovely nap. Once I woke up I roamed around the gardens for a few more minutes and went to explore this city a bit more.

Now, you know that everybody drives on the "wrong" side of the road here, but it's more of a hassle as a pedestrian for me. I kept looking at the wrong side before crossing the street. Luckily, I followed the age old rule we learned since we were all two and always looked both ways...even though I mistakenly looked to my left first instead of my right. So I walked around the city a bit before heading back to the museum. Sarah said I had to go back to the SAM to look at the fossils. And I'm glad I did. They had, which I think might be the only one in the world, an opalized dinosaur.

Yes, opalized. It was the coolest thing ever. The museum also had some of the oldest fossils in the world! I'm also glad I went back to check out their minerals and meteorites exhibit. And in between there the fossils and the minerals was a fantastic exhibit paying tribute to one of Australia's great explorers, Sir Douglas Mawson. This dude is hard core. He pretty much trekked across Antarctica alone after his team died to try to find the south magnetic pole. Which he did, and in the process published a great deal of data on the biology and geology of Antarctica.

So once I got to do all that I went over to pick up Sarah so we could go meet her friend and Boone for dinner at Central Market. THE Central Market. Central Market back home doesn't hold a candle to this one. It's the biggest one in the world. It's on one whole city block. And its beautiful. So many food vendors. We ate at the Asian food hall and I really can't tell you what I had, because I really didn't know what it was. Fish with some sauce and it was fantastic. Once we were done we went to a function that the Roller Derby girls were helping out with. It was the kick-off to Feast 2008 a Gay and Lesbian festival that starts in November and the girls were there to pass out programs. It didn't take long which was good because I was sooo exhausted. I had one beer and I was ready to pass out. We have a big day tomorrow. It's gonna be a great one...can't wait to fill you guys in!!

P.S. You can view all my photos for this day here:

Sept. 26th-Day Two

Glenelg- Day One

Okay so arrived on September 25th at around 10:30 A.M. Like I said the flight was exhausting! They fed me three times (2 from L.A. to New Zealand and 1 from NZ to Adelaide) and incidentally I saved a little bit of each meal on my blouse as a souvenir when I greeted Boone at the airport. Immigration and customs was a breeze but you do have to delclare everything. Even over the counter meds and packaged goodies (snacks).
So Boone picked me up and asked if I needed to take a shower and nap. I really needed the shower but as exhausted as I was when I got off the plane, the minute I landed I had this surge of energy.
The weather was a breezy 80 degrees, clear blue skies. There was no way I could sleep. So the first thing I wanted to do before going back to he and Sarah's house for a shower was head to the beach. Luckily, Boone lives like 2 blocks from the beach in the southern coastal suburb of Glenelg. A road winds along the edge of the coast and you get a full view of the jade green Southern Ocean. He parked next and I jumped off to take a photo.

Then went back to his house (2 blocks!!) and I got to shower. His house is really cute and I have my own room to myself! And my own toilet. Which is what everybody says here. Nobody says bathroom, or washroom, or lavatory, or "ladies" room. They say "Here's the toilet, there's the toilet..." It's funny. Anyway, once I was washed up we walked down along the beach road to the town centre. Glenelg is pretty much a beach community that people from the city come to vacation or go holiday in. There is a lot of beach front condos and houses for sale and rent. Closer to town there is a square and a long pier that extends from town into the ocean and tons of areas to sit down and relax.

We were getting hungry so we went to one of Boone's favorite cafes for brunch, called Zest. Soooo yummy! We both had the Hell's Eggs which was two poached eggs in a spicy salsa with melted cheese and toasted baguette.
The coffee is SUPER strong (Itlaian influence) and there is a specific way you order it. Tall black is regular cup of coffee, Flat white is regular cup of coffee with milk, and short black is espresso shot. We ate then went and got some chocolate (Australia makes kick as chocolate).


At this point I was feeling pretty tired so we went back to the house so I could take a nap. Sarah was working and Boone was gonna go run some errands while I zonked out in my room in my comfortable bed.
At around four I woke up and Boone said we were gonna wait for Sarah to get out from work and that we'll meet her on the beach with wine and strawberries. That's right, sparkling Shirah and strawberries on the beach while we watch the sunset. Don't hate me.


Then to close up the perfect first day. Boone and Sarah (more Sarah) made a delicious dinner of grilled lamb with Moroccon seasoning and fresh spinch - broccoli salad.
Oh yeah. I fell asleep happy, full, and dreaming about I would eat tomorrow.

I'm here!!!!

OMG! It took forever! A total of 20 hours flying. Four hours to L.A., 6-hour layover (Thanks Alvarado's for the picking me up and gettin' lunch and some tourist time at Griffin Observatory), then a 15 hour flight from L.A. to New Zealand, then a three hour layover, then another 4 hours from New Zealand to Adelaide.

It's definitely exhausting. Anyway, I've already been around Adelaide but I'll be posting more later. Right now its morning and I'm going to the University with Sarah....more soon!

My Luggage

Yup, that's my luggage. That's it. Nothing else.

So I leave in a few minutes from Austin.

The flight leaves at 11:40, arrives in L.A. at 12:50...and the New Zealand flight leaves at 9:30 pm...and arrives in NZ at 5:15 am Sept. 25, Thursday. Today is Sept. 23rd, Tuesday. So I'm traveling back to the future. I will skip over tomorrow before you even see tomorrow. Crazy.

So as we are turning into Fall here, it will be turning into Spring there. As far as the time difference, add 15.5 hours to whatever time it is right now and that will be Adelaide time. If you're on the East Coast, add 14.5 and if your in L.A. add 17.5 and as for Arizona...somewhere in between. Awesome!!

Briefing: Adelaide and Kangaroo Island

So, I've been getting most of my reference material from two sources: Frommer's Australia 2006 and Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. Yeah, I know the travel guide is two years old but it was 7 bucks at Half Price Books. I'm pretty sure all the information in there is pretty relevant and I can verify things if I have to on "the internets." Mr. Bryson's book, if you've never read him (you should), is hilarious. However, as funny as it is, he does frequently mention that Australia is a death trap. In almost every chapter he stresses, with many a horrific story, that Australia is the most beautiful, friendliest, awesomeness country that can kill you. It doesn't want to. It just can. He lists, several times over in fact, that the most toxic animals known to man make their home Down Under. Snakes (10 most deadliest), spiders (lots of them), paralysis ticks (kinda worse than Lyme disease), sharks (who can forget), crocs (of course), stingrays (R.I.P. Steve), blue-ringed octopus (venom can kill 26 of you at once), cone shell (a freakin' seashell!), and box jellyfish (God hates you)... just to name a few. Even the travel guide says you should be "wary." I'm not really gonna focus on this 'cuz I really don't want this getting around to my mother. She's been on prayer overdrive since she found out I was going over there and she's not even aware of half of the above mentioned items. So I figure her daily conversations with God will pretty much cover me not running into nature's wicked side.

So about Adelaide...
It is in the state of South Australia and has over a 1 mill in population. It brags about being the only city where it was settled by free English settlers instead of convicts. It has lots of parks, cool museums, fantastic Victorian architecture, and when German immigrants made their way down there, they brought their love of wine and making it, with them. So the city is surrounded by vineyards...*sigh* It's things like this that make you forget Australia can kill you.
It also happens to be the sister city of Austin, so it was pretty hippy-ish back in the day.

Kangaroo Island is about 68 miles south of Australia in the Southern Ocean (my third ocean!), 97 miles long by 35 miles wide (I'm thinking as big as Dallas-Ft. Worth),and it is the BEST place to see native Australian animals in the wild...the cute ones that is. Like kangaroos, wallabies (like a roo), little penguins (13 inches!), bandicoots (like a rat), echidna (like a hedgehog), sea lions, and platypus. Now a platypus is venomous, but it can't really kill you. Maybe hurt you real bad, but that's better than killing you. The island was actually the first place to be settled in southern Australia by free settlers, but later pirates, deserters and other miscreants from various English, French and American ships soon crashed the party.

There are also Koalas on the island. Lots of 'em. Now they aren't exactly native to the island, but 18 were introduced in 1920. Well, by 1996 there were 4,000 of them and they almost ate themselves out of eucalyptus trees and into starvation. They couldn't really relocate them so to help put 'em out of their misery, the government thought it would be best to shoot these cuties to oblivion. Governments have really great ideas sometimes. There was an uproar of course so they decided instead to snip-snip the cuddlies until the population stabilizes. I'm guessing that's what Boone's friend, the Koala spotter, does. He's making sure the little buggers aren't getting it on making babies that will the disturb the delicate balance of Koalas on the island.

So that's where I'll be for the first week. I can't wait!

Almost There...the countdown continues

Okay so I've gotten my International Driver's Permit so that's good to go. It's a paper form with instructions and restrictions in almost every language.
I didn't read it. I figure the basic jist of it is "Don't speed," but it's not like I follow that recommendation in my own country anyway.

So next to do is do some research on Adelaide and Kangaroo Island, which is where I'll be spending the first week of my vacation. Most of y'all know that I'll be visiting Boone and his wife Sarah (check out their blog: www.bsblogworld.blogspot.com). Boone is an archaeology buddy that I worked with at PBS&J and then again at SWCA. He's good times and good people. He and Sarah are gonna be taking a week off while I visit because they are such wonderful hosts. They'll be showing me the sights around Adelaide and then we'll be camping on Kangaroo Island with some of their friends. One of which is a ...now this is for real...a professional Koala Bear spotter. Kick ass.

I'll be posting some info of the above places I'll be visiting for your reference. Just so I can edu-ma-cate y'all while I'm on this trip. And forgive me in advance if I nerd out too much...but as most of you know...I can't help it.

Anticipation!!

This is my first official post on a blog....Yea!! I've decided to set one up so all my peeps can check out my travels on the Red Continent and my misadventures....which I guarantee there will be a few. As my dearest friends say...."The darndest things happen to Laura..."

I've yet to get my International Driver's Licence/Permit/Whatever from the AAA. Apparently, you can get one as long as you have a U.S. drivers licence which is quite scary considering they don't check your drivers record. Which actually works out perfectly for me since I doubt they'd give me a permit if they'd see my drivers record. Just imagine...me speeding on the wrong side of the road...good times!

Anyway, just test running this puppy out...I hope you guys enjoy!