Sun, sand, wine....

Hello again!

I am back! I know that you all missed me as I had no internet for about a week while I was travelling. I had access in St. Kilda - but did nothing exciting as St. Kildas was SO dissappointing. But, let me back track....

Friday morning - we checked out of our hotel and went off to the Queen Victoria Market. This place is HUGE and has so much good food, I was so sad that I don't live here so that I can't buy my food there. I went shopping a bit, bought a new hat, but there were really no good deals that I wanted to take advantage of. When we were leaving, I told Jen that she has to try raw oysters, so we bought a 1/2 dozen and ate them on the street in front of the market. SO good - and Jen actually liked them .

From there, we headed off to St. Kilda on the tram. Well, the tram ride was good, but that is about all I can say. Our hostel was not what we expected, and the people at the front were kinda bitchy. I thought St. Kilda would be a funky little beachside suburb, but it wasn't. It had a beach, and a street with cafes, but it was pretty run down and not that cool. We ended up watching tennis taht night at the hostel, even though this bitchy American girl wanted to switch to a movie in the middle of the match. Arg. The next day - we didn't do anything special as it was sucky outside, so we hung out and watched more tennis in the evening.

The next day - it was off on the Great Ocean Road! We got picked up super early, and napped until we got to the town just by Bells beach. There was Roxy, Ripcurl and Quicksilver outlet shoppping, and regular shopping, so I had to hold myself back and only bought two pairs of shoes . We went off to Bells beach after this, but the surf was crap, so there wasn't any surfers in the water to watch. The beach was a lot smaller than I expected, but the sand was very grainy and gave me a great exfoliation on my feet. We then set off for a small town where we had lunch. Because it was a backpacker tour - our guide had to buy food and then prepare it, so Jen and I ended up helping. The town we were in was PACKED as it was a super nice day, so we had to find a place on the outskirts. Driving along the ocean was fantastic, the water was this superb blue colour that you see in the movies - and I am not sure if my camera did it justice. The next town was exactly what you would expect in a small beachside town. So cute, and just funky. Jen and I were hot and figured that we needed a cold beer for the bus ride. When we got on the bus and opened our beer, the two German chicks were like, we were thinking of doing that - and then ran across to the store. Suffice to say - we became fast friends .

The next stop was the Gibson steps - very steep and I think we saw rock thingies, but am not sure. We then when to the twelve Apostles which are large rock formations in the middle of the water. The sea has eroded the clifs and left these standing. But, there used to be about 18, and now there are only 9 standing because the water has worked them down. I have some great pictures - and really hope they turn out. We had dinner after, and then came back to watch the sunset on the Apostles, which was really nothing special - you've seen one sunset - you've seen them all . The highlight of the trip came that night when we went down to the Great Ocean Road from our hostel and laid in the middle to look up at the stars. So pretty and such an amazing thing to do. Each time a car came, we did have to yell "game off", so no one got ran over!

The next day was more along the great ocean road, including visiting a bay and something else, I think, but can't remember......I honestly can't even remember what we ate for lunch! From wherever we were, we drove to the Grampians, which are some "mountains". It was very pretty - but wierd to see "mountains" without spruce trees! We drove to a waterfall and had to hike down to it. There were signs everywhere that we were not supposed to swim, but Jen jumped in, and eventually we all were in the water. The funny thing was, two of the older ladies did not have swimsuits on, so they were in their underwear. To make it even better, one of them was in white.....awesome....just awesome.

That night - I saw my FIRST Kangaroo! I can no longer say that they are mythical animals - they definately exist as I did see them. It is very shocking to know that, lol. We had dinner and then hung out on the porch by our hostel - it was alot of fun. There were three German girls and two German guys and one Brazilian girl who Jen and I ended up hanging out with (oh, and our tour guide who was an Aussie, funny dude.....) and we all had some nice chats along the way. Unfortunately, we had to get to sleep early as we had to go for a "walk" in the morning.

Well, the "walk' was a climb up a mountain that I got to do in flipflops. Was impressed I made it to the top as it was pretty steep and had to climb up some crazy steep rock. Thank goodness the rock wasn't slippery, or I would be dead now, awesome. The view was OK - but so not worth the hike. From there, it was a 5 hour drive to Adelaide. We broke it up with lunch, but it was a long haul. That night, we all met for drinks, but bailed early as we were all exhausted.

The next day - Barossa valley!!!! Was so excited as three of the German girls and one of the German guys were on our tour. We were all super stoked to be doing the tour together as we got to hang out and drink wine all day. The tour guide was crap (not like the one on the GOR - he was awesome), but the six of us, now known as Team Germanada had fun. We visited Jacob's Creek, didn't get to meet Jacob , first and had soem of their wine I haven't had before. From there it was to a family ran winery, then to a larger one before lunch. Yep - three wineries before lunch - we were all, ummmm, happy, but starving . I wish i could tell you history or something about the Barossa valley, but our guide told us nothing. It was very pretty with vineyards surrounding the roads, and there were alot of hills, so you didn't get large stretches of grape fields like you see in the Napa Valley. It was very green, and you could see the grapes on the vines. While driving to Jacob's Creek, they had signs in the fields saying which type of grape/wine was being grown in that field - very cool.

The day was nice as we all enjoyed each other's company and just were stupid all day. I love wine tours and could have spent another day there just exploring and learning more about wine. The last place we went had a 100 year old port. In 1887 (or somewhere around there), the wine makers started making a port that would not be opened for 100 years, and they have done it ever since then. The 1911 stuff sells for $900 a bottle - which is expected for 100 year-old port! We got to smell it (tasting is $30 and I dont' liek port) and it smelled like thick Christmas pudding.

Our last night in Adelaide was pretty dull. We went for dinner with Germanada, and for a pint, but we were all exhausted, not to mention that we all had to be up super early this morning as we were going every which way. The trip was great - and we were so lucky to meet nice people that we could actually talk with on the tour. One funny story for you - there was a Korean lady with her son on our trip and was always the last one to come back to the bus, to the point where our guide would have to go get her. So, me and one of the German chicks decided that she was looking for a daddy for her baby, so we started calling JP Dad at some points. Oh yeah, and on the morning of the third day - we were driving to the "walk" and all of a sudden the bus swerved and stopped - JP had hit a kangaroo.......sad, but it happens, I guess.

Anyways - that is about it - I had to summerize as it has been a LONG few days so hope I remembered everything pertinant. If not, I got pics and will post on FB in a couple weeks. Melissa and Carla are here on Monday - is going to be awesome!!!!!

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