Mt. Dandenong
"Everyone say cancelled!"
The Americans (black shorts) defeating the AustraliansThursday morning we left for the MTD meeting. It was being held at someplace in the country called The Country Place. As the name suggests it was in the boonies. It was a pretty cool drive though. At the meeting we presented our survey to the managers and they were impressed. There were a few minor language issues and they also wanted to add a question about online learning materials but that was it. As we were leaving one of the managers told us that if we took the scenic route we could pay a small fee to drive our car up to the summit of Mt. Dandenong. The mountain overlooks the entire city. It was an absolutely awesome view. I snapped a couple of pictures and we continued on our way back to work. The drive back was pretty awesome, very scenic. When we got back we found that the entire ofice had moved outside to the parking lot. The company's Christmas party had been moved to right before Easter weekend because there was a flood before the orginal one. Anyways the theme was Salsabration and people were wearing sombreros and nachos. One guy even home brewed beer for the entire company. The Mexican food over here is pretty bad because of the lack of corn and proximity to Mexico. So it was about the equivalent of freezer snacks but free food is good food. I headed home early to get packed for Adelaide.
There were seven of us leaving for Adelaide. Me, Putnam, Dahlberg, Murdy, Katie, Elyssa, and Cara arrived at the airport an hour early and got in line to check in. Fifteen minutes later, an announcer gets on the PA and tells us that our flight has been cancelled. Apparently, our plane got into a fender bender on the runway in Sydney and wouldn't make it to pick us up in time since the Adelaide airport closed at midnight. This was a problem because our tour was booked for the following morning at 6 am. Our replacement flight was scheduled to take off at 7:00. We called our tour company and at first it looked like we would lose all of our 400 dollar tour. After about 45 mins of negociating we were finally able to get a small refund and we switched from a two day tour of Kangaroo Island to a one day tour. The hotel provided us with some pretty nice accomatations at a near by hotel and we slept for a couple of hours before we had to go back to the airport.
When we landed in Adelaide the pilot announced what the local time was and it confused me because it was 30 minutes off of what I had. Apparently they have half hour time zones here. We took a cab from the airport to our hostel which was in the middle of Adelaide. The hostel was unique compared to any other type of accomadation I had ever stayed at. It cost 22$ per night for a four bed room. There were communal bathrooms, kitchen, game room, etc. Everything inch was painted a bright color. The closest that comes to it would probably be a dorm.
We dropped our stuff and decided we should go to the beach because they were supposedly pristine in Adelaide. The trams were shut down for Good Friday so we took the bus. When we got to the beach we saw that there was some sort of event going on. There were lots of vendors and bleachers set up. We soon found out that the Australian volleyball championships were going on this weekend. We hit the beach first and it was pretty nice. No garbage, not too many people, fine white sand. We walked down the beach some and it didn't take long for me to find some nice shells. When we got back from our walk it was getting near lunch time, so we hit the boardwalk to find some grub. We ended up going to another greek/mediterrean falafel/gyro place. The lamb gyros are quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
With food in hand, we decided to check out the volleyball championships. I gotta say, it was really cool. Most of the people competing would be in the Olympics this summer. We watched the top ranked US team vs. the top ranked Aussie team (which was number one in the world) and the Americans were able to not only pull an upset but simply dominate the Aussies. It's a unique feeling rooting for your country while in a foriegn country. There were a few other American fans there so we weren't alone. We ended up staying there for the rest of our time at the beach. It was top level play and it was exciting, the competitors hit really hard and there were some crazy digs. We watched 3 more matches, one mens and two womens, including the match up of the top ranked womens German team vs. the top ranked womens Aussie team (also number one in the world). The Australians won in an exciting and close third set. After spending all day in the sun and dealing with our airplane fiasco the night before we were all really tired so we headed back to the hostel.
When we got back, we said bye to the girls because they were staying at a different, nicer, more expensive hotel. They also had a different tour than us with the exception of Katie. So we didn't expect to see them again the rest of the trip. We cleaned up and headed down to the bar in the hostel to get a few beers. We met a group of guys from Melbourne who had come down to Adelaide to see their footy (Australian Rules Football) team begin the season, which started on Thursday. We played a couple rounds of pool and chatted about cultural differences and one of the Australian's experiences studying abroad in New Hampshire. We went to bed early because we wanted to get up early to hike Mt. Lofty.
There were seven of us leaving for Adelaide. Me, Putnam, Dahlberg, Murdy, Katie, Elyssa, and Cara arrived at the airport an hour early and got in line to check in. Fifteen minutes later, an announcer gets on the PA and tells us that our flight has been cancelled. Apparently, our plane got into a fender bender on the runway in Sydney and wouldn't make it to pick us up in time since the Adelaide airport closed at midnight. This was a problem because our tour was booked for the following morning at 6 am. Our replacement flight was scheduled to take off at 7:00. We called our tour company and at first it looked like we would lose all of our 400 dollar tour. After about 45 mins of negociating we were finally able to get a small refund and we switched from a two day tour of Kangaroo Island to a one day tour. The hotel provided us with some pretty nice accomatations at a near by hotel and we slept for a couple of hours before we had to go back to the airport.
When we landed in Adelaide the pilot announced what the local time was and it confused me because it was 30 minutes off of what I had. Apparently they have half hour time zones here. We took a cab from the airport to our hostel which was in the middle of Adelaide. The hostel was unique compared to any other type of accomadation I had ever stayed at. It cost 22$ per night for a four bed room. There were communal bathrooms, kitchen, game room, etc. Everything inch was painted a bright color. The closest that comes to it would probably be a dorm.
We dropped our stuff and decided we should go to the beach because they were supposedly pristine in Adelaide. The trams were shut down for Good Friday so we took the bus. When we got to the beach we saw that there was some sort of event going on. There were lots of vendors and bleachers set up. We soon found out that the Australian volleyball championships were going on this weekend. We hit the beach first and it was pretty nice. No garbage, not too many people, fine white sand. We walked down the beach some and it didn't take long for me to find some nice shells. When we got back from our walk it was getting near lunch time, so we hit the boardwalk to find some grub. We ended up going to another greek/mediterrean falafel/gyro place. The lamb gyros are quickly becoming a favorite of mine.
With food in hand, we decided to check out the volleyball championships. I gotta say, it was really cool. Most of the people competing would be in the Olympics this summer. We watched the top ranked US team vs. the top ranked Aussie team (which was number one in the world) and the Americans were able to not only pull an upset but simply dominate the Aussies. It's a unique feeling rooting for your country while in a foriegn country. There were a few other American fans there so we weren't alone. We ended up staying there for the rest of our time at the beach. It was top level play and it was exciting, the competitors hit really hard and there were some crazy digs. We watched 3 more matches, one mens and two womens, including the match up of the top ranked womens German team vs. the top ranked womens Aussie team (also number one in the world). The Australians won in an exciting and close third set. After spending all day in the sun and dealing with our airplane fiasco the night before we were all really tired so we headed back to the hostel.
When we got back, we said bye to the girls because they were staying at a different, nicer, more expensive hotel. They also had a different tour than us with the exception of Katie. So we didn't expect to see them again the rest of the trip. We cleaned up and headed down to the bar in the hostel to get a few beers. We met a group of guys from Melbourne who had come down to Adelaide to see their footy (Australian Rules Football) team begin the season, which started on Thursday. We played a couple rounds of pool and chatted about cultural differences and one of the Australian's experiences studying abroad in New Hampshire. We went to bed early because we wanted to get up early to hike Mt. Lofty.
3 comments:
yeah i didnt read the post too long and there weren't enough pictures but yeah mike we should go canoeing, ps bens father called today, HILARIOUS
and umm you gotta see this picture i have of ben
lol i did even think about reading the post i was just looking for comments lol bring the pictures tonight i should be going to the meeting then i am going take you guys up on coming over the watch south park after
when I was in France, the gyro places were my favorite lunch/dinner spot. I had tried a bunch in Grenoble and had picked out my favorite one in about two weeks.
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