Aussie BBQ

My first legit Aussie Barbie. With a group of French people that don't speak much English. The water is so pretty, but full of sharks! I was assured in broken English that they swim here all the time and never see sharks. Comforting. Food was delicious, but sausage on white bread doesn't quite compare to hot dogs.

Everyone talks about Chuck Norris when I tell them I'm from Dallas. Figures.

Adelaidia

Here is the magical waterfront of Adelaide. Makes Buffalo's seem like a world-class city! I miss the 716.

Tweeting

I love the birds here! They all have unique looks and even the "plain" ones have bright beaks or feathers. Plus the fact that we keep these guys in zoos, here they're everywhere!

Fringe Festival

So the festival kicked off last night with a giant parade. And by giant I mean half of south Australia. There were camels, zombies and everything else under the sun walking down King William Street. Oh, and a huge pyrotechnics show?!

Chris and I got really great pictures because we went up to the balcony of some (far too high) class bar.

We then met up with Frank and made our way over to the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Lampshades hanging from trees, carnival themed tents and shockingly affordable beer. It was like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Ending the night on a cultural note, we went for $5 margaritas at Zambreros.

Tonight is promised to be just as crazy.

Our first classy evening!

We went to a jazz concert last night at a place called "La Bohem". Frank does the tech stuff for their shows so we got
to meet the bar owner and have some drinks outside in between pieces.

I'm recently obsessed with Instagram as it makes even my terrible photography look intriguing.

The second photo is how we do tequila shots here... With a grapefruit chaser! Caramelized sugar on the top. Again, not quite the same.

Let us not talk of the weather...

So this is a picture I took of the sky today at the beach. Never seen anything like this, so I googled it! Here's what it's about... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/22°_halo

Sadly it doesn't involve aliens or the Mayans or anything cool. Just ice crystals.

Cultural Corona Controversy

Went out to lunch, ordered a Corona. What I didn't expect was a little lemon wedge! Corona and lime is apparently FAR less popular than Corona and lemon here.

It tasted terrible. Like a hoppy kool-aid...

The star-studded line up...

So there's a pretty great group here. I figured I'd do a little highlight of the crew so you can have an idea of why I wake up smiling and go to bed laughing til my sides hurt.

From left to right we have Frank, Joey and Dan. Frank and Joey are from Ireland and they're a real trip. Dan's German. They've all ben traveling (not together) for the last 4 years or so. The stories they have about Asia, Australia and Europe are too crazy to make up. I love sitting with them just listening to the highlights of their journeys.

My hostel!

Welcome to what the long term stayers call: "the hostel California". Once people check in, they end up staying. It's no surprise...people are incredible and the location is right in the middle of the city. A two minute walk to school, I may never find an apartment that's good enough to leave this...

Resurfacing...

Hello! Now that I've been here a week, I'm back to the blog. It's been awesome, going to the beach everyday and meeting so many new and different people. The hostel I'm staying in is great, very clean and safe.

Making friends is easy here, as most people are in the same boat. Travelers just living it up in the land down under.

More to come!

Because a picture's worth a thousand words...

Make that ten thousand. I took this as we were leaving the Sydney Airport for Adelaide. PS thanks for the distance heads-up buff state...oh wait......

1 Day!

Getting ready to leave tomorrow afternoon, extremely excited. Messed up my flights and added another one last night, making my total flight time 30 hours over the next two days. Shoot me. I need a pilot's licence. On the bright side, I checked the weather and it should be about 90 degrees all weekend, and in the coming week.

Side note, bought a global phone so I can call in emergencies. Practical because of the amount of travel planned in the next year... boo hoo, the only one available was the new iphone 4S. My hard life.

First flight!

Heading to DC after a lovely 4 hour delay in Buffalo. On this teeny tiny propeller plane. Hopefully to flight to Sydney means a big girl airplane.

Baby Sydney

My niece! Just born today! Appropriate for this blog why? Her name is Sydney. I am a verryyy happy auntie!

Five Days!

I just stumbled on this picture of a view from Ocean Road in Adelaide. Luckily, the hostel I booked for my first week in Aussie is located where? Oh, Ocean Road.

FIVE DAYS!

Six days!

At the request of my dear Lainy, this is the blog I'll be posting in while I'm at the University of South Australia in Adelaide. This is a stunning view of the Sydney skyline -- which I'll be about 15 minutes away from when I'm at school. I leave next week, and I couldn't be more excited! Spending a week in Cali with my Mom before I take a 20 hour flight over the Pacific -- and all in my first year out of my teens. Packing is a real bear right now, how do you really pack for 5 months?

The countdown continues with only SIX days until the trip down under!