ADELHURST 9000.
HELLO INTERNET. 8D So Adelaide ended up being absolutely AMAZING. I'd say it was the best trip I've ever been on! I had fun every day, didn't end up feeling like "oh God I need to puke" like I usually do, explored places and bonded with my friend-os. Which is the most important part. I don't see my friends as often as I should, and oftentimes I'll feel out of the loop, so it was really good to just be together in a ~foreign land~ running wild for a few days, remembering why you were friends to begin with. This entry is going to be pretty long and photo-heavy, so power to those who read it all till the end! SERIOUSLY. IT'S LONG.
✈ DAY ONE; FRIDAY
■ Altogether, it was eight of us going on the trip - three couples Alex/Nurie (the cool kids), Lachlan/Helen (the loud, annoying but lovable! ones), Troy/Fiona (the trophy couple... geddit?) - and two stragglers - Jaeryl (Lardman) and Michael (as to not get confused with the creepy dickhead who lives in my house who is also named Michael, I will refer to our friend as NotJim for the rest of this entry.)
■ We flew Tiger Airways from Canberra to Adelaide. Tiger is one of those airlines that let you fly for dirt cheap. It wasn't that bad, but given the choice, I probably wouldn't fly with them again. :/ The seats were hellllla cramped and the trip was pretty bumpy.
■ When we reached Adelaide, I was overwhelmed by EVERYTHING. FINALLY, I WAS IN A CITY AGAIN. Canberra claims to be a city, which is pretty laughable. The bus ride from the airport to the city was pretty hilarious because there were all these stores with terrible punny names. Like Tongue Thai'd, a Thai restraunt, Booze Brothers, a pub and Booby Trap, a lingerie store. LMFAO.
■ In the city, we had dinner at a food court in the mall (which we later discovered was one of several food courts in the same mall) and then ran free to explore all the stores. Luckily for us, Friday night was late night shopping night so everything stayed open till 9. There were. So. Many. Stores. We didn't know where to start. The guys and the girls split off (but Alex followed us because he's actually a girl) and us girls went looking for cute things. Helen wanted to find pants because she stupidly wore shorts and it was quite cold that night. :P
■ I didn't buy much that night. We stumbled upon this AMAZING shoe store where they sold hand painted sneakers. Some of the art on those shoes reminded me of dragonfruits's art. *______* I would have liked to have bought a pair, but I already own enough shoes as is is. Helen bought a really cute pair though! I forgot to take pics.
■ We also found an asian boutique selling cute asian goods and it had PURIKURA MACHINES. We didn't take any that night, but we did on the last day. Fi got a giant banana. :D
■ We met up with the guys in the end. THEY WERE AT THIS AMAZING (yes, I am going to keep calling everything amazing in this entry) ANIME STORE SHIN TOKYO THAT WE ENDED UP VISITING PRETTY MUCH EVERY DAY WE WERE IN ADELAIDE. It pretty much catered to weeaboos, t-shirts, plushies, bags, figs, DVDs, videogames otakus play. Alex didn't let me get any videogames because they were expensive. :/ But I doubt I'll see Digital Devil Saga/Devil Summoner/Gitaroo Man/Beautiful Katamari in a store ever again... crying forever. ;A;
■ BUT I DID END UP GETTING MEGAMI DELUXE THAT HAD A WHOLE SPREAD OF K-ON POSTERS. 8)))))))))
■ Troy's mother very nicely let us crash at her place for the duration of the trip, which was awesome. It was cramped, but cozy. When we got home, Helen and I painted our nails and I felt like a girl again.
✈ DAY TWO; SATURDAY
Obligatory "I have an SLR, but I'm using it to take pictures of my reflection" picture
■ In the morning we all bussed and trained to the city. We did a spot of shopping - Pulp Fiction Comics (I didn't get anything, but Alex got the first volume of the Del Ray Zetsubou Sensei. "I'VE LOST ALL HOPE"?!??! Really?!?!), Haigh's (which sold GORGEOUS chocolate *_____* I got a bar of chocolate orange and some little hearts), Morning Glory (this korean chain store that sells cute stuff and I am CONVINCED that every state has them except for Canberra D8) and we went to Shin Tokyo again. This time I got some little Haruhi trading figures. ffffffff the girl wouldn't let me know what was in the boxes so I very cautiously bought three. I ended up with seifuku!Haruhi and seifuku!Yuki, and raincoat!Yuki, so that was alright. But I wanted battlewaitress!Mikuru and guitarbunnygirl!Haruhi. ;;
A mask I got from Morning Glory
Fiona, Stew, Lachlan and Helen. And Lardman's nose and lips.
I HAD THIS REALLY AWESOME TERIAKI FISH WITH FRIED RICE. *A*
■ It was SUPER CROWDED in the city, which I really liked. I SAW THESE ADORABLE BUSKERS. A little shouta playing the Star Wars theme on violin DRESSED UP AS A COW. And he had a friend dressed as a cowboy playing the Flintstones theme on sax.
Panties I got from Dangerfield. THEY HAVE CHERRIES AND STRAWBERRIES AND ALSO LITTLE FLUFFY POM POMS.
■ Everyone else split off afterwards and went hiking to a waterfall/cave. I'm sure it was beautiful, but Alex and I met up with my friend from my AISM days Elke and her brother Ruben. I'd like to think we picked the better option. 8) Usually Elke and I go years without seeing each other, but so far this year we've met up twice and we might meet up again in Malaysia/Singapore later this year, so that's pretty damn awesome. Ruben and I have somehow been internet friends for a few months, so it was pretty cool meeting him in the flesh. Though for the first hour and a half of our city wandering, he was on the phone to one of his retarded classmates who wouldn't leave him alone or hang up the phone. o_O So we'd be wandering into Borders and Dangerfield and he'd be on his iPhone yelling about SQL and Oracle and whatever else. It was like he was there, but not. :P But then we sat down in this AMAZING (there I go again!) chocolate cafe Cocolat and he finally hung up and started talking to US. Being mostly Alex. They kinda bonded over their >9000 geek level and by the end of the day they were like bros. 8) Alex is usually kinda shy/quiet so I was really pleased about this!
Elke and Ruben
THE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE I SHARED WITH ELKE... I'm creaming myself just remembering it.
Really yummy white hot chocolate!
■ Alex and I followed them home and then on a whim, Elke and I decided we'd both bleach and dye our hair pink. :D WIN. And then they took us to this nice cafe for dinner.
Elke: Are you like, one of those people who obsessively takes pictures of their food?
Nurie: NO... BUT I PROMISED LIVEJOURNAL I'D TAKE PHOTOS OF EVERYTHING. ;;
Bros. 8)
Elke and I at the train station with our wicked pink hair.
■ We got to the train station with plenty of time to spare and waited for our friends. The train from the city with our friends on it arrived JUST AS THE BUS TO WHERE WE WERE STAYING PULLED IN so I yelled "HURRY UP FAGGOTS, OUR BUS IS HERE." and our friends made a mad dash up the stairs and across the overhead. It was funny seeing them run. 8)
✈ DAY THREE; SUNDAY
■ The plan was that we would go to the Central Markets and then to the beach afterwards. But when we got to the market, it was shut because it was Sunday, so that was FAIL. D: But there were some stores in the vicinity that were open so we looked through those. Chinatown was there too, but only small bits of it were open.
■Us ~azns~ had ♥bubble milk tea♥ which our white boyfriends disliked for some reason? BUBBLE TEA TOPS, OKAY.
■ We stumbled upon a pawn store and Alex bought a DDR mat for $15 bucks. Awesome deal!
■ And then we took the tram to the beach, Glenelg. I was like, "HEY... ISN'T THAT THE NAME OF THAT DEAD GUY FROM ONE OF THE PHOENIX WRIGHT CASES".
■ Glenelg was.......... fantastic. There was a seaside town with more shops for us to explore and LOTS of authentic seaside fish&chip places. We picked the one with the best font on the sign, lmfao. The fush-und-chups were cheap, delicious and came in generous portions! Which is awesome. Because usually if you're at a cafe or something, fish&chips are usually like $16 and come in tiny stingy portions. So that was goooooood.
■ THERE WAS A SWEETS SHOP THAT HAD LOTS OF AMERICAN AND BRITISH SWEETS... we all creamed our pants. I didn't buy as much stuff as Helen & Lachlan did, but still managed to spend $20. Shit was expensive. D: But I managed to get Terry's Chocolate Orange, Day Old Chicks (they....look more like penguins?!), a YORKIE BAR which takes me back to my days of being a London schoolgirl and MINIATURE REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS WHICH YOU CANNOT FIND ANYWHERE IN CANBERRA, WHICH SUCKS BECAUSE THEY ARE MY FAVOURITE CANDY IN THE WHOLE WORLD. ;; you americans don't know how good you're getting it. I wanted to get Pop Tarts but they were so fucking expensive. $12 for a box of eight? :/ NotJim got a box of blueberry flavour and he let me have one, but then afterward he kept going "Oh, you owe me a dollar thirty." and he was SERIOUS. I kept like, yelling at him for being an old stingy chinese man. In the end I offered him a two dollar coin and asked for my change, but then he finally decided he'd let me keep it. lmaoooooo.
The "Day Old Chicks" that were actually penguins
CAAAAANDYYYYYY
■ THE BEEEEEEEEACH. I immediately ran towards it, dumped my shit on the sand, took off my Docs and socks and ran for the tide. I LOVE THE BEACH SO FUCKING MUCH. The whole time I was screaming and laughing like a little girl. Lachlan and I played that game where you stand on the wet sand, wait for the tide to roll in, and then bury your feet deep into the sand. Helen and I picked seashells. At one point I wanted to take off my skirt because it kept getting in the way, but then Helen was like "Dude, I can see your pad...." and I was like "oh... yeah.... shit." |D;;;;;
TOTEM POLE.
AGAIN... WITH ME IN IT.
It took. So many tries to get this one right. Also, it is very hard to jump in a skirt. And it was windy!
Alex said this photo I took of Helen and Lachlan looked like a stock photo, hahaha
NotJim said he wanted us to take a straight photo of just him alone. Naturally, Helen and I made that difficult for him. 8)
■ We took the tram back to the city and it was just a little after 5. To our disdain, EVERYTHING was shut. D: Even the Woolworths. EVEN THE TRASH RECEPTACLES LMFAO. T-they were sealed shut. We managed to find ONE tiny little newsagent that was still open and we had to make do with instant noodles, soup and doritos for dinner. It wasn't too bad, because we all had huge lunches.
Me and Alex on the tram.
✈ DAY FOUR; MONDAY
■ PARKLIFE DAY. The reason we came to Adelaide to begin with! The festival was deep into the botanical gardens. The botanical gardens were HUGE and super gorgeous. I regret not taking any photos. We had to walk pretty far in to hear any doof. lmfao it was like... exploring a jungle following the tribal drum beats.
■ When we got there, we discovered that you have to stay. You couldn't leave and come back. :| That really kinda sucked. Also, the security guy told Lardman he couldn't come in with his D90 because "it was a professional camera" LMAO. Even though Lardman called them earlier to check if he would be allowed to bring his camera in and they said it was fine. But he managed to get in anyway, so it was all good.
■ But the not being able to walk in and out of the festival thing really sucked! The one and ONLY reason I came was to see Metric, and they wouldn't be playing until 7.30, and we came in at noon. We watched Art vs. Science's set and it was pretty fun! I only knew them for their song Parle-Vous Francais?, but all their songs pretty much only had the one line so it was easy to catch on and they did great audience interactions as well.
■ Helen and Lachlan had heaps of things they wanted to watch, but Alex and I prettymuch just drifted around for the whole afternoon looking at the crowd. There were so many... ugly drunk people lmfao. Alex and I played this game called "Tights or Pants?" 8( For some reason, it is the trend for girls. Have you seen those super ugly tights that are designed to look like denim???! It's like....... why can't you wear a real pair of jeans? HGSFUGDFYUFYFG
■ At one point Helen, Alex and I sat under a tree to wait for Lachlan and NotJim to buy food. This drunk guy walked up to where we were sitting, unzipped his pants and pressed himself against the tree and then we ran away because you guessed it, he took a fucking leak. GHUSGIUDGDFYUGFYUGDY COME ON. WE WERE SITTING THERE.
Me and Helen under the tree... before the dude pissed on it.
■ We caught like, one song for Little Boots (I didn't really like them before, but the one song we caught was alright) but then Helen said she felt sick so we left. We weren't in the mosh for MSTRKRFT because it was waaaaaaay too crowded, but we kinda sat and ate food nearby and we could still catch it. I wanted to check out Crystal Castles but Lachlan recommended that we head over to the Yacht Club DJs because they were good and also, Metric would be playing at that stage afterwards.
■ The mosh for that stage was pretty deserted at the time because there was just this one guy mixing up samples there. And I noticed that there was. So. Much. Trash. SERIOUSLY, people are so disgusting. There were all these signs around like "Please don't litter. Nobody likes to dance on trash", but people still did it. :| I kinda started to pick up trash at that point, and had a very nice conversation with the cleaning girl who looked really grateful. But then she said that she would probably get in trouble if she was seen talking to me, so she got back to work.
Alex took a photo of me talking to the trash-picking girl ;;
■ When the Yacht Club DJs got on, we moved to the very front of the mosh and danced. They were EXCELLENT. 90's stuff and I Just Can't Wait To Be King, it was good. And one of the DJs had an inflatable boat, so he threw the boat out into the crowd and then jumped on and crowdsurfed. That was awesome.
■ And then. 7:30. Metric. I.......... it was.......... I can't even begin to describe it. And we were at the VERY FRONT of the mosh. ;________; I screamed and bopped and sang along to every song and my voice was really raspy by the end. If memory serves me correct, the set list went like
Monster Hospital
Satellite Mind
Gimme Sympathy
Dead Disco
Sick Muse
Help I'm Alive
Stadium Love
YEAHHHHH I KNOW. 7 hours of waiting just to watch a 45 minute set. Not the smartest thing to do, but I don't regret it because they were phenomenal. Even if they mostly played songs off Fantasies. EMILY HAINES IS SO FUCKING HOT OH MY GOD... I CAN'T EVEN.... she even played guitar during one of the songs, though I can't remember which one. I just kept staring at her the whole time. guhhhhhhhhhhh
We took a LOT of photos, but only a handful actually turned out okay. ;A;
■ After Metric, Helen ran off to catch the rest of Empire of the Sun, but Alex, NotJim and I left. Lardman and Trophy were in a McDonalds in the city (they left like, a couple of hours into the festival) so we had dinner together. Awesome.
■ OH YEAH. WHEN WE WERE ON THE TRAIN. There were ticket inspectors going around checking everyone's tickets, and we were all terrified because we were all using concession tickets, but since we were out-of-towners, our university IDs technically were invalid in the state of South Australia. ;; But we survived. BUT they made an emergency stop at like some totally random place and fully SHOVED this one kid off the train! He had an invalid ticket and he didn't have any money to pay for a real one? :/ I felt kinda bad for him. All alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere, 10PM on a public holiday with limited transport...
■ ALEX HAD SOMEHOW MANAGED TO BURN ONLY HALF OF HIS FACE..... IT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER.
if you look closely, you can see that half of his face is redder than the other.
■ On the walk back to the house, I started hiccuping.
Alex: You know what's a really good cure for hiccups? Orgasm.
Nurie: B-but my loins are dirty!
Alex: EWWWWWWWWWWWWW I DON'T WANT TO TOUCH YOUR LOINS!
Everybody else: ............
And then I started laughing to cover up my embarrassment and lo and behold, my hiccups had stopped!
✈ DAY FIVE; TUESDAY
■ Bawwwwwwwww, last day. ;A;
■ We wandered the city one last time. Visited Shin Tokyo AGAIN and this time I got a little seifuku!Mikuru because it didn't make sense to have two Yukis and a Haruhi without a Mikuru! ;;
■ Helen and I got matching strawberry chicks from Morning Glory! >w< And us girls took purikura together, finally! ♥ And yes, I am totally grabbing Helen's boobs there. 8)
■ We went into this... huge two storey antique/vintage store near the central markets. We wanted to go on Sunday, but it was closed then. It was more like a museum than a store... there was just so much stuff! ;; All pretty pricey too. I would have liked to have gotten an old suitcase or leather bag or something. But it had everything, from china to toy cars and all the stuff in between.
■ We also had a quick look at the central markets. It was all food! I was hoping for crafts and such. Everyone bought candy, but I'd already bought enough candy as it was, so!
■ And then Helen, Lachlan, NotJim, Alex and I said goodbye to Lardman and Troy and Fi and ran to catch our bus to the airport. The latter three would be coming back to Canberra the next day... on a 19 hour coach trip. SOUNDS REALLY CRAZY. ;A;
■ FINALLY reaching the airport, we just chilled and ate and drank at the airport branch of Cocolat! I had chocolate mousse again and it was really hilarious seeing everyone's dazed looks after tasting a spoonful. THAT MOUSSE... BEST I HAVE EVER HAD. EVER.
■ This time, we flew Virgin back home to Canberra. I usually take Virgin when flying interstate! After flying on Tiger, I was able to appreciate it so much more! The staff make really funny jokes, ("Any baggage left behind will be divided evenly between the flight crew and sold on eBay tomorrow!") the seats are comfier and come with magazines...
■ When we got back... it was raining. And seven degrees. ;____; Adelaide was so lovely and sunny and warm! But Alex's parents and Benji were at the airport waiting for us, which was sweet. Our flight arrived on time and our baggage was prettymuch there as soon as we landed! Easiest and least painful trip ever!
OVERALL, one of the funnest and best experiences I've ever had. I would definitely go back to Adelaide. It's like a smaller, less polluted Sydney! Next year we're trying to decide whether we want to go to Brisbane or Melbourne. Slowly making our way around all of Australia's capital cities! xD And now... getting back to the sad reality of university life. I have THREE weeks left in the semester, and a fuckton of stuff to do in this time. ;_; This was a well deserved break! I was able to relax and just... enjoy being alive and having fun again. Something I kinda forgot how to do. It's nice to remember! ♥