Monday
You would think on a day that we spent in entirety on a coach that there would be nothing to write about. You would be mistaken.
Hauled ourselves out of bed about 6.30am - freezing btw - to get to the coach station in town. Our backpacks seem to have grown to 20 times their normal size, or at least that's how it felt. Dragged ourselves along to the train station, approx 450m, and Hannah felt like she was going to pass out and had to have a sit down. However, ultimately, we made it to the coach check in 10 minutes before we even needed to be there - this equals a happy Nik. However, carrying the backpack made Hannah's super long talons start to break off. Before the end of the day, we had two deceased nails and one required 50% amputation.
The coach station was cold and the coach was late, but we got on and all seemed dandy, there was even fairly generous leg room. Until the people in front of us decided to fully recline their seats so they could lay there talking, about 10 minutes into the trip. Considerate. In fact, these two turned out to be a couple of characters on the trip - well at least a focus for our attention. It was an Indian guy and his mother and seriously, they were bizarrely close. She wasn't even that old, and he was all putting her seat belt on for her and leaning across her to recline her seat for her etc. He also spent the entire journey pointing out mundane things that we had driven past about 1200 times, like a sheep, or a building. Another highlight was when they got some wraps for lunch, and she was picking through hers and throwing the bits she didn't like onto the floor of the coach - no joke. And obv after eating she spent the next three hours or so belching loudly. The guy also kept reclining his seat, and then in order to sit up, putting his hand onto Nik's (bad) knee for leverage. Nik did very well not to lose his temper.
Anyhow, back to the coach ride. We had some rank protein drinks for breakfast that Hannah couldn't even swallow, instead opting for a bit of cheese. There was a nice drive up to Bendigo that Nik slept through, where we went past some amazing fir forests and Hanging Rock. Bendigo itself was cute looking but the people that were there and got on the bus there were incredible. A woman with no shoes on, just socks, tracksuit bottoms (no undies to be seen), no teeth and three children under 4 boarded the bus - what a treat. Her son was apparently called Genoa. What an interesting choice! To be honest, it was hard to tell what was more offensive on the journey once her party boarded, the sound of her whining bogan voice, or the constant screaming of one or all of her kids.
The journey continued after Bendigo but got a bit dull, repetitive countryside on the journey out to Horsham. Although, the coach driver did put on city slickers to watch and we ate our ginormous protein bars for lunch. They were so heavy and thick it gave you jaw ache to eat them. Our long stop (30 minutes) was in the aptly named town of Nhill in The Wimmera. There was pretty much nothing to see or do there, but we read the community notice board and sat in the sun watching some of the hideous people from the bus. (Incl. bogan lady sitting crack out on the grass with children running around unattended, into the road as well, before she purchased an enormous bag of cokes and crisps to feed them, also Indian Oedipus putting his mother in the public toilet, where Hannah saw her walk around a bit, then pour her juice down the sink and then leave. Odd)
After Nhill, not much else of note happened, just lots of random scenery. But we did at some stage or another see a pink lake, and a field of white kangaroos. Plus after our final stop off (where bogan lady's children were begging to get off and she told them no, and then got off herself for a fag and left them unattended) we did see a very nice sunset over the open space of South Australia (where the time goes back 30 minutes, go figure!). Mainly we just continued to people watch. Another of our favourite characters was an Asian guy who spent the whole time with his head on the seat in front of him shaking his legs. We think he was praying. And there were also two lads (late teens) who were sat behind two little girls (under 8), and the little girls started a game where they were leaning between the chairs and punching the guys. They all seemed to be enjoying it. We finished the last few hours watching 17 Again (classic Efron..) and eating pork scratchings before finally coming down from the Adelaide Hills into the city.
Despite having been sat down all day, we were both half dead when we got off the bus. While we were getting our act together, bogan lady's friend came to get her. She was something else as well! Anyhow, we loaded on our bags, which was painful and soul destroying to walk to the hostel. We went the wrong way initially, but soon found our direction, although it seemed a lot further away than we anticipated and we had to stop a couple of times. But we made it in the end, our key was waiting at the door and we went up to our room, which is absolutely huge and had heating and two extra duvets - awesome. It also had free tea and coffee which we took advantage of instantly, and everyone staying here was very friendly which is nice - seems like its quite empty at the moment. We also met Malcolm who co-owns the place and he was a lovely man. We went up to the room and Hannah's head started to hurt, so Nik went out to buy some dinner from the BP garage (nothing is open on Monday night's in Adelaide. Fact). This was not conducive to the Atkins plan, so we had half a chicken salad wrap each and some crisps. Hannah then had to go straight to bed before her head came clean off. It hurt to even just lie there, worse during movement. Even after she fell asleep, Nik noticed that she was whimpering. However, he enjoyed sitting up watching fighting on the computer.
Tuesday
Both awoke refreshed after an amazing night of sleep. Seriously, the most comfortable beds we've stayed in for ages, and Hannah even slept the whole night through. A miracle! In fact, apparently she was so non-moving that Nik started wondering if she was dead, and what he would need to do if she was in fact dead. He concluded he would throw away her backpack, get a wheelchair and carry on for a bit Weekend at Bernies style.
Met Deb, the other co-owner of the hostel and she was lovely too. We talked about wine and asked her to try and find us a box for sending stuff home in. We have surplus summer stuff that we want to keep but really wont be needed for several months now!
We started our exploration of Adelaide, and confirmed that, as suspected, the bus station wasn't very far from the hostel at all, we were just weighted down by our arctic explorer bags and heavy hearts following the epic journey. We saw the square in the middle of the town, which was very nice as it is a gorgeous sunny day today. Our first action was to check our the Central Market, as its market day today. It was wonderful, a great collection of shops selling meats, deli produce, health food, cakes, pies, artisan bread, seafood etc etc. At this stage, we concluded that we could no longer continue the Atkins plan, but have instead resolved to eat healthily. (This has also been influenced by the fact that Nik can't move when on atkins as he is too tired, and Hannah apparently remains the same weight regardless of her actions, she may require a tapeworm soon). After taking in the market, we went for a coffee and the girls in the coffee shop were a bit in love with Nik and his accent 'Ooh I could listen to it all day!'. They even likened it to the advert on the tv for the commonwealth bank over here which is basically a bulldog chatting up a poodle. Its fairly amusing, but the bulldog has a terrible british accent, so we set them straight on that one!
Wandered around the CBD to get our bearings and stopped off at the tourist info place to stock up on leaflets so we can plan what we want to do next - this will mainly involve wine, wine and wine! We also had a good stroll around the Rundle Mall and the arcades before returning to the market for some lunch. Nik had a cheese, steak and bacon sausage roll and shared some dolmades and feta cheese with Hannah. Then we shared a gluten free raspberry and almond brownie which was lush (and well worth doing about 6 laps of the market trying to find it again after having seen it this morning!). While we were eating, about 10 cops with dogs went past and we thought they might be doing a bust or something.
We went back into the market to head over to the supermarket, and the cops came by again and it all got a bit busy so Hannah went and stood off to the side to wait for Nik, but then she turned around and the cops had busted him! So she went back to help with answering questions. Apparently the dog had got a positive sniff for drugs on Nik so he had to give his details and get frisked up. That's the kind of attention having a Mohawk gets you in Adelaide apparently! We told them about the drugs Nik was on for his knee, and luckily Hannah knew the ingredients, so they think the dog might have detected the Codeine. Although, we were also left wondering whether there was residue on Nik from the last hostel we were at, as there was a fair amount of marijuana being flung about by some of the artsy residents in that place! Either way, they let Nik go but he was in a bit of a tiz for a bit. We reckon the lady who then served us in Coles saw the drugs bust go down though as she was giving Nik The Worst Evils in The World. Hannah found the whole thing rather amusing but it was quite scary for Nik, even though the police people were very nice about the whole thing.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent back at the hostel (no box located for our post as yet) planning the next few days. Tomorrow we'll be taking in much of the tourist trail including the Wine Centre, Botanic Gardens, Galleries/Museums etc. Then Thursday we plan to go to Glenelg for the day as that has the best weather forecast all week. Then after that, we will be hopefully devoting some days to wine touring - mmm mmm.
For dinner, we decided to give ourselves a night off cooking and had bought some salad and some tins of soup. Lamentably, we appear to have thrown away our salad dressing so had a plate of plain leaves each. Nik's soup tasted like a tin of tomatoes. Hannah's soup (apparently pumpkin) was inedible and apparently not a bargain for a dollar. We will never not do cooking again. However, on the plus side, someone from the hostel gave us a little chocolate cake to eat. Such a nice gesture and a nice cake!