Visiting friends in Adelaide

After spending a few hours ot the train station in Sydney to stream free wifi, we took a trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens. They were recomended to us by our prior hosts and we understood why. It is a huge park with many different themed gardens and historical buidings including the government house. We walked through the palm, oriental, herb, rose gardens and more. We saw the rarest palm tree in existance and witnessed the disturbing site of thousands of flying foxes perching in trees. These animals are wild and hang upside down from the tops of the trees in the garden. There is literally thousands of them hanging and they are huge. They are the size of large possoms when their wings are closed, when they spread their wings they are quite a bit larger and creepier looking. We have several photographs of this.
Overall the sun held up for our walk through the park and it was neat to see all the different plants and flowers as well as structures, sculpturs, fountains and statues in the area. After the park we took a train and a bus to Bondi beach. Allegedly one of the most famous beaches in the world, we arrived just in time for the rain. We had one umbrella and one rain jacket but we still hiked thee fourteen kms to Coogee beach and back. It was a lovely walk along the coast line. Many of the sites reminded us a bit of Brazil except the water is colder here. Australia is having a record cold winter even though it was 30 degrees out today. By the time our walk was over, we were soaking wet to the bones. We bought coffees and donuts and sat on the cold bus back to the hostel.

We had stored our bags in the lockers at the hostel and had to pick them up to head to the airport. I borrowed the key to the room from the receptionist and used it to sneak into the showers as well. We were able to use their hot water to warm ourselves, freshen up and change our clothes without being caught. Following this we went to a restaurant to celebrate Tyson's birthday. The place was advertising two for one meals but when we ordered one meal cost $30. It was a very large and tasty meal of fish, fries, mashed potatos, vegetables, salads and steak. We left the hostel at 10:30pm.

We missed the last bus to get to the airport so we raced to catch the last train but we were a few minutes too late. So we slept on the floor of the train station like proper bums. We were truly surrounded by homeless people, so we layed down our things and slept right along with them. We caught the first train to the airport in the morning. Our flight was simple yet comfortable with Virgin Air.

My friend was waiting in the arrivals area with a huge Canadian flag tied around his body. It was so nice to see him again. We will be staying with him in Adelaide and then driving with him and my other friend (they are cousins) to Melbourne later in the week. He dropped us off at his beautiful home and had to go into work. He sent his younger brother over to take us out on the town. We went to a beautiful pier and bought ice cream to snack on. After that, the parents had prepared a huge delicious dinner filled with several different types of Persian food.

After dinner we watched an indoor soccor game that my friend was supposed to be playing in. He hurt his leg seconds before the game started so we just watched part of the game and left. It was pretty intense but fun just the same. They took us to a spot where all of Adelaide can bee seen from a mountain. We were told to close our eyes and they lead us right up to the sight so that when we opened our eyes we saw the scene immeidately. After that we head back home to have Maltesers cheesecake birthday cake. They had a candle in the form of a flower and when it was lit, it bloomed open and sang Happy Birthday. It was very unique. After two slices each, we head to bed where we caught up on some missed sleep.

At approximately 1pm the next day we woke up to a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, ham, bacon, toast, coffee and more. The hospitality is outstanding and we are very lucky to have such good friends. After breakfast he took us to the national park where we held koalas and fed kangaroos. We saw many snakes and animals that are native to Australia in their semi natural environments. It was a wonderful experience to see baby kangaroos in their mothers pouches, koalas lounging around, dingos running around and more. Then we went back to the mountain overlooking the city to see it again during the day. We could see all the way to Kangaroo Island. This was followed by a delicious persian dinner cooked by my friend's mother. Today was a much hotter day and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"