Around the World and Back: September 2013

Greetings from our Great Australian Adventure! Ten months in Melbourne was over in the blink of an eye and we found ourselves back on the road once again. I have to give a shoutout to all our amazing friends in Melbourne for such a wonderful send-off! It was so bittersweet finishing our time in Melbourne and leaving a new home again. The end of our Melbourne times included: Christmas in July, ringing in my 29th birthday with a 10k fun run with Geneva and Tim (who moved to Melbourne a few weeks before we left!), lots of farewell drinks with friends, a custom-made veggie pie date with our with our beloved flatmate Abbey, and a fancy dinner date for Brian and me at Chin Chin, courtesy of our generous co-workers at Top Paddock. Very special times :) Our last month went by wayyyy too fast and we had so much fun savoring our city as much as possible. After plenty of ups and downs with work, my injury, and taking longer than expected (as always) to get settled, we found a wonderful niche there and can look back on it with such fond memories… thank you so much to everyone who spent time with us, gave us jobs, and took us in as friends. We love you!! Come visit us in Seattle :)

The first stop of our trip was Adelaide, South Australia. Most friends responded to our announcement to travel to Adelaide with, "……" and "boring, why?", which oddly gave me even more of an impression that we would like it. I heard it was a city filled with parks, and most seemed to claim it didn't have much of a night life, so that kind of sold me (kidding, not kidding). When we first arrived, the cab ride from the airport to our friends' house in the suburb of Norwood seemed to confirm the majority opinion- it looked a little like a town full of strip malls. But as soon as we arrived at Mel and Dan's, saw their darling house, and explored the neighborhood a little, we started to really like Adelaide. I found an organic shop a few blocks away from their house so I pretty much liked the city based on that (kidding, not kidding). We also spent an evening at a vegan cafe with Mel and Dan while their friend Rich played piano, and even gave us a free copy of his CD (which provided the best possible soundtrack to our upcoming road trip). Bliss (which also happens to be the name of the cafe)!

Reasons why I love Adelaide: wine, parks, markets, Mel & Dan, organic shops, hidden-gem cafes, and more wine.

In the week we were there, we basically just walked around the parks, cooked, went for morning runs, had great chats with Mel and Dan, went wine tasting in the Barossa Valley, drank coffee at the Melbourne cafe we found in the city, and spent time at Cafe Troppo, a place I hope to model my future cafe on one day.

We had such a lovely time there and felt the size of the city suited us well. I didn't find the city boring at all, and I especially enjoyed its proximity to wine regions! One weekend we drove with Dan up to the Barossa valley to go wine tasting with a Top Paddock friend, Hai, who had driven to Adelaide for a long weekend with his brother and 2 friends. So me and the 6 boys spent a rainy day in the Barossa, tasting some of the country's best shirazes… complete with a picnic lunch of treats from the Central Market and Vietnamese banh mi courtesy of Hai and his friends. What a lovely day!

One of the best parts of our time in SA was a short car trip we took to the Flinders Ranges. Proud moment for me, driving Mr. Quist around for 3 days despite my hatred and fear of driving (I'm getting better!!). That being said, the trip out there was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever done. We spent our first night in the town of Quorn, which was delightfully charming. The camp where we slept in a basic cabin had a kitchen but no utensils, so we weren't able to cook any of the food we brought and had to eat our meals at the pub, which delivered in every expectation I had of a country pub. I am actually still dreaming about the pizza we ate there. Sorry, brain drifting back to food again, as per usual…

Brian convinced me to wake up at 4:30 so we could drive out to Dutchman's Stern for a sunrise hike, which was such a great start to the day. Afterwards we got some coffee and toast at a little old lady cafe in Quorn, then started out on our drive deeper into the Flinders Ranges. We stopped for 3 hikes throughout the day, saw Aboriginal Cave paintings, lots of wildlife, and caught the sunset against dusty red hills. It was a wonderful day, followed by another tasty dinner and chats with our new bartender friend at the Austral pub. The next morning we were headed back to Adelaide, stopping in Port Augusta for the Arid Botanical Gardens and a few pit stops in little country towns for snacks and fuel.

I'm totally sold on South Australia. We had so much fun visiting our friends, going for hikes, seeing wildlife up close, finding hidden gems, getting attacked by magpies. It turns out they are very territorial and will swoop down on you TO PECK YOUR EYES OUT if you cross through their territory. Brian narrowly escaped with both his eyes still intact after making the mistake of trying to cross through a massive train track area between our camp and Quorn's town center; unfortunately I was a little too shocked about what I was seeing to get any pics mid-swoop. ;)

I think the photos speak for themselves about what a good time we had there; enjoy! The next stop for us was a flight to Cairns in Far North Queensland! More on that next post… xo