Thursday, September 13, 2007
Today we slept in for a while, not making our way to breakfast until about 9:00. As we sat enjoying coffee, a young woman from the UK joined us. Gita, a dental nurse (hyginist in US), came to Perth for a 4-week vacation and has been here almost six weeks. While she says she is now homesick, she will be in Adelaide several more days, a week in Sydney, and leaving from Perth to return to England. During her time here, she has decided to go back to school to be a dentist. We also talked with an older couple we had met earlier. They were off to Glenelg as we were. These are the kind of stories and people you meet at a YHA.
Walking about three blocks to Victoria Square, we took the 20-minute tram ride to Glenelge, a popular seaside resort for South Australia.
Seems like hunger comes around very often when you are on the move. So we found the Gourmet Goose, a sidewalk cafe to our liking and settled down to some delightful, huge sandwiches. Bill had the Aussie burger again, consisting of hamburger, beets, cheese, tomato, eggs and lettuce. I had a similar dish, but made of ground chicken, tomato, rocket (arugula) and sauteed asparagus. Wonder what I will weigh when we return?
After lunch we strolled over to the fountain in the plaza. We were treated to perhaps the best entertainment since coming on this trip. A three-year old, named Phoenix, under the amused eyes of his parents, was jumping around in the fountain. The water came up sporadically from various places. He was trying to figure out where they came from. Each time he would see a spout come up, he would run there, only to see it go back down. He drew quite a crowd as we all laughed at his antics. His parents wished for a video camera.
After the water show, we strolled out to the beach and jetty (called a pier in US). I just had to put my feet in the water, as cold as it was. As some clouds were rolling in, we decided to walk back toward the Town Hall, built in the 1800s, now a called the Bay Discovery Center.
What a great bit of local history we found. Glenelg is the home of the Kaurna people. In 1802 Captian Matthew Flinders landed on Kangaroo Island, making way for sealers in 1806 and settlers soon after. They made their way to the Glenelg area on the HMS Buffalo and other ships, finding fresh water and fertile soil. The town ultimately became a popular vacation spot for South Australians. The jetty in the foreground of the picture was built in 1969 after a hurricane had destroyed the original one in 1948. Now there are several luxury hotels and apartments along the shore. While we enjoyed the historical artifacts and videos, the best thing about the visit to the museum was the group of guides we met while waiting out a sudden rain storm. The woman was a cyclist who had toured all over the world, except the US, so we had a lot in common. One of the gentlemen was just about Bill's age and just as anti-technology! We probably talked for 30 minutes before the tram returned and we braved the blowing rain storm to hop aboard.
Watching the rain pour down on our ride back to the city, we wondered how we would avoid getting soaked from the tram station to our YHA. As things most often do work out, the rain stopped just as we disembarked and started back. Passing the grocery store we bought some food for the night, along with some sweet rolls for breakfast and made our way to the next adventure. Yes, there was one more that day, or should I say that night!
Each day, the YHA has a special event. Thursday night was no exception. We played Bingo with about 40 other folks in the commons area. Bill won an hour free internet! Well, guess who got to use that!! After a long day and one more glass of wine we retired with smiles on our faces.