Month: March 2014

Yesterday afternoon we headed to Kew for an afternoon birthday + house warming party. He recently moved into a cute house with Katherine, and when we got there they were setting up on the lawn. Because whenever Johns around, there will be music, I’ll tell you that much.

We spent that afternoon on the lawn, sipping on Johns own brewed beer (delicious), talking to a bunch of friends, and new people, listening to Barefoot Biscuit play and enjoying/trying to stay out of the sunshine. What a way to enjoy that glorious Saturday afternoon.

I forgot to share the few snaps I took on the way back from the Grampians last week. I kind of just left you guys with the fire pictures and thought that was it. But that’s not all, is it? Of course not. I’m a crazy photo taker, and a car ride over several hours wouldn’t stop me from shooting more.

We made two stops on the way. First up on a hill outside of Ararat, where you had 360 degree views of the Grampians and the Pyrenées (the Victorian ones, that is). Quite impressive. I had a sit down in the grass for a bit, simply taking in the view.

Second stop was in Ballarat. Dad was very dead set on stopping there, don’t ask me why. It looks a bit like every smaller town in Victoria does, but for some reason he thought it would look different? We walked around the city center, me looking for a place to eat, and him muttering disappointments to himself. We finally find a cute cafe, and stopped for a late lunch – the biggest bruschetta I’ve ever seen. With goats curd. Yum!

We then headed straight home to avoid rush hour, and managed to get through the city without any hickups! It was a nice trip, but it’s always quite nice to be home.

Last Thursday a bunch of friends headed to Underground Cinema. The theme was ‘Rome’ and on the Thursday afternoon, we switched our regular clothing to togas and headed into the city. I matched my toga with a camera bag, and of course started snapping away. Today I’m sharing some of the pictures I took while waiting in line. I have, of course, a bunch of them from the actual events as well, but as they’re still doing events and want to keep the film a secret, I won’t post them until after the 6th of April. For now, just enjoy the prettiness of a whole lot of people wearing sheets.

First stop from Mt Gambier was the Blue Lake. It was incredibly blue. After that we drove straight to Halls Gap, in the heart of the Grampians. We checked into our room, I did a little bit of work, and the we got back into the car and drove 5 minutes away and put on our trainers. The goal? Hiking! We mustered through an hour long hike uphill to a pinnacle with the most gorgeous view. The best part wasn’t the view though, it was the nature heading there.

And I’m too tired/stressed to write more now. I’ve got better things to do. Just look at the pictures, okay?

Early Monday morning Peter got himself on an airplane and headed back to Melbourne. Me and dad on the other hand slept a couple of hours more, after we crammed ourselves into the car and headed south. The plan was to drive back to Melbourne over a couple of days.

Our first stop on the journey was Hahndorf, a small village outside Adelaide that has a very strong German heritage. It’s like walking into a little German town, really. We were there quite early, and on a Monday morning as well, so barely anything was open. We took a stroll up and down the main street, peeking in windows and contemplating if autumn really was here.

After that we headed towards the coast. The plan was to drive down the scenic Limestone coast. Ohmy it was flat heading there. Just when we got to the water there was a sign towards a lookout, so we left the main road and headed down an unpaved path. During the few km to the lookout we managed to see a few emus, birds and plenty weird, but cute lizards. Once down at the lookout we checked out the view and wandered the beach.

Then it was time for lunch. We drove to Kingston SE and found a little cafe. It didn’t look all that amazing, but my, the food was good. Lucky us that we managed to stop 2 minutes before they closed for lunch orders!

Since the theme of the day was beach, we walked down this one as well. Right next to the beach was a beautiful old lighthouse. Once we were fed up with sand and fresh air, we got back into the car and headed to the stop for the night: Mt Gambier. But I’ve already crammed too many images into this post, so that’ll be for tomorrow.

Sunday morning Peter and dad went out to pick up a car. We were going to Barossa for the day. But before you can start drinking wine, you need to make sure you’ve had a solid breakfast, so we headed to Lani’s suggestion Bar 9. All I can say is: Oh. My. Oh. It was frigging amazing. Only let down was that they’d run out of chai for the lattes, so I had to go for a regular tea. Oh well, I’ve been through worse.

Filled up we headed north and then east and ended up in Tanunda. I barely took a picture at our first winery, but managed to snap a few at Chateau Tanunda where we had two tastings (they invite small scale vineyards to do tastings at their place every weekend), walk around and have a delicious cheese platter. We tried to squeeze in Penfolds as well, as my dad was a bit obsessed with them, but we got there, saw the masses around their tasting area and left. Peter wasn’t feeling to well at this point, so he waited outside, reading and contemplating.

We took the scenic route back, on smaller roads, through rolling hills and beautiful landscapes. We stopped at a couple of places to take in the view, and at one point to say hello to some furry friends.

So, I woke up on the wrong side day 2 in Adelaide. Like, really. I was profoundly annoyed for no good reason. Hence, there are very few images from this day. In short, we went up, went out for lunch at a vegan cafe (then back to Cafe Troppo for some wine + reading). Dad had wandered his separate way and me and Peter met up with him and did Rundle Mall (and buying stuff for my mum) before having a beer or two. After a brief evening recess in the hotel room we went out for one fancy dinner, to which I didn’t bring my camera. I know – it’s shocking, but it happens!

Whenever we have visitors we try to go somewhere or do something that we haven’t done before. It’s the perfect excuse to see more of Australia. Dad’s here (you might have spotted him in some images from the posts on French Island and karaoke) and this time we thought let’s try Adelaide. So we booked some last minute tickets and headed there last Friday. Me and dad went in the morning, and Peter came on later in the evening.

First day we wandered. We like to wander. We left our hotel and passed by this amazing big old building, walked into amazingly cute designer stores, avoided Rundle Mall by sneaking into an arcade and found a Rolling Stones photography exhibit.

Then we got hungry. We stumbled upon a few food trucks and this gem – Tacocat. It was filled with cat themed paraphernalia and we got ourselves some tasty tacos and a nice chat. We sat down on the lawn and relaxed our feet for a bit.

Then we walked more! All the way (well, really, it’s not that far) to Adelaide’s Central Market. We checked out the stalls, squeezing through the masses. I love markets, specifically foody ones. It made me wish we had rented an apartment and not hotel rooms, so we could shop like crazy and go back and have a lovely meal. Oh well, once we’ve walked through every aisle in the market we headed outside and stopped for some incredibly delicious ice cream (we actually went back for seconds later that night!)

We then headed back to the hotel. Dad had a nap for a while and I tried to get some work done. Once he woke up we went around the corner to a local pub, had a pint and waited for Peter. He came in after work and we met up with him and headed to a restaurant. And not any restaurant either – we went to Cafe Troppo. From the name it sounded like a snobbish italian place but when you got there it looked like a combination of hippie and hipster. Turns out it was my favourite part of Adelaide. So veggie friendly and such delicious food served in a place with a really nice vibe. On Fridays they always have live music and some sweet singer songwriters were the perfect backdrop for a Friday evening.