Adelaide

Although the flight down from Cairns was only a couple of hours, it passed really slowly as I was impatiently waiting to be reunited with my Exeter besties I hadn't seen for almost a year. Becca was waiting for me at the airport and we had a very over-excited reunion as we both tried to catch each other up with everything that had happened in our lives over the past year. After dropping off our bags we headed straight into town for linner (if brunch is a thing why not have a meal inbetween lunch and dinner?) at Sit Lo, which we took away to eat down by the Oval riverbank where we watched the sunset.

Later we met up with Beth and their group of friends to do The Escape Hunt, an escape the room experience where you and your team are locked into a room for 60 minutes and have to crack the clues to escape. The ten of us split into two teams of 5 and were put into rooms next door to each other so we could hear through the walls how well the others were getting on. Our team whizzed on ahead until we were stumped by a blurry projector screen to help us configure the final clue. After 20 minutes playing around with a magnify glass and pondering every last letter/number/symbol we could see, we heard the other team escape and our time ran out. A woman came in to release us and show us how to crack the code, only to look at the projector and say "oh, well that's never happened before". Turned out we had a faulty projector and we could have cracked the final code in minutes! We called it a draw.

Afterwards everyone headed to their favourite student hangout, The Austral, for celebratory drinks - after all, everyone was a winner. The girls were pretty tired although classic Becca still had endless realms of energy for a night out. We went to meet up with her Aussie mates at The Cumby where we had a great night out with some real Adelaide locals.

The following morning, the girls and I headed for Sunday brunch at The Marketshed, an amazing little place tucked away and full of organic brunch superfood stalls on a Sunday morning. Becca and I then spent the afternoon in Hahndorf, a cute local German-influenced town a short bus ride from the city centre. Our hangovers had begun to kick in by the afternoon but we soon perked up after some strawberry milkshakes in the sunshine and a walk around town. I popped out for a drink with another friend from uni in the evening to give the girls a chance to get some work done in time for their deadlines the next day. Afterwards I finally got to try kangaroo, as we tucked in to homemade burgers for dins.

Monday was a chance to spend some time with Beth and we got up bright and early to take the train to Hallett Cove for a coastal walk with Sophie and India, two other Exeter students out here for the year (bleeding green everywhere). Beth and I then went for a wander around the centre of Adelaide and had haloumi and chickpea burgers in the central market. In case you hadn't realised, Adelaide has a pretty strong brunch game. Later, Beth showed me round the uni and I explored the shops while she got some work done - it's the end of term so deadlines were looming. Becca came and found me after work and we hung out for the afternoon until dinner time when we met up with some friends of my Grannie who very sweetly took us out to an amazing Asian restaurant, Ky Chow. We headed back for early birthday cake to celebrate Beth's 21st in a few days time then I packed up for my tour along the Great Ocean Road early the next morning.

Thanks for a great few days girls!